Mean What You Say

Posted on Monday, September 14, 2009 by Frank Roche

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), shouts “You lie!” to President Obama during the president’s speech to Congress. Wilson gives a half-hearted apology and the House plans to censure him. That’s kind of like saying he’s on double secret probation.

Serena Williams is called for a foot fault on the penultimate point in the women’s semifinals at the U.S. Open tennis tournament. Williams let’s loose foul-mouthed tirade at the lineswoman, and even threatened to shove her racket down her throat. Williams had already been warned because she crushed her racket at the end of the first set. So, the match ended on a fault and was awarded to Kim Clijsters. The USTA decided to let Williams go ahead and play in the doubles tournament and fined her — get this — $10,000. That’s for someone who has made over $25 million playing tennis.

What do those breaches of conduct have in common? Perhaps it’s that we’re not shocked about it anymore. In fact, Joe Wilson has gotten extra campaign money because of what he did. And Serena Williams gets to keep playing.

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Here’s what I do know: Mean what you say.

How many times have you seen people get away with big things at work depending on who they are? I used to work at a place where there were some real bad actors who we used to say got [Company]-fired. Sexually harass a subordinate? Get a corner office. Verbally abuse a colleague? Get promoted into another area.

It’s wrong. Here’s my take: You can never be too ethical. If you don’t put up with crap even once then it doesn’t happen again. But if you milquetoast what you do, well, watch out.

User Comments

fran melmed

Sep 14th, 2009

different company, same approach. though they called it special projects.
humanresourcespufnstuf

Sep 14th, 2009

Great post, and you are certainly right. I think the challenge is how to break the cycle, in sports, politics, civil society, and in corporate America.
Frank Roche

Sep 14th, 2009

Thanks, Puf. I do think we’ve gotten desensitized…and now we just don’t care. Here’s what I know from having a dog: If you don’t want them to chew your good shoes, don’t let them chew on any shoes.
Frank Roche

Sep 14th, 2009

@Fran It always amazed me that kind of stuff could happen.
Bill Strahan

Sep 15th, 2009

Meaning what you say, requires you know what you mean to say. Taking some time to think and have clarity of purpose is underrated in business generally, and too often I think, in HR.
Frank Roche

Sep 15th, 2009

@Bill Yeah, that “know what you’re talking about” part is essential. Critical thinking seems to have gone the way of the carrier pigeon these days…it’s about about gut reactions. As much as that suits me from time to time, I also like the idea of quiet thinking time. It works. THEN, mean what you say.