{"id":2667,"date":"2015-09-08T09:57:50","date_gmt":"2015-09-08T15:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=2667"},"modified":"2015-09-07T21:36:18","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T03:36:18","slug":"from-the-library-rising-to-the-challenge-by-carly-fiorina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/09\/from-the-library-rising-to-the-challenge-by-carly-fiorina.html","title":{"rendered":"From the library: Rising to the Challenge by Carly Fiorina"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So, first of all, a big \u201cyay\u201d for CNN listening to protests and agreeing to revise its debate criteria, to include anyone in the top ten, based on poll averages from July 16 to September 10, or based on averages from August 7 to September 10th. \u00a0(See the National Review\u2019s article, here<\/a>.) \u00a0So from all appearances, it\u2019ll be an 11-candidate debate, as Carly is the one candidate who has come from obscurity to, well, less obscurity.<\/p>\n

A couple days ago, I wrote up a little summary of Fiorina\u2019s first book, Tough Choices<\/em><\/a>, in which she recounted her career up to the point when she was fired from her position at CEO, and then focused on those last weeks and months to attempt to untangle what happened<\/a>. \u00a0In Rising to the Challenge<\/em>, Fiorina updates her story, with heavy doses of her political philosophy.<\/p>\n

Politically, her theme is \u201cunlocking potential\u201d \u2014 I\u2019m guessing this is probably one component of her standard stump speech at this point. \u00a0Here\u2019s how she phrases it:<\/p>\n

Bureaucracies and crony capitalism crush potential in America. \u00a0The greatest lever for unlocking it is leadership. \u00a0When I started out in my career in business, I used to think that leadership was measured in fancy titles, power, and corner offices. \u00a0. . . But I\u2019ve learned since then that I was wrong. \u00a0There are lots of people who have big power, big titles, and big offices who do not lead.. . .<\/p>\n

True leadership is about seeing a different future and changing the order of things to achieve that future. \u00a0The leader\u2019s job is not to be improsioned by the conventional wisdom but to be out in front of it. \u00a0As Margaret Thatcher said, you can\u2019t lead from the middle of a crowd. \u00a0Leaders see things that others don\u2019t yet see, which is why they are frequently criticized in their time. \u00a0Great leaders see great futures and lead the rest of us toward them (p. 20 \u2013 21.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Biographically, three significant things happened to her in the ten years between the HP firing and the writing of the book in 2015: \u00a0she mourned the death of her (step-)daughter, she fought breast cancer, and she ran (and lost) against Barbara Boxer for Senate. \u00a0Before this, though, she provides more detail on the aftermath of the termination from HP, from the supportive calls (including one from President Bush, the day after, and one from Steve Jobs) to her belief that the leaks, the spying scandal, and the subsequent resignation of board members was evidence that her departure was due to the dysfunction of the board, rather than her own failings as CEO.<\/p>\n

After leaving HP, she served on three boards\/committees which had the aim of helping government bureaucracies move past their inertia to transform themselves in the way that she had worked to transform HP. \u00a0She played a small role in the McCain campaign, including a \u201cWashington gaffe\u201d \u2014 that is, speaking the truth that Sarah Palin would not have been able to run HP (but neither could any of McCain, Obama, or Biden have done so either, because of the particular skill set and experience it requires). \u00a0And she began to have conversations about running for office herself.<\/p>\n

Before she could make this decision, however, she received a cancer diagnosis, which led to three\u00a0lumpectomy surgeries, chemotherapy, and ultimately a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. \u00a0Then, on October 9, 2009, she learned about her (step-)daughter\u2019s death. \u00a0But, after much deliberation, and discussion with supporters, she announced her candidacy for Senate on November 4th.<\/p>\n

When she first announced, her only primary opponent was a long-shot Tea Party Republican; then, in January, unexpectedly, she gained a primary opponent in Tom Campbell, a former congressman, and had to fight a primary battle even before the general election. \u00a0Of course, she won the former and lost the latter \u2014 52% to 42%<\/a>. \u00a0Fiorina attributes the loss to Boxer\u2019s much greater funding, the Democrats\u2019 labelling her as an evil corporate job-cutter (here, Fiorina acknowledges that she failed to defend herself against these charges), and the Democrats\u2019 success in crafting the so-called War on Women narrative. \u00a0Against this, Fiorina hoped to paint herself as the defender of the middle class and Boxer as the out-of-touch Washington insider, placing obstacles in the way of small businesses, but she failed to make headway.<\/p>\n

After the election, she joined the masses leaving California. \u00a0She had, after all, spent her pre-HP years on the East Coast, and her other (step-)daughter Tracy, and husband and children, lived there, so in 2011 she left California and bought a home in Virginia. \u00a0And instead of Californian politics, she got involved in various charitable and political groups at the national level, including the American Conservative Union (host of the annual CPAC), where she later became chairman of the board. \u00a0It was there where, in the winter of 2014, she gave a speech pushing back on the Democrats\u2019 renewed attempt to proclaim that Republicans were waging a \u201cwar on women\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe respect all women and don\u2019t insult them by thinking that all they care about are reproductive rights. \u00a0All issues are women\u2019s issues,\u201d I said. \u00a0\u201cWe are half of this great nation.\u201d \u00a0The audience cheered their approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen balance the checkbooks. \u00a0That\u2019s why women care that we can\u2019t balance the checkbook in Washington, D.C. \u00a0Women make the health care and education decisions for our families. \u00a0Women worry about our own jobs, ur children\u2019s futures, and our husbands\u2019 jobs.\u201d \u00a0(p. 142).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This speech became the catalyst for creating the Unlocking Potential Project, in which she and others conducted training sessions aimed at helping women to get involved with (conservative Republican) politics, and to talk to other women about their beliefs, in advance of the 2014 elections.<\/p>\n

Fiorina has also worked with the One Woman Initiative, co-founded in 2008 with Condoleeza Rice; this organization aimed to help women in third world countries. \u00a0She later became involved with Opportunity International, a microfinance organization, and ultimately merged these together.<\/p>\n

At the end of the book, Fiorina returns to the theme she started with, unlocking potential. \u00a0Back in 2000, she had given a speech in which she defined the four characteristics of future techonology: \u00a0DMVP, Digital, Mobile, Virtual, and Personal. \u00a0Just as inexorable as this technological change is, so, too, is the force of globalization, and as much as we enjoy the benefits of technology (hard to believe that when she gave that speech in 2000, the iPhone was still 7 years away), with the challenges these twin forces bring.<\/p>\n

Fiorina returns to her Leadership Framework from Tough Choices \u2014\u00a0<\/em>four parameters each of which needs to be addressed to succeed in transformative change:<\/p>\n

Goals and Strategy<\/strong>: \u00a0what\u2019s the objective?<\/p>\n

Structures and Processes<\/strong>: \u00a0how do we organize ourselves to achieve the goals?<\/p>\n

Metrics and Rewards<\/strong>: \u00a0How do we measure progress, and reward success?<\/p>\n

Culture and Behavior<\/strong>: \u00a0What are core values and desired behaviors?<\/p>\n

Applying this to the U.S., she says our goals<\/strong> are:<\/p>\n

\u2013 to unlock the potential of all Americans;<\/p>\n

\u2013 to revitalize Main Street with, among other things, simplified taxes and regulation for small businesses;<\/p>\n

\u2013 to fundamentally transform government bureaucracies (pointing to the VA scandal, and the failure of the healthcare exchange rollout);<\/p>\n

\u2013 to restore American leadership in the global economy;<\/p>\n

\u2013 to be the innovation powerhouse (including protection of intellectual property);<\/p>\n

and to restore American leadership in the world.<\/p>\n

The structures\/processes<\/strong> to be applied involve systematically reexamining every government program, every law and regulation, and implementing zero-based budgeting.<\/p>\n

Her metric\/reward<\/strong> proposals include recreating the civil service on a pay-for-performance basis, and rewarding those who eliminate waste rather than (via paychecks) those who perpetuate it.<\/p>\n

And with respect to culture and behavior<\/strong>, well, she calls on politicians to adopt at least a minimal amount of respect for each other.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, first of all, a big \u201cyay\u201d for CNN listening to protests and agreeing to revise its debate criteria, to include anyone in the top ten, based on poll averages from July 16 to September 10, or based on averages from August 7 to September 10th. \u00a0(See the National Review\u2019s article, here.) \u00a0So from all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the library: Rising to the Challenge by Carly Fiorina<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So, first of all, a big "yay" for CNN listening to protests and agreeing to revise its debate criteria, to include anyone in the top ten, based on poll\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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