At what point, does the former Chairman of NASDAQ (thank you, Bernie Madoff) or perhaps a State Governor (thank you, Rod Blagojevich) not know (or care) that what he is doing or what he has done is wrong? At what point, do you own up to your wrongdoings and admit fault? At what point, do you stop listening to the little voices in your head  of the people that raised you to be responsible person?  

I just don’t get it. I don’t know where things went awry with these recent headliners.  I’m assuming that they are not ferriled orphans raised by the dogs, so they must have had someone raise them to the societal contributor that they have become.  Where did things go wrong

Well, in the true spirit of my rants, I’ve decided to give my own guidance of how not to raise responsible children.  If you’re interested in raising another Byrraju Ramalinga Raju, read on.

1. Don’t start them with tasks when they’re young. Even though young kids, as early as 2 years of age have a strong desire to help out, they should not. There is no need for you to challenge them. They’re just kids. You really don’t need or want the aggravation of screwing something up. 

2.  Use a reward system with your kids. You really don’t want your kids to develop an intrinsic sense of responsibility, do you? No need for them to develop a “big picture” value of the things that they do. It’s not the way the world works. They need to only know “what’s in it for them” and focus only on what they’re going to “get.”

3. Don’t use natural consequences when they make mistakes. If they keep losing their baseball glove somewhere, buy them a new one – always. How else are they going to play without one? You should shelter them from any consequences of their actions. Only as a very last resort, have them ask to borrow one for the game from a friend. It’s imperative that you rescue them every time they screw up, So they’ll never learn responsibility.

4. Ignore them when they are responsible – it’s what everyone else expects of them. No need to point out what you like about their behavior when they’re being responsible. This will make it less likely to happen again. 

5. Rarely talk about responsibility with your kids. Make responsibility something that is only discussed on rare occasions, and let them know it’s insignificance.

6. Do not model responsible behavior for your kids. TThe world will take care of them and make concessions for them. Modelling this type of behavior is where they’ll learn it from. 

7. Don’t give them an allowance until they’re either dating or driving (whichever comes first). When children are little, show them that you will take care of all of their money decisions. No need for them to learn their lessons about money in a hurry – they have plenty of time to figure it out when they have no choice but to be responsible.

8. Have a strong, unfailing belief no one is more important than they are. They’ll pick up on this belief and they’ll tend to rise to the level of expectation.

9. Train them to be irresponsible. Use role play and talk to them about exactly what kind of behavior you expect from them. It’s hard for kids to be irresponsible at times when they don’t know what it looks like.

10. Do not take parenting advice from anyone else as no one should ever tell you how to parent. You will always know whether you’re being too controlling or too permissive as a parent. No need to talk to other parents, read books, or join parent support group.  It’s just a waste of time.

A child shoud be provided with the opportunity to start learning responsibility at a very young age. Parents need to learn to take advantage of the opportunities to teach responsibility as they occur. Children who are raised in a consequences free environment never have the opportunity to learn how to take responsibility for their actions. Parents who feel that they are creating a safe haven for their children by not allowing them to experience negative consequences for negative actions, are enablers. Irresponsible children raised in enabled households tend to approach all life situations with a sense of entitlement; a “the world owes me” kind of attitude. In adulthood, this attitude can lead to a real sense of discontent as other people in the child’s life do not provide that enabling role.

As John McCain and Barach Obama seek the presidency, the word “inexperienced” has been recently thrown around by the  unjournalistic and stupidly biased media when describing these candidates or their running mates. Between Obama and Palin’s resumes, nothing in their backgrounds show that they would be prepared to stand up to the likes of Ahmadinejad, Chavez or Putin, whether they can run two wars, or understand the Great Power’s conduct of foreign policy. But is experience really necessary?

In my opinion, the playing field (with regards to experience) in this race is fairly level, and as a result is a very exciting time for anyone following the election.

When I train young managers in the candidate interviewing process, I spend a good deal of time working with them on probing their interviewees in previous experience as one of the best indicators for future behavior.  However, I also tell them a little story about Ben Sliney and his memorable first day of work.

Ben Sliney, started his first day at his job like anyone else – a little nervous, a little excited and a little cocky that he could handle almost anything put in front of him.  Little did he know that his first day of work would be the true story of the four most critical hours in aviation history.

A boisterous, loud and forceful ex-lawyer, Sliney was returning to his earlier roots (back in 1964) in Air Traffic Control was starting his job as an Operations Manager for the Herndon, VA Federal Aviation Administrator command center. This New York Lawyer was part of a hiring trend on behalf of the FAA, to correct some of the public criticism at that time of record flight delays.

He was hired because of his new fresh outlook in the Administration and not necessarily because of his experience.  He was hired because he was a problem solver and had evidence of good judgment. He was hired for who he is and how he thinks.

AND he was also hired to start his first day of work on September 11, 2001.

Just hours after starting, Sliney in a historically unprecedented move, on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, ordered the airspace over the United States of America – CLEARED.  To land every plane, about 4,200 aircraft, in the air over America at that time, effectively shutting down US airspace.  Never before has such an order ever been carried out.  Never before has it ever been discussed in a Air Traffic Control or pilot training program. Never before has anyone ever experienced such an important decisive action in the likes of the chaos of that morning.

What’s interesting to note here is that while he made the decision on his own initiative, he did not do it in a vacuum.  He had the benefit of the advice of a highly experienced staff of air traffic controllers and traffic managers.  He did it by following his gut and following his experience of listening to the experience of others.

How could anyone train for this?  The events that unfolded that unforgetable day, re-wrote history. The 9-11 Commission stated that it was a sound and decisive decision to land all aircraft.  Certainly this hindsight is 20/20, but suppose it was someone else in that position with perhaps more experience.  Maybe in crisis management?  Would she have followed her gut or some previous protocol from her vast experience? Would he have had the wherewithall to pool together the combined experiential energy in the room for the best advice? Would this more experienced person have been that lucky?

Who’s to say? I believe, from my traditional managerial background, that experience is a good indicator for future performance, however, suppose you are involved in writing a new history.  Now put this new history on a global stage and you’re just one of the many players in it.  Do you really want someone with experience, or do you want someone who can pool together his or her world-class resources and make a sound decision?  — That is the real question here.