By Steve Moran

For the most part I stay away from politics in business and am pretty careful discussing politics with friends and acquaintances. Things are so polarized that no matter what side you are on your position will be grossly offensive to someone.

I have also found that I have a large number of friends who are very conservative and who are very liberal who have good reasons for viewing politics and the path toward a better life for all Americans the way they do.

I have also found that mostly they/we agree with what a good life should and does look like. The difference is primarily related to the best way to get there.

Mostly it comes down to how much government intervention there should be and what type of government intervention there should be.

Elon Musk and Foresight

The Friday before Thanksgiving, we published an article written by Jack Cumming titled “The Master of Tough Love,” where Jack talks about how perhaps senior living needs some “tough love” similar to what Musk did when he took over Twitter (now X). It was an unfortunate coincidence that at the same time, the internet news feeds were chockablock full of stories about how Musk endorsed a tweet by a horrific antisemite.

The timing could not have been worse.

I received an email from a reader, someone I know who is Jewish and who was really concerned that we were somehow endorsing Musk. We were not. I took the concern very seriously.

I wondered if we should take the article down or put a disclaimer in the article itself. I talked it over with Jack and the rest of the team and made the decision to let it stand. Ultimately it was an article about leadership, and there are important lessons for leaders in the article. It was not an endorsement of Elon Musk as a leader.

In fact I honestly believe he would be a horrible person to work for and that as wildly successful as he is, that success would be multiplied if he treated his people well.

Was It the Right Decision?

I obviously think it was, but I could be wrong. In truth, as we talk about leadership, we frequently use as examples leaders who are not great people. Steve Jobs was brilliant, but he mostly treated people terribly, and yet he continues to be one of the most memed, quoted leaders.

The question I was left with is this: What would serve the senior living leadership community better: leaving it up or taking it down?

I would love to hear your thoughts. Publicly or privately.