Comments on: Sarah Palin, Succession Planning & HR

By: HRM Today - Blog Archive » VP Succession Planning: Palin Vlogs!

HRM Today - Blog Archive » VP Succession Planning: Palin Vlogs! — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:07:52 +0000

[...] doesn

By: VP Succession Planning: Palin Vlogs! « Punk Rock Human Resources

VP Succession Planning: Palin Vlogs! « Punk Rock Human Resources — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:18:41 +0000

[...] obama, diana saez, john mccain, Sara Benincasa, sarah palin Lance doesn’t think that HR succession planning is comparable to the 2008 campaign. This should come as no surprise, but I disagree with Lance. If ever there was a forum where [...]

By: Laurie

Laurie — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:15:21 +0000

@Lance I guess ur right that the presidency is not a direct comparison to succession planning — ‘cept that businesses manage succession planning in much the same way.

*Who’s been around the longest?
*Who looks good in a suit?

It’s all subjective and rarely based on a quantitative analysis of knowledge, skills & abilities. I’ve never done a talent review where we emerge from the discussion with anything other than the pre-determined list of candidates that the executives/managers brought to the discussion in the first place.

Maybe the title of a post should be SUCCESSION PLANNING: EPIC FAIL. The thesis would be simple: we need an algorithm, like Google, to pick our future leaders.

By: Lance Haun

Lance Haun — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:02:32 +0000

People get pissy about the Obama/Palin comparison because it is painful. It is painful to know that two people with so little experience will either be the President or be very close to the Presidency.

Obama has very little experience on the national stage. He was a junior senator who spent his first two years in the minority party and he has spent the better part of the last two years as a part to full time campaign machine. His legislative record isn’t impressive because of the above parts. His exposure on the national stage involves a speech he made four years ago and a handful of committee meetings.

Palin’s record is short as well but I think it is important to know that experience at the state level is also important. If you disregard that like many have, you throw out almost all of Obama’s legislative experience (and all of his legislative accomplishments). It’s a double standard that shouldn’t be tolerated.

If we want to talk about the issues of this campaign, let’s do it. But if we want to keep comparing experience, it’s a really easy decision:

If both are woefully inexperienced and one has a 100% chance of being president and one has a much lower than 100% chance of being president, which one do you think is more appealing on experience alone?

That’s the silliness of this whole discussion over comparing this to succession planning. An issue based argument would be much more sound and business oriented. Focusing more on a potential Executive VP than a CEO wouldn’t make sense in the business world either.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 01:28:00 +0000

@Dan Bryan skews more conservative than 99% of the readers of this blog. 1) I think Bryan’s points are valid & 2) there’s a place for his point of view on my blog because Bryan is my friend & 3) Bryan is awesome. PS – As a side note, most conservatives I know think Palin is a hail-mary-joke of a pick. They prefer Romney (except for the Mormon thing) or Pawlenty.

By: Dan Johnson

Dan Johnson — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 22:29:52 +0000

@ brian…so you are trying to make the argument that Palin has both no “real” executive experience and that executive experience doesn’t matter? Boy that is a great argument. Yes, yes, Obama went to a good school…Oh wait….so did George Bush…a good thing that worked out.
The point is that the people who elected her actually like the job she is doing. Honestly, Brian your elitist crap and two faced arguments are why we can’t have a decent discussion about issues in this country.
All I hear in most of these posts is “Blah Blah Blah…I hate her because she is a conservative”….”Blah Blah Blah she is from a small backward state” “blah blah blah She didn’t go to an Ivy league school” etc.
If you don’t like conservatives just say it. Then we can move on.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 20:53:35 +0000

@Wench I haven’t read it, yet, but I heard it’s eye-opening.

@Bryan LOL, you are on fire.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:11:19 +0000

Please do not compare Palin to Obama. Such comparisons make my stomach turn. The difference in their educational backgrounds alone is stark, much less their experience on the political stage.

She wouldn’t be qualified to be the mayor of Columbus, Ohio — which has about 100K more people in it than the entire state of Alaska — much less leader of the free world.

The “executive experience” argument that some are trying to make is so ridiculous that they should be embarrassed to let it slip past their lips. George W. had plenty of “executive experience,” but yet his presidency has been the worst in American history.

Wow, she has a high approval rating! Well, then she is qualified to be the president. Are you kidding me? McCain’s VP pick reeks of both desperation and pandering. One can only hope that this duo does not somehow get elected.

By: HR Wench

HR Wench — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 17:25:37 +0000

Read the TIME interview with McCain last night. It was the weirdest, most hostile interview I’ve ever read. Totally bizarre.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:27:07 +0000

@John I meant curveball. I wasn’t expecting it, and I think she’s a harder target than Pawlenty. My husband reminded me that it’s tough to attack a mom & a pretty woman. Guys come to the aid of a pretty woman in distress — even if the pretty woman is an arch-conservative who is a lifelong member of the NRA and can cut you down with an AK47.

@deb She’ll appeal to anyone who is pro-life and pro-gun — basically, the GOP base.