Unsentimental Sentiment

Inarticulate Corporate Leaders

Why do we allow our leaders to bumble around in their mouths with nothing to say and no style in their delivery, no zest. I began watching the Wharton Leadership Lecture about the financial crisis with former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain. He was introduced (for eight minutes!) by the most inarticulate professor of business I’ve seen. He couldn’t go four words without a long “ummmmmm” and I thought, why should we listen to this buffoon? Why send our kids to these schools? This is the best business school in America, and the leader of the Finance department can’t speak as well as a fifteen year old with a future?

I flipped up to the John Thain segment. There he was, looking articulate and all. Then he opened his worthless mouth. My patience was thin, I’ll admit, but on the count of six or seven “uuuuuuu’s” in two minutes, I turned off the drivel with no remorse. Why should I listen to this guy tell me about the origins of and solutions for the global financial crisis when he can’t even carry a fifth grade sentence in front of an audience?

An open book doesn’t talk like that. An honest speaker lays it out at bullet-train speed. An honest man freestyles and innovates and just plain talks to the audience. These men are supposed to be the best we have. If that is the case, then our species is dying out.

Watch the introduction here and ask yourself why you’re supposed to listen to them.  (Esp. the junk finance professor doing the introduction)