Gaining Legitimacy

If you've been paying attention to the news recently, you'll no doubt have heard about Clinton's trip to N. Korea to free two American reporters and Webb's trip to Myanmar to free the loon who swam to Aung San Suu Kyi's mansion.  The government invariably screws up anytime it interferes where it shouldn't be. Those idiots got themselves into international hot water, and a lot of time and resources were unnecessarily wasted getting them out of their self-created mess.

On the flip side, the governments of N. Korea and Myanmar made huge gains from the events. By getting the U.S. to come out and deal with them diplomatically, they've established their legitimacy as regimes. So, what is the pointy haired boss lesson illustrated in these current events? Solidifying your legitimacy is a matter of controlling what others want and not giving into demands that weaken your position. When dealing with your workers, you control the purse strings which. Your underlings want to get paid from monetary resources you control; you act like a responsible PHB and make sure they're working for their paychecks. When you can force negotiations from other parties instead of letting them dictate the action, that instantly raises your relative position of power.