Digital leaders vs. dummies: Where’s the Beef?

 

Credit: Old Wendy’s ad, see next interactive link. (1:30.)

https://www.google.com/search?q=wendy%27s+ad+where%27s+the+beef&source=lmns&tbm=vid&bih=668&biw=360&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi658X2osL8AhWGlFMKHRiNDAYQ0pQJKAJ6BAgAEAo#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:6c25c0a3,vid:riH5EsGcmTw

Is digital leadership a given or skill developed with true teaching? Answer: Neither. Here’s why:

1.) Spam, spam and more spam. Retailers send huge flows vs. what they get or receive. There are simply too many irrelevant emails now to discern the What or Where. Or most importantly, the Why. Technocrats are rarely present teaching or educating, mainly because they speak a different, digital language

2.) Filters. Are ways to focus more easily non-existent or considered too technical for caring? Just asking the question so we don’t have to unload so much spam.

3.) Transactions vs. Relationships. For an older version, please see http://povblogger.blogspot.com/2015/10/which-came-first-relationship-chicken.html. Transactions now outrank by a pretty wide margin. That’s partly why so many are on the Internet all the time sending messages that some see and others don’t.

4.) Texts have replaced email at urgency or hourly/daily level. But there aren't any accepted practices other than "get outta here," or non-response ghosting. Which leads to the following reality…

5.) Ghosts now rule all the channels. (ref. previous entry.) Like everything else except not winning, digital comms. rarely produce an outcome. Unless you're simply selling widgets. Or jewelry and clothes that have already been approved. Ghosting now transcends on-line to be off-line, too.

Here’s a recommended approach to be a digital communications leader vs. digital dummy:

1.) Respond at least once, directly and indirectly. Set time to connect directly, if necessary or desired. Then if nothing happens, or there's no mutually discussed need, exit digital stage left. Save the actual phone for those who check a few boxes.

2.) Follow on chosen or shared media, such as LinkedIn (first, professionally), Facebook or Instagram, the top style-driven social media site.

3.) If and after direct engagement, thank you emails or physically mailed notes/cards (Gasp!) help if there's perceived shared desire present. If there’s not, move along at the speed of…text.

Thoughts? Let TGR know if there any other essentials to manage this mandatory category called Digital Leadership. Happy on-line living!

9/11: 20 years later

It’s no longer a closely held belief. It’s now a truth: We have lost commonly shared perspective. That’s the bad news. The good news is we can regain perspective by reminding ourselves what is truly important: Faith, relationships and shared values united by common purpose. Wherever you may be, or whatever you’re facing, this is a timeless truth. 

When I first came across what will soon be shared below, the story renewed an awakening deep within about what it means to have and hold covenant-based relationships. One of my mine, or so I thought, was recently challenged in a real dollars and cents way. Looking out over the next season forming, please consider taking to heart The Who vs. The What in a more intentional way.

To mark the coming days, and to experience a short story that will move your soul (if it doesn’t, then your soul may be dead), keep reading below. It’s an excerpt from a collection of first-hand accounts (AARP, The Magazine, August/September 2021). Please, no old guy cracks! 

Five short bursts: May Day guide to COVID-19

So what if we could have a virtual or socially distanced get together without discussing COVID-19. Is that even possible? It seems pretty unrealistic but could evolve into a norm with a little practice. Just ask heads of private equity firms in Boston who evidently have set aside Zoom calls to do group walks six feet apart, according to PE Hub.

For the rest of us who already take daily walks, it’s May Day so let’s dance around the flagpole, https://www.almanac.com/content/what-may-day while reviewing a few points to help endure the crisis. Everyone seems to have a list of lessons learned, but few seem able to suspend judgments in the face of the unknown. Believe it or not, that’s actually normal.

Here’s something to look forward to: The Thanksgiving table when we can resume talking about sports, the weather or latest streaming show that Mom hasn’t seen. While avoiding politics, religion, and now, COVID-19. Can you refill my wine glass, please? Following are a few views through to the other side whenever that may occur:

1.) Don’t confuse beliefs and position with learning and adaptability. Because whatever conclusions you’ve drawn so far may be wrong. From the outset of the pandemic, all the way back in early March, it’s been shocking to watch and listen to ignorance when it comes to science. One friend, who is from New York and currently lives under a local rock, asked during the second week whether I knew anyone who actually had the virus. As if to suggest that since everyone was walking around Home Depot close by without masks that things were hunky dory. My answer, before quickly getting off the phone, was no, not directly, but that I do know others who have friends who have the virus. 

There is still a ton to learn about this pandemic, and if that statement makes you want to crawl under a rock, you’re not alone. Just remember that no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.

2.) Avoid absolutes. You don’t know what you don’t know and that’s okay. None of the experts do either. Simply take the next step. A client/friend who runs a restaurant recently started a Facebook page after years of resisting change. That may sound caveman-like, but when you’re running a very successful business without the time suck of social media, then why would you change unless you have to? They’re paying their rent this month with curbside to go so all is good right now in this case. Far too many others can’t say the same.

3.) Take this time to reassess if you can. But do so with caring and compassion, both for yourself and others. Another friend/advisor recently shared some sharp truth when asked what he thought about the current ad line: We’re all in this together. ”Technically, we’re not,” he said. “We’re actually all in this alone, at a social distance. But we will pull through this together.” Bravo, Senior Contrarian. With most of the nation single or on their own, this was a great reminder to always level things off, first with yourself then others. Political leaders simply aren’t willing to do this, nor will they ever. But let’s not go there right now.

4.) Single greatest rule during change: Not doing something is doing something. It’s okay to sit at home, not work and do nothing. Just know what you are doing. Not doing something can often create extra space to do something better. Ask anyone not directly impacted by this virus whether the time has been productive or unproductive. Some lives have been restored despite the tragedy of the pandemic. Isn’t that called redemption by some definition? Families are eating dinner together again. April in Atlanta has been most beautiful. Surreal is a word that comes up often in my mind. You may have another favorite term.

5.) Finally, and this is one is geared more to larger businesses: People, purpose and profit are not mutually exclusive and should never be viewed that way. Companies that get all three right during the current season will have achieved something epic, as the hipsters like to say. For those whose livelihoods, customer bases and marketplaces have vanished into thin air, our hearts and minds remain open to help envision and act upon what may come next. Involuntary change is brutal and suggests softening the Darwin line, adapt or die. Good thing there’s still hope and that’s a wonderful thing. Perhaps the best of things. — Andy Dufrane, “Shawshank Redemption.”

 

Chasing the rabbit, or is the rabbit chasing you?

          (E-letter distributed on 2-20-20)

Dear Clients and Colleagues: 

Let’s pause for a minute of obvious email reality: We live in a sea of content. Most is highly deletable, which spellcheck confuses with “delectable” for some odd reason. If you don’t know the source, chances are it goes straight to the trash bin. Some messages go in the bin anyway. My own brand was built largely on content, or what we used to call writing with a unique point of view on issues impacting executive-level leaders.

The imperative now is shared content, or something that you can pass along to others. Along those lines, consider the following for your own consumption, career path, board trajectory, etc. Or simply life, that ever changing thing that grows in importance when we realize a good bit is in the rear view mirror. 

If you’re still channeling your inner Elmer Fudd, then the following image and story (courtesy: Ken Boa’s Feb. teaching letter) may help straighten things out. Who doesn’t want to Finish Well? There’s not a trick answer: No one...

JG

Higher Ups in public

Instead of dissecting finer points of the latest Business Roundtable (BRT) decree, issued earlier this week with great Twitter fanfare, let us examine a more fundamental example of social purpose called corporate executive behavior. Or the individual, in this case.

The individual happened to be a senior ranking Delta employee, who along with his wife, were allowed to cut into the security line at Hartsfield Jackson's international terminal.

Yours truly, on way to D.C., was standing in one of two general lines because the TSA pre-check line was closed for business @ 10:30 AM due to low traveller volume. The sign said the line would reopen @ 12:30 PM, which seemed a bit odd. Several of my closest friends and associates were waiting rather patiently for the slow moving line to accelerate. It never did. At a late interval, right before bin heaven, a Delta red coat stopped the lane to let whom she called a "higher up," cut in front of everyone.

Now with all due respect to a corporation's social purpose, which the Business Roundtable is now asking members to swear by in blood, isn't the issue fundamentally more about entitlement and the declining number of elites willing to put others before themselves?

Jamie Dimon, CEO, Citigroup

This is an epidemic, in my view, and while it has something to do with income gaps, the behavior will never change until more are held to account for not at least trying to put others first. After all, social purpose begins at home and in the community -- not in the board room.

Back to the security line and Mr. Higher Up. He didn't even acknowledge his public. A simple thank you, or better yet, visibly letting a few others go before would have done wonders in at least demonstrating awareness bordering on care. Delta passengers pay his salary anyway, right?

The sad fact is few try to be selfless, and the ones who the public wants to try even less. Consider members of Congress who now seem to be in fear of their lives 24-7. In Atlanta, it's hard to name anyone on the private sector side who excels at public acumen. Truett Cathy is gone, and Jimmy Carter and Andy Young are old enough to do whatever the hell they want. The rest avoid displays and for good reason. Super elites hop on private jets, not 737s.

Higher-ups, please remember to humble thyself when in public. This week's sighting was a missed opportunity, but it was seen. And now maybe it will be heard.

Short bursts: Ghosting, time flies and the Trump Effect II

Are you a ghoster? That's a rhetorical question. Every last business decision-maker has ghosted someone at one time or another. We're not talking about date or stock ghosting, which is illegal. Business ghosting is when a prospect, client and/or whatever we call that in between phase (send in your nominees) goes silent despite the litany of ways that technology has created to communicate. Hint to the indignant: Technology isn't the problem here, behavior is.


A great friend and client goes through ghosting seasons and then suddenly re-emerges as if no time ever elapsed. That's an art form that most of us cannot perfect. So don't be a ghost: Return calls and good emails/texts, even if it takes a little while to send one-line responses. Or you conveniently forget.


Time flies, period. Speaking of time, here's a great personal efficiency exercise for those who think they don't have time to do anything more, or what they want to do vs. what they have to do. Another great friend introduced this once upon a time, and I had the privilege of recently sharing with a time-starved client struggling with priorities.

There are 168 hours in the week. If you say you're working 60 hours a week and sleeping on average 7 hours a night, then the math is pretty simple: 168-60 = 108-42 = 66. Take out meal time or 3 hours a day, which is a high estimate even counting preparation, and you get another breakdown: 66-21 = 45 hours left in the seven-day week. That's roughly 6.5 hours a day to spend more wisely. Guard your time accordingly. Note what activities were not allotted time in the previous breakdowns.


Trump Effect II. So a D.C.-based influencer recently asked, "What do you think of Trump?" Oddly enough, I had a similar conversation over the holidays with my mother who now owns a small handheld squeeze ball figure of our 45th president, courtesy of a stocking stuffer given by her loving son.
Trump is an answer to the previous regime's inability to understand and connect with real angst out in the rest of the country besides New York and San Francisco. Things like the Great Recession will do that sometimes. Enter change in the form of a New York City billionaire who I believe loves his country despite cynics that say he's self interested con man. [You can exit the blog post now if you haven't already, no love lost.]

Love or loathe him, Trump simply reflects, or did at the time of the last election, the lesser of two evils. But he also tapped into something that those who live in gated communities and ride around in black cars simply refuse to accept: Something needs to change, preferably for the better, in government, media or any other institution for that matter. And that the change starts with them personally. Nothing works except fanning the flames of special interest.


So no matter what you think of Trump, consider this point of view: He's an aberration, last of a generation. What will follow is even more unpredictable and potentially unstable, assuming you expect a savior from this world to rescue the country from itself. The way we work, live, shop, seek/receive health care, travel, etc., is changing at a rate that no one could possibly keep up with -- much less grasp fully. Anyone under 40 could care less who the nightly news anchor is, much less names of their congressional representatives.


By the way, this is not necessarily bad despite how you may reading into tone. There's tremendous ingenuity, creativity and opportunity that arise during change. It's up to each of us to channel the positives, manage/discard the bad and serve those who feel disenfranchised. That comes in many forms. It's not a one-day event. Don't just make a difference, be the difference. And remember to use those daily leftover hours (6.5) wisely. Good day,


JG

Lane gain

One of the joys, and nightmares, of staying in the same lane for 15+ years is subjects may change, but the underlying dynamics rarely do. Take CEOs and corporate boards, for example. Despite a ton of media coverage, and despite diversity numbers finally starting to turn last year, the corporate board picture remains largely the same: Old white guys and a few gals gathering to hold management accountable to results. Or so they say.

According to a friend who has lived longer than most chief executives, all CEOs really want are "zero taxes, zero regulation and zero competition." That's a little over the top but not far from the truth.


The minute you think something is really changing, or a new movement is afoot, insert name here: Activist shareholders or #Me, Too, the outcry dies down and things go back to normal. That's not to say there isn't positive diversity movement afoot. It's just not creating progress at the rate many have predicted but have been disappointed to see fall short.


Conflicting facts and data don't help. A recent news cycle created some real head scratching for the first time in a while. In two days, stories and sources painting two different pictures appeared in the Fake News Era (FNE), with the combined effect begging for a reset.


First, an Oct. 3rd news story in Bloomberg Business https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-03/older-ceos-are-keeping-their-jobs-longer-thanks-to-bull-market (Sources: Conference Board, Heidrick & Struggles Board Monitor) reported that older CEOs were staying in their jobs for longer than average following uncertainty created by the Great Recession. This line of reporting seemed to suggest that the devil you know is always better than the devil you don't know.

Since 2000, or the last big economic peak until a new one is marked, companies have been largely self selecting from internal/external slates of candidates with fewer "going outside" exceptions, as it once was called. The CEO turnover beat has grown dull yet highly lucrative for succession experts and leadership development gurus who have pretty much convinced themselves that transferability of talent and leadership from one industry to one another is a bygone concept.


The next story, an Oct. 4th A Wall Street Journal piece titled, "CEO Tenure is Getting Shorter. Maybe that's a Good Thing?"  https://www.wsj.com/articles/ceo-tenure-is-getting-shorter-maybe-thats-a-good-thing-1538664764?ns=prod/accounts-wsj appeared based on GE's CEO firing and seemed to suggest a different reality. CEOs aren't lasting as long, 4.8 years on average, and turnover is now back in vogue based on several departures over the summer at big companies. At least two respected figures on my social feeds fanned the short-term flames. Big brand name companies not doing anything for years have that effect sometimes when they drop the hammer.

So what are we led to conclude about the CEO/board picture? No matter what you read day-to-day, no matter what any so called expert says, no matter if you're a CEO who gets fired or a budding board-level prospect, the overall climate may be changing, but it's not changing at the rate the headlines suggest. Nothing ever does.


Think of it as a proxy on a long, well-lived life. Some things go up, some things go down. All in all chances are you're going to have a steady run, assuming good health, love and faith. Which surprisingly are never publicly reviewed as pre-requisites for top jobs. Maybe they should be? Call it the Ken Chenault effect, or something along similar lines. It's impossible to cite a better story of CEO work and life than the former Chairman and CEO of American Express modeled prior to leaving the game earlier this year.


TGR pauses now to recognize the late, great Gerry Roche, a CEO kingmaker of the first order: https://www.wsj.com/articles/genial-gerry-roche-made-himself-a-superstar-among-executive-recruiters-1536332339. While we're sad that he's no longer with us, it's heartening to know that Gerry lived a full life watching, working and living within the same messy picture outlined here. And that he did it authentically while holding a long-term view focused on what matters most: Relationships. Not the transactional mess that gets passed off as relational today; more to the point, that real relationship, in any context but especially business, starts with being a friend. Or as Gerry liked to say, a friend is a treasure that you can keep forever.

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Summer snippets






Lake Garda, Italy (foreground, across from reflecting pool)



Dinner with a view -- and great conversation. In a beautiful far away land, I recently found myself playing second chair at a business dinner where the host was the CEO of a major European company and the primary guest was a POV client. Our gracious host wanted to know what I did, which is always an interesting exchange when there's no prompter. He had complained earlier in the evening about social media and how it seemed misused to the point of distortion.

Over some great wine, I asked him point blank: Do you have to have followers to qualify as a leader?

CEO answer: Yes, of course.

So does it matter how many followers you have on social media?

CEO setting his indoor pool color.



Host: No, not exactly (while starting to laugh.)

Next question: Did Hitler have followers?

Host: Of course. Was he a leader?

Me: Yes, with the exception of one essential, missing trait: Character.

CEO then began to golf clap, metaphorically speaking, branding me, The Analyst. But that's not the point.

Character is what it always comes down to, sooner or later. For anyone still jumping on political band wagons, know that in the end, character still matters. And it always will.

====================================

'He who fires first generally wins.' Recent legal maneuvering at MGM, which clearly was negligent during last Oct.'s worst ever shooting massacre at Mandalay Bay, raised my ire more than any story this year. The idea that CEOs and boards can sit in a room and weigh the legal costs at the costs of everything else on Earth, including the loss of life, and then let only liability costs and crafty self perceived loopholes determine their actions leaves a ton to be desired. It's not leadership, period.

Here's hoping more change agents, more diversity and more principle-based people can move the status quo forward. Because what exists now inside MGM is unacceptable. What may be even more frustrating is how two versions of the story appeared in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times during the same cycle, and one was clearly more informative, fuller than the other. Fake news or no fake news, it's getting harder by the day to discern facts, much less reality, assuming a shared one still exists.

Hizzoner has some explainin' to do. Or not. Former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has been implicated in a secret payment to an employee that he fired: Miguel Southwell, the former GM of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

According to the Atlanta Journal & Constitution, the payment was arranged through the CEO of local real estate firm, Carter, who then proceeded to deny any knowledge of the payment through a company spokesperson -- who used to work for the AJC. For their sake, I hope they're right. To issue sweeping denials without all the facts present, such as proof of the payment itself, makes little sense, assuming evidence is eventually uncovered, which it nearly always is when it comes to financial transactions.

Reed has been a somewhat closely followed subject at times by yours truly. See a previously published piece here that appeared immediately following the former GM's firing in 2016: https://saportareport.com/mayor-reed-unfinished-legacy-bomb-clock-always-ticking/. Off the book payments that emerge after the fact are never a good thing, publicly speaking.

Whoever emerges to represent Reed legally will have their work cut out. Oh, one more thing: The position of Airport GM remains open if anyone would like to step up and apply. Someone always will. # Character matters.

Good day,

JG

Jeremy C. Garlington
Point of View LLC
Phone: 404-606-0637

POV web site: www.pointofviewllc.com
TGR web log:  www.povblogger.blogspot.com 

Short bursts -- with longer lines

This is the first blog posting since October 2017. Did you miss TGR? Ok, moving right along...

There are way too many channels with nothing on -- to borrow an old T.V. phrase. Content is everywhere, both bad, good and somewhere in between. In a previous posting, the statement, "community trumps content," was made with conviction. But the message also unintentionally overlooked a key dynamic. We may engage in community, but each message reaches individuals differently, at different times and on different channels: Media, friend to friend, social, mobile, tablet, etc.

 

Leaders tend to reflect their own realities, starting with the first one: It's all about them, one channel at a time. With attention spans at all-time lows, getting a message to stick has never been more challenging. Unless, of course, you're the owner of a certain Twitter handle. Which you're not so best to keep moving. 

Credible individuals, first. Fake news, second. According to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer https://www.edelman.com/trust-barometer, trust in institutions remains at epic lows. Yet trust in experts and individual journalists has increased. Despite what we hear every day at ad nauseam.

Which means if you work for a "fake news" outlet such as CNN or The New York Times, while the brand may take shots, individual reporters have increased their standing. Due, in part, to their own personal branding efforts on social media. It also doesn't hurt to have a subject named Trump around to cover 24-7.

T-Rex playbook. If you think your boss is demanding, then consider Rex Tillerson's day-to-day.

 
The best broadcast interview of the year so far has to be the February 18th "60 Minutes" with the Secretary  of State. https://www.cbsnews.com/video/rex-tillerson-opens-up-in-rare-wide-ranging-interview. Even the well trained would be wise to accept a few cues out of the T-Rex playbook. Tillerson is an expert at delivering a message, diffusing the negative while appearing to stay true to thyself. Not many can do all that, much less in a single interview. Then again even fewer have worked globally at such a high level. Tillerson's vow to "ride for the brand," is a great battle cry, IMHO. Full disclosure: TGR is a big fan of Rex Tillerson, an American CEO original if there ever was one.

Digital governance. The mighty Coca-Cola Company, or Coke for short, recently named two new members to the company board, raising the total number of directors from 14 to 16. During a time when no large company is expanding their board, but that point digresses. 

Those with longer memories may be able to recall when who was (or who was not) on the Coke board was a really BIG deal. Not anymore. One of the new appointees, an executive named Caroline Tsay, is a digital native. Meaning her entire career has been focused on the cloud and other digital-based software systems. There aren't many major company boards that have actually embraced digital realities despite the ongoing blather. Early in an accelerating trend if you're looking for the takeaway. Unlike diversity, digital reality may have real teeth. Disclaimer: This does not include the much hyped FANG masters of the universe, or Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google.  

Yawn in succession. Staying with boards for a minute, has anyone in that sector really looked at themselves in the mirror lately when it comes to CEO succession? They might see a big yawn such as what's outlined here https://huntscanlon.com/egon-zehnder-newspoint-walking-the-tightrope-of-executive-succession. Bored boards and their enablers have been saying the same things to themselves for so long, it takes a healthy dose of Five Hour Energy

to find anything new or remotely interesting about what's going on. And maybe that's the whole point. If you don't know it's succession, and remain asleep, then oblivion is a great place to be. If you're a CEO and there's no succession plan in place, then you better keep moving because something or someone will swing around at some point and bite you in the you know what. Or not if you're lucky.

Then there's General Electric (GE) and their epic board shake-up in the face of management failure of the first order. Their problems are a far cry from the last paradigm when GE management practices were widely lauded. That paradigm is now over if it wasn't already a decade ago. If you're looking for a proxy on how to struggle with change, then look no further than Boston or Connecticut, or wherever GE's base resides these days.

Next posting: TGR will go deeper into the divide between the CEO/board level and the rest of the masses. Feel free to send through any particular lines or thoughts. Reverse mentoring seems to be a positive trend, would love to hear others. 

Happy Spring hunting. Robins, grab those worms!

Renewed call

It's now a norm. Something bad happens in the cultural zeitgeist, causing widespread reaction. If it's on a large global scale, such as the recent Las Vegas tragedy, there's a pause to reflect for about 24 hours. Then the opinions, argument and divisiveness come. Like a boulder rolling down a steep hill. Or train travelling down the track. Pick your own analogy.

The only agreement struck anymore is that some things are truly heinous for no readily apparent reason. Or at least not one that can be offered up immediately to inquiring minds. The Why question rarely gets answered during tragedies yet that doesn't stop us from asking it over and over. What remains odd is how that's really the only time anyone cares about the Why.

And then there are the moments that are so personal and individualized that no one else can possibly understand what’s happened despite all the means to share at our fingertips. Someone who used to be pretty close died recently after a tragic accident. Details were sketchy via Facebook. It didn't exactly hit like a ton of lead as if someone nearer had passed, but it did provide pause. On the same day, the car I was driving hit something, causing a bad flat on the side of a busy interstate here in Atlanta. Thankfully, Jake from State Farm came to the rescue. Sometimes things just happen; sometimes they happen for a reason. There is no single either/or that stands up to time.

When things happen on the public stage now, it's  nearly impossible to watch the range of reactions, most of which are overblown, lacking perspective and loaded with opinion vs. fact. Anything and everything is fanned like a fire straight from the T.V. set or smart phone screen to wherever we're taking it all in. Everyone suddenly becomes an expert if they weren't already. Hours are spent arguing over issues that don't really direct impact us.

Thankfully, this is not the case when you travel to Italy or to Israel, or at least that wasn't my experience during a two-week trip in early September. The first obvious difference is TVs set to 24-7 news channels don't permeate every public space. Nor do people sit around on their phones texting and talking as if the world is going to end. No, they're actually out, living and going about their lives in wonderful places with great sunsets (see below.)

Torri del Benaco, Lake Garda, Italy

Tel Aviv beach, Tel Aviv, Israel

It's refreshing to be among people who choose to live first, work second. This isn't an endorsement; just an observation. Any American worth his or her salt misses efficiency after a while. That may be our greatest asset. Another admirable trait is our creative spirit. We are an ingenious, industrial and innovative people. Or at least most are -- short of a few who haven't experienced disruption yet. 

It's my sincere hope that with a little more grit, shared values and sensory leadership that we can emerge stronger and better for the next season. If we can't, well, I know who remains in control, always.

# # #