Author: Harry Kraemer

Every book I’ve ever written can be traced back to my students and the class discussions that always inspire me. My first book, From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership, began as a transcription of my lectures by a student, Samir Gokhale, who told me, “Now you can write your book!”

After that first book, my students said to me, “Harry, now that we know what it takes to be a values-based leader, what about building a values-based organization?” After some reflection, I began writing my second book, Becoming the Best: Build a World-Class Organization through Values-Based Leadership.

As our discussions continued, people heard me talk more about my favorite number: 168. (Spoiler alert: it’s the mathematical solution of 24 x 7). As I tell my students we all have the same number of hours in a week—168. The variable is what we do with those hours. That prompted my students to ask me, “How can we live a values-based life?” The answer was my third book, Your 168: Finding Purpose and Satisfaction in a Values-Based Life.

Unless you are in a sailboat by yourself in the middle of the Pacific Ocean without cell service, or several miles deep in an abandoned coal mine, you are probably aware the US presidential elections will take place on November 5, only 56 days from today.

As you can imagine, I get asked several times a day by students and executives my thoughts on the upcoming election. As always, I make it clear that I have very few answers and many opinions. That’s why I don’t do “Q&A;” I do a lot of “Q&O.”😁
But before I get into it — spoiler alert!!! I am not going to take sides, and that’s actually my point. We have become so polarized that many people have not only stopped talking to one another, they actually dislike and even hate people if they hold different views on a topic. I read recently that parents used to ask their children before they got married, “What is the religion of the person you are marrying?” That question has been replaced with, “What political party do they belong to?”

I really believe that in a democracy you have the right to believe whatever you want to believe and vote for whomever you want to vote for. All I ask is for all of us to be respectful of people who have different views. That is why I encourage people to have a balanced perspective, and as always, “seek to understand before you are understood.”

OK, here are a few opinions that attempt to put some balance in some of the extreme comments I hear every day: