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Companies thrive when leaders know what’s expected of them

Columnists

Clarity is key in building and sustaining a high-performing culture. For leaders, this means making sure messages are clear and understood — not ambiguous or confusing — and that everyone knows what they’re supposed to do and how it contributes to the organization’s objectives. Clarity is vital in each part of the organization, and it applies to everyone.  (Here, I am talking about clarity as it relates to the workplace. However, the principles certainly apply to life in general.) Peter Drucker (1909-2005), whom many consider the “father of modern management,” and ...

Voices Heard

Editorials

As results of the annual WV MetroNews West Virginia Poll by Research America continue to be unpacked, lawmakers who held their ground on vaccine requirements last winter learned their stance reflected the will of the majority of registered voters who were polled. Nearly three-quarters of those respondents said they were in favor of strong vaccine requirements for school-aged children. In answer to the question “Should states require children in grades K-12 to be vaccinated against highly contagious disease before entering school,” 71% said yes, and 12% said they were not sure. ...

Changes

Editorials

Politicians are abundant in putting their self-serving “spin” on issues, circumstances and new developments good and bad, and they’re not shy about voicing rosy predictions and making promises for if they are successful at the ballot box. People who follow politics closely recognize that, but so do many people who have what they consider to be “better things to do” than monitoring closely the issues on the political and governmental landscapes. But although statistics can be “shaped” to benefit one’s own viewpoints and advantage, it is “stats” as a whole, without ...

Wanting it both ways

Columnists

If there is a drawback to Donald Trump’s foreign policy, it is that he wants it both ways. For example, his approach to Ukraine resembles the reaction many Americans had to Vietnam in the late sixties. Surveys in 1969 found that one response was “I want peace, but I don’t want to lose.” Currently, Trump seems to be in that lane. Vladimir Putin’s summer offensive appears to have enjoyed a measure of success. The defense network of hedgehog fortresses with complicated trenches and interlocking lines so assiduously built up by the Ukrainian military has become frail. Any ...

Warning Sign for WV

Editorials

Data from the most recent WV MetroNews West Virginia poll, presented during this year’s state Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting and Business Summit, contained “a warning sign … for political leadership in the state.” Despite the incessant dive by too many elected officials for the cheapest possible political points, most West Virginians (73% of those registered voters who were polled) are more worried about economic development and jobs than social issues. “By a clear majority, nearly three-fourths … said the Legislature should be focusing on economic development issues ...

Dems’ flaws on display

Columnists

More than 400 elected Democrat Party officials from all 50 states and seven territories huddled in Minneapolis this week before the horrible mass shooting at nearby Annunciation Catholic Church. The proceedings demonstrated a party in the wilderness, and the Democrats in the national media mostly steered clear. For starters, losing vice-presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was on his usual bender that Kamala Harris “would have been a fantastic president,” and that if she had won, “we would wake up to an adult with compassion and dignity and leadership doing the work, ...