Why is it the habits of highly effective people instead of highly lovable or joyful people?

In the church, as in just about any other organization, people advance and gain status because they possess attributes and skills that are beneficial to the organization. These are people who are dynamic, motivated, driven, persuasive, efficient, and committed. How to become this type of person is the subject of many a lesson or talk in church. Members admire and look up to the people who have these traits. Successful businessmen and professionals routinely fill the leadership ranks of the church.

The problem, however, is that these traits are completely amoral; they are simply morally neutral tools. As their power increases, so does their potential to do both good and evil. Unfortunately, perhaps because of the Puritan, Protestant origins of the church, hard work, motivation, and organization are seen as good qualities in and of themselves. In fact, these traits serve evil just as well as they serve good, and in fact, the more effective the person, the smaller the evil has to be in that person to really hurt people.

What kind of person makes the best leader? Somebody once commented that the last person we should elect for President is the kind of person who wants to run for the job. A German army general observed that there are four kinds of officers. First, there are the lazy and incompetent officers. These can be left alone because they won’t do anything and therefore they won’t hurt anything. Then there are the ambitious but incompetent officers. These must be removed from command as quickly as possible. Next are the smart, ambitious officers. These are perfect staff officers; when given an order they will understand it and carry it out. Finally are the smart but lazy officers. These are the best leaders because they won’t waste their time on pointless task, and for important work they will always look for the easiest, quickest, and most efficient way of doing it. Unfortunately, these are not usually the people working their way up the ladder either in the church or our government.

In the Federal Government, Mormons are known as hardworking, focused, organized, and obedient. They are great organization people. Loving, joyful, warm, and sympathetic are not the qualities that leap to the public’s mind when Mormons are mentioned. This is one of the many things that left me feeling hollow about the church, and is one of Romney’s key deficiencies. He is a perfect organization man, but he has confused that with leadership, just as the church has confused organizational habits with a real moral and emotional way of life.

Life is more than just a test, an assignment, or a competition to score points. I want to revel in the liveliness of life, enjoy the beauty that surrounds us, and love the people around me. Programs, goals, metrics, or reports are there to serve people, not the other way around. To quote Jacob Marley, “BUSINESS? Mankind was my business! Their common welfare was my business!”

What is the profit on the balance sheet if one gains the world, but looses his soul?

Good thoughts!

U made my Day!

I don't think Romney is "evil" or anything like that. Just feel that he's a typical "Yes Man" that was unwittingly born and bred to be a Yes Man, courtesy of LDS Inc.

The fact that he's never questioned his Mormonism enough to walk away from it tells me he's not a deep thinker. Watching him talk and stump around the country, he seems suited to an administrative job but not one that involves speaking and inspiring people because he lacks empathy and the ability to relate to others well.

that are popularly considered in the church to be admirable are just as effective in the service of evil. Possession of these traits does not make a person good or evil anymore than being left or right handed does.

The church, however, has substituted these traits for morality, which is the authentic basis of authority and leadership. Romney is strong on these "effective" traits, but people sense his lack of authentic authority, just as people do with the church.

I get your point completely. The things my husband tells me are awesome about Mormons have nothing to do with compassion, joy, love or any of those traits, but more about success and intelligence.
I vascillate on my thoughts about Romney. If you look at his seemingly happy and successful immediate family, how his sons support him and his wife also, I tend to think there is more than meets the eye there. I have warmed to him a bit and you never know. He could be a good prez if elected. It is a puzzle though and one I have not figured out. Things seem too perfect, and I'm not sure how that can even be real. Maybe it is. Who knows.

It's not. What he supports, his philosophy will hurt millions of people. While he is not evil he lacks any empathy or understanding of how to maintain a stable and peaceful society.

Maintaining a stable and peaceful society is not one in the same as maintaining a plutocracy, which is what he wants to do.

Maybe my comment will be banned? If so, at least one person read the truth...

"In the Federal Government, Mormons are known as hardworking, focused, organized, and obedient. They are great organization people. Loving, joyful, warm, and sympathetic are not the qualities that leap to the public’s mind when Mormons are mentioned."

Is this something from the book, you heard, your opinion, what?

This is a personal observation based on a lifetime of membership in the church, a career in the USG, and many associations.

I shudder when I think of MR, with his lack of empathy, etc....
when he's with other (world) leaders... How's he gonna measure up?

I can't believe everyone on the planet is as STUPID as us here in the U.S.

Republicans: re-trenching to B.O.'s birth certificate.
Yup; that says it.

Steven Covey's many lessons on getting the monkey off your back and transferring it clearly to someone else comes to mind. Efficacy is worshipped in Mormondumb.

When you think about the cold decision making process that took place to fire every ward building custodian, you have to realize that this solution to a cashflow problem was chosen out of all possibilities presented. It was the "best" solution, according to the (totally worldly) wisdom of the committee evaluation the choices presented by another committee.

I am focusing on only one of their recent bad decisions. Why was this a bad decision?

It completely ignores a little factor called "ill-will" as they fire people who badly needed those jobs and will not easily find replacement employment, thus putting them and their families "in need" and eligible for help from the church who fired them.

It completely ignores the ill will accompanies yet another burden added to the already staggering consumption of the little time that mothers and fathers have to spend with their growing families, thus undermining any remaining doubt that this church does not put families first. It puts $$ first. Thus losing members and their 10%.

The recent posts from angry members who were tapped by missionaries at 5:30 am to go clean backed up toilets is the tip of the iceberg. For every complaint that makes it to this board, there are probably hundreds of others equally imposed upon.

One fine morning these members will wake up and look at the seven or eight monkeys they must load up on their backs and they will say, "I'm done--the church can have their monkeys back."


Anagrammy

Great post I agree completely. .

One thing that has been completely missed by media is that understanding Romney depends on understanding mormonism. Mormons are taught early that their individual personality and value are secondary to their "role" as a mormon cult believer. Anyone who has ever met official mormons presented ready for prime-time knows that ALL mormons are smart, ALL mormons are congenial, and ALL mormons are nice to a fault.

Mormons are in fact very keen in the implicit understanding that the public relations needs of mormonism supercede any individual needs in any and every situation, and mormons have a psychological built-in layer of analysis constantly reviewing the orthodoxy of their speech and behavior.

Nevermos who meet mormons say they are almost eerie in their saccharine nice-ness and perfect polite proper-ness. Mormons inhabit their roles very passionately but consequently they have few real friends as most non-cult people would understand the term, and are often no more than social adolescents. Personal intimacy is very carefully guarded and may often be nearly absent even within families. As you say, mormons learn their role assignments well and become excellent at adopting roles in industry and government, especially if the role has any evangelical elements that can be connected to mormon world-views (patriotism, for example).

Romney makes people nervous precisely because no one can penetrate the Ken-doll, mannikin mormon properness that (for most of the world) feels false, contrived and acted. He is the perfect candidate in so many ways, yet he is also perhaps the most distant and un-personal candidate ever fielded. It has been clear that Romney has not been eagerly embraced by Republicans as they have jumped from candidate to candidate in search of a more compelling champion. I would argue that Romney displays evidence of the mormon tendency to be fundamentally disconnected with his own individual self and to the extent he is UNABLE, as a mormon, to inhabit his own personality and own his own judgment outside of his "roles", is an immense problem for anyone trying to figure out who exactly the potential leader of the free world really is.

That Romney has not yet shown any evidence of any "personality" beyond his perfectly groomed role becomes even more concerning as the pressure on him has increased.

The prime-time display of mormon dissociative personality disorder in actual action every night on TV is truly frightening and I would argue is a prime reason to pass on him for POTUS.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2012 07:07PM by rodolfo.

The current resident in the White House is a Fun, loving, joyful guy. Let's have another 4 years of high unemployment and high gas prices because Romney is hardworking, focused, and organized. I get it.

People like Ron Paul, because he tells the truth and never changes.
Santorum seems like a a real geeky, accountant or small office insurance salesman.
Gingrich reminds people of who they really are, cranky, ambtious, lustfull ect.

Why would anyone feel comfortable talking with Mitt on a personal level. Mitt Romney is fake.

the real MORmON way of doing business

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NxEf1-3RJg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrI6spqstJU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or_tM6TtG7M

I've always just thought of it as part of the American phenomenon of aspiration to be a type-A person. In the States, there is no end to self-help books on how to "elevate" oneself to the highly successful and motivated businessman. Motivational speakers make millions doing this. But in the end, sumus quod sumus--we are what we are, and to be ashamed of being a type-B is totally asinine. But we (meaning "they," the LDS business-church Americans) take this abroad with them and try to overlay it on, say, Italians or Spaniards to get them to lead the LDS business-church in the same way that successful LDS business-church leaders do it in Utah.

Still, the type-A's are the ones, in fact, that do rise up to the higher priesthood offices in the Mormon church. There are people who become disappointed in the man who never gets tapped out to be a bishop or a stake president. Something like becoming a mission president takes even more dimension--you have to also show yourself as a type-A leader who can dump on other people.

And while we're using the term "dump," I identify most of these types as "anal-expulsive," the very kind of arrogant and controlling individuals who create mess and work for others to clean up after.

I had to overcome a lot of bad feelings about myself because I could not force myself into the ambitious and successful business mode, let alone a senior church leader. Once I was able to recognize the problem, I became happy in my type-B skin of laid-back music-loving, cat-loving, late-rising-on-Saturday guy who has coffee and bacon on a Sunday morning. I work for the government making a good living while not being pressed for deadlines. I think it's pretty sweet after all. Sum quod sum.