Wanted: Positive Gossip--Time to Accentuate Men and Women of Integrity
Ventura Star, August 8, 2005
By Terry Paulson, PhD

Why do some countries generate tremendous wealth and prosperity, while others persist in poverty? One of the critical elements is a culture that supports entrepreneurial dreams and honors the heroes who live them. If there is a spirit of enterprise, a set of stories or images in the culture that celebrates entrepreneurial creativity, then economic prosperity is more likely. If you want to get a sense of whether a country's culture is apt to foster more economic opportunity, find out what stories they tell and what heroes they admire. The American Dream and the story of those who have lived that dream have always encouraged us, but our current age is in desperate need of some good news and positive gossip about today's entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Unfortunately, the world of business and the executives who inhabit it are being broadly painted in a less than positive light. Fast Company, a popular leadership magazine, recently capitalized on the sensational coverage of executives gone bad by writing a series on psychopathic bosses! Guess what? Your boss from hell may be a psychopath prone to the "selfish, callous, and remorseless use of others." The implication is clear-many of today's bosses are closet psychopaths! Such negative themes are repeated endlessly and drummed into the brains of Americans daily.

Robert Lichter studied 30 years of television programming from the 1950s to the 1980s to detect trends in attitudes. Business people were twice as likely to be portrayed as villains on TV as were people in any other identifiable occupation. The negative portrayal of businesspeople has grown over the years. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, businesspeople were three times more likely to exhibit characteristics of rampant greed than other occupations. In the 1980s, business characters where 10 times more likely to exhibit greedy behaviors.

Not only are businesspeople on television and films portrayed as inherently corrupt, profit itself is questioned. In a follow-up study in the 1990s, Lichter found that 81 percent of the shows that had the choice of portraying business as honest and honorable or unfair and corrupt portrayed business dealings as dishonest and corrupt. Rather than a reward for offering valued goods and services, profit was ordinarily portrayed as the result of exploitation and fraud.

Because of the corrupt actions of some prominent executives, news coverage is now broadcasting the same message. There is an onslaught of corporate scandals-Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, and Adelphia. Some executives have been hauled away in handcuffs. Results from several polls indicate that approximately 80% of the population believes that fraud and impropriety are prevalent among corporations and their executives.

There are reasons for that loss of trust. During the decade of the '90s, corporate profits were up 114 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, while CEO compensation rose 571 percent. Even more upsetting, incompetent executives, fired for poor performance, bank millions on their way out the door. Severance pay was not created to reward the incompetent.

My call for a little good news is not a call for leniency. In response to such corporate misconduct and excess, long-needed reforms should be made. Corporate boards would be wise to cut back some of the executive perks; corporate assets should not be a personal slush fund for executives. Not only should organizations report all aspects of executive compensation, they should link pay to long-term results, not short-term performance. Finally, enforce ethical behavior. Commit a crime, go to jail! Trust is an invaluable asset to businesses, but that trust must be earned by a strong dose of accountability. Unfortunately, good leaders, responsible executives and entrepreneurs get painted with the same brush.

The American Dream is getting battered! Some teens are giving up on education; they don't believe there is any opportunity for them. Americans could us a strong dose of good news about business enterprise. Hollywood could help. Evil and greedy executives make the perfect, politically correct antagonists for their movies. It would truly take courage to make an executive a hero! It's time for a few story lines that explore the business world as a dimension of life in which business heroes experience suspense, disappointment, humor, heartache, and triumph in pursuit of success and meaning. They could learn from 20/20 who told the story of Chris Gardner who went from homelessness in San Francisco to being an owner of a multimillion dollar institutional brokerage firm with the help and encouragement from sympathetic prostitutes and Rev. Cecil Williams. He traded black power for green power and now helps motivate teens to learn from his experience!

Such stories are just waiting to be tapped by Hollywood's creative minds. We need movies and television shows that can convey the power of enterprise not only to generate prosperity but to tap the human spirit. There are great leaders out there-Men and women of integrity who make a difference for customers, employees and their communities. They need to be honored and replicated. If you have some gossip to share, let's make some of it positive.

Dr. Terry Paulson is a psychologist, speaker and author of The Dinner: The Political Conversation Your Mother Told You Never to Have

—May we never forget how truly blessed we are!