THOUGHTS OF CHAIRMAN MAC

The basis of ethics is doing the right things that are required to be done. The essence of ethical leadership is doing the right things that are not required to be done.  Exhibiting basic ethics by doing the right thing  is considered a precursor to effective leadership and success in business . It means behaving in compliance with society’s laws and accepted mores, which basically boils down to not lying, cheating or stealing. Publicized “perp walks” to the contrary, possessing solid ethics is not all that rare. The business world is filled with thousands of ethical individuals working hard to be effective leaders and successful in business. That’s good, but for individuals who desire to stand out from the crowd and distinguish themselves as exceptional leaders – in all ways – it is not enough to simply comply with the minimum code of ethics. Ethical leadership requires an effort to do more than other ethical individuals in positions of leadership. The way to do this is...

  During the last quarter of the 20 th century the life insurance industry was forced into a period of structural and product change that had not been seen in over 100 years. Most of the established insurance institutions, comfortable with the way things were, not only did not recognize the need for change, but they also stubbornly tried to ignore and resist it. The needed change was driven by several factors, but the primary trigger was the consumer who began to reject the traditional business model of the life insurance industry. At the time, the industry’s business model was predicated on offering, through a cadre of exclusive sales agents, long term products designed to protect against the economic cost of dying young. For almost a century this approach resonated with consumer needs and concerns and insurance companies grew to become financial behemoths.   However, during the 20 th century medical advances increased male life expectancy from 42 to 73 years.  As ...

  Very few politicians are visionaries, but all of them have perfect hindsight as “armchair quarterbacks.” For years the Republicans blamed Roosevelt for “allowing” the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Claiming that Roosevelt and the government had all the intelligence they needed to alert to the attack but did nothing to prevent it. After the terrorist attack on 9/11 the Democrats constantly blamed Bush and his administration for not preventing the attack by ignoring clear intelligence of an impending strike. The Republicans are now planning to gin up extensive investigations into the FBI and intelligence community (ignoring that Trump was president) trying to prove they ignored intelligence that if followed would have prevented the January 6 th insurrection at the Capital. The point here is that it is a misnomer to depict politicians as leaders. Most politicians are in fact followers. They are not very good at making history, but they are very good at attempting to rewrite it. ...

  When you reminisce about the future in the same way others reminisce about the past, the future becomes the present for you, just as the past is the present to others. We all have the power and enjoy reminiscing about the past. We recall and visualize important events in our past – graduation, marriage, birth of a child – in a way that allows us to virtually relieve these experiences. Our reminisces are so vivid we can describe them in a way that is so graphic it can even make others feel as though they were there too. As a leader, imagine how powerful it would be to have the capacity to visualize the future in the same way others visualize the past. A leader imbued with the power to reminisce about the future would be able to paint a picture of the future in such a realistic way that others could comprehend and see if as if it is the present. This would allow followers to become as comfortable with the future as they are with the past, encouraging them to work toward the fut...