As I sit to write this I am struck by the irony of it. I am about to rant about globalization and I am in Vancouver as I do it. Last week I was in Edmonton. Anyway, here goes.

The final game of the World Baseball Classic is underway with Japan facing Korea for the title. The USA lost to Japan last night. At least team USA won a few more games this time around. Clearly, the world is a different place. Baseball is the American pastime and we are not the best anymore. A few years back our vaunted pro basketball players lost in the Olympics. Can football be far behind? Of course, this is not about sports although sports are a good illustration. This is about the world being different.

Economies of the world are intimately interrelated. Depending on your point of view this is a blessing or a curse but one thing we can say is that it is true. This connectedness creates opportunities and threats. Quite frankly, I am sick of all the global talk. Read any major business journal and you see a global perspective. Look at the curricula of any major MBA program and there is a global focus. I get it. Especially when we are losing in baseball, I get it.

However, have we lost sight of ourselves? Have we lost sight of the human fundamentals upon which our success is based? All business is not global. It may be so at the strategic C-level but what about in the trenches where the work is actually done. What about the frontlines where the money is made? Does the guy running a construction job, or the lady managing a fast food restaurant really care about what is going on in Mumbai? Should they? What about their immediate superiors? I hope not.

With the current failures of Wall Street there is a call for reform in the MBA programs that created the mess. I agree. There must be reform but the reform must include real leadership development that teaches people how to lead people. And when I say lead I don’t mean buy them off with huge pay packages. Developing strategy is not leadership. Implementing and executing strategy is leadership and we are sorely in need of it. A course in ethics will not save us. Ethical leadership might. And that all starts, or continues, with you. Right now.

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