{"id":1651,"date":"2008-09-22T10:00:45","date_gmt":"2008-09-22T14:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.AchieveMax.com\/blog\/?p=1651"},"modified":"2013-06-30T12:36:15","modified_gmt":"2013-06-30T16:36:15","slug":"walk-the-talk-loses-credibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Walk the Talk&#8221; Loses Credibility"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s been a tremendous information infusion by the media on the subject of the current financial crisis facing our country at the moment. It&#8217;s all over the radio, television, magazines, newspapers, and Internet. However, I think it&#8217;s quite obvious that they&#8217;ve missed the boat &#8230; as usual. We&#8217;re not facing a financial crisis\u2014we&#8217;re facing an obvious leadership crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Morgan Stanley, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, and Freddie<br \/>\nMac have dominated headlines for weeks now as they&#8217;ve lost billions of<br \/>\ndollars while providing golden parachutes worth millions to their leadership.<br \/>\nThat&#8217;s a pretty nice reward for destroying a company and putting thousands of<br \/>\nemployees out of work. CNN and Fox News both reported that President Bush&#8217;s most recent decision to assist these financial giants in their effort to stay afloat could very easily reach the trillion dollar mark!<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s happened to the one time belief, respect, and practice of such things as a mission statement, vision statement, code of ethics, beliefs and values, code of conduct, and integrity? For instance, I did a little research and discovered the following information:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lehman Brothers Mission Statement<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8220;We are One Firm &#8230; defined by our unwavering commitment to our clients, our shareholders, and each other. Our mission is to build unwavering partnerships with and value for our clients, through the knowledge, creativity, and dedication of our people, leading to superior returns for our shareholders.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ouch!<\/p>\n<p><strong>AIG Code of Business Conduct and Ethics<br \/>\n<\/strong>It consists of 20 paragraphs for its executive staff.\u00a0\u00a0Its six corporate values include respect, integrity and customer focus.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Merrill Lynch Code of Ethics<\/strong><br \/>\nIt consists of 12 long paragraphs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fannie Mae Code of Conduct<\/strong><br \/>\nIt consists of 26 long paragraphs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Freddie Mac Mission Statement<\/strong><br \/>\nIt consists of\u00a0six long paragraphs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Morgan Stanley Code of Ethics and Business Conduct<\/strong><br \/>\nIt consists of 50 long paragraphs.<\/p>\n<p>Now think about the concepts of walking the talk, closing the knowing-doing gap, and practicing what you preach the next time your organization discusses the need to conduct business in an ethical manner. It may sound like propaganda to some, and it may be ignored by others &#8230; like those once respectable, once successful organizations listed above. To avoid those deadly consequences, rethink the importance of walking the talk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s been a tremendous information infusion by the media on the subject of the current financial crisis facing our country at the moment. It&#8217;s all over the radio, television, magazines, newspapers, and Internet. However, I think it&#8217;s quite obvious that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-midnight-muses"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Walk the Talk&quot; Loses Credibility - AchieveMax\u00ae Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We are not facing a financial crisis; we are facing an obvious leadership crisis.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Walk the Talk&quot; Loses Credibility - AchieveMax\u00ae Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We are not facing a financial crisis; we are facing an obvious leadership crisis.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AchieveMax\u00ae Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/Harry-Kenneth-Jones\/100001507395947\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-09-22T14:00:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-06-30T16:36:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.achievemax.com\/images\/banners\/feedburner-mail.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harry K. Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/harrykjones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AchieveMax\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Harry K. Jones\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Harry K. Jones\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2102ae4a8729d317bcef3f46cd6c5f3\"},\"headline\":\"&#8220;Walk the Talk&#8221; Loses Credibility\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-09-22T14:00:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-06-30T16:36:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/\"},\"wordCount\":373,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Midnight Muses\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/\",\"name\":\"\\\"Walk the Talk\\\" Loses Credibility - AchieveMax\u00ae Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-09-22T14:00:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-06-30T16:36:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2102ae4a8729d317bcef3f46cd6c5f3\"},\"description\":\"We are not facing a financial crisis; we are facing an obvious leadership crisis.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"AchieveMax\u00ae Blog\",\"description\":\"Business articles on change, creativity, customer service, leadership, motivation, teamwork, and time management, written by AchieveMax\u00ae professional speakers.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2102ae4a8729d317bcef3f46cd6c5f3\",\"name\":\"Harry K. Jones\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43d2d29bbfc309d3f9ef7e1086b164f8a0c2ec2c7e896cded184a070d9afbe83?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43d2d29bbfc309d3f9ef7e1086b164f8a0c2ec2c7e896cded184a070d9afbe83?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43d2d29bbfc309d3f9ef7e1086b164f8a0c2ec2c7e896cded184a070d9afbe83?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Harry K. Jones\"},\"description\":\"Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax\u00ae, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.AchieveMax.com\/motivational-speaker-harry.htm\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/Harry-Kenneth-Jones\/100001507395947\",\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/harrykjones\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/harrykjones\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/author\/harry\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Walk the Talk\" Loses Credibility - AchieveMax\u00ae Blog","description":"We are not facing a financial crisis; we are facing an obvious leadership crisis.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Walk the Talk\" Loses Credibility - AchieveMax\u00ae Blog","og_description":"We are not facing a financial crisis; we are facing an obvious leadership crisis.","og_url":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/","og_site_name":"AchieveMax\u00ae Blog","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/Harry-Kenneth-Jones\/100001507395947","article_published_time":"2008-09-22T14:00:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-06-30T16:36:15+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.achievemax.com\/images\/banners\/feedburner-mail.gif","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Harry K. Jones","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/harrykjones","twitter_site":"@AchieveMax","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Harry K. Jones","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/"},"author":{"name":"Harry K. Jones","@id":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2102ae4a8729d317bcef3f46cd6c5f3"},"headline":"&#8220;Walk the Talk&#8221; Loses Credibility","datePublished":"2008-09-22T14:00:45+00:00","dateModified":"2013-06-30T16:36:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/"},"wordCount":373,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["Midnight Muses"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/","url":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/","name":"\"Walk the Talk\" Loses Credibility - AchieveMax\u00ae Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-09-22T14:00:45+00:00","dateModified":"2013-06-30T16:36:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2102ae4a8729d317bcef3f46cd6c5f3"},"description":"We are not facing a financial crisis; we are facing an obvious leadership crisis.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/22\/walk-the-talk-loses-credibility\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/","name":"AchieveMax\u00ae Blog","description":"Business articles on change, creativity, customer service, leadership, motivation, teamwork, and time management, written by AchieveMax\u00ae professional speakers.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2102ae4a8729d317bcef3f46cd6c5f3","name":"Harry K. Jones","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43d2d29bbfc309d3f9ef7e1086b164f8a0c2ec2c7e896cded184a070d9afbe83?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43d2d29bbfc309d3f9ef7e1086b164f8a0c2ec2c7e896cded184a070d9afbe83?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43d2d29bbfc309d3f9ef7e1086b164f8a0c2ec2c7e896cded184a070d9afbe83?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Harry K. Jones"},"description":"Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax\u00ae, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.AchieveMax.com\/motivational-speaker-harry.htm","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/Harry-Kenneth-Jones\/100001507395947","http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/harrykjones","https:\/\/x.com\/http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/harrykjones"],"url":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/author\/harry\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/achievemax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}