Word for today: Affirmation I had an industry wide meeting yesterday that I never look forward to when it pops up on the calendar. Each year we have to drive some ungodly distance to receive a lecture on how to behave in the industry. It angers me that other people’s bad behavior in the job requires me to take a whole day away from my office to sit through a finger wagging tongue lashing over ethical ways to treat people in business. It is however a requirement, so I grumble and gripe my way through the entire day. Thank goodness it’s only once per year, unfortunate however that we have to do it at all. There’s a life lesson in every single day, sometimes several. Yesterday my teachable moment came in the form of people I once worked with when I was a district manger about 18-20 years ago. This particular group of sales people were awesome. They worked hard, they allowed me to be a part of their daily lives. Many of them I brought into the business over several years. They worked so well together in an effort to be the best representatives of our company that they made my job exceedingly easy. Were it not for a company wide restructuring of the way the hierarchy worked, I’d still be in that job today. My aspirations were never to climb the corporate ladder. They were to help people find their own niche in the organization, to inspire them to be the best they could be, to challenge them in places I felt they would be able to succeed beyond their expectations. Training them to do and be people that not only saw value in sales, but in a more holistic approach to customer service was my objective. That all of them are still here in the company 20 years later makes me feel as if I did a few things right. Had we not been in a business meeting I may have perhaps cried thankful tears for these people yesterday. In life there are times when everything comes together to show you how happy life can be both personally and professionally. For me, these were those people and that was my best self. In the middle of the meeting one of them leaned over to me and in a low voice said “ I meant to tell you 19 years ago, but never got around to it- you were the best manager I ever had. You encouraged me, you taught me so much. I just want to thank you, I should have thanked you sooner.” It was such an affirmation of my years spent in their presence. It reminded me of all of the reasons I sit through these horrible meetings. It’s not because it’s mandatory. It’s because I get to work with great people and those meetings remind me that I taught a few of them how to be as fair and forgiving toward people as I knew how. Perhaps I gave them more than any mandatory compliance meeting ever could- I gave them the right to claim dignity every day for doing things the right and honest way. Teachers probably have this happen to them more than anyone. Those who learned profound life lessons because someone took the time to lead them through difficult transitions come back to find the teacher. I’ve been so fortunate to have been in their presence, learning something new every single day, having great insights brought to my table so that I could realize all that the world has to offer and all that I have a responsibility to give it back. I do not know if I ever adequately thanked them for the patience and positive nature they showed me, but if they can see me from the other side of the veil, I want them to know I have not forgotten to be grateful for everything they did on my behalf. I try to stay in the affirmative every day. No one is self sufficient. We all have teachers, we all are teachers. How we affirm or deny who people are in the world matters. I can’t say every effort I’ve been involved in during the course of my life ended up with me representing a positive force in the mix. I’ve had my share of contributing to the negative. I just don’t want to do that anymore. As much as I’m able, what I’d much rather do is follow the Rabbi, the greatest teacher. Jesus is not seen in every faith as the Messiah. But I think all of them would agree he was an amazing teacher. To his followers an endlessly patient force for good in the world. For the Roman government, a threat to the status quo because he taught against oppression and for all human dignity. I could spend the rest of my life kneeling at the knee of Jesus and still have things to learn. But the lesson is always about affirming the grace of every human being, no matter how poor, how despised, how socially unacceptable. Affirmations are not for the strong. They are for those who struggle to find a foothold. Our responsibility is to teach them how to love, then how to teach others the same. Several other people yesterday came up to me from my old district and said similar kind words. I may never have a retirement party, but I don’t need one to know my career was and continues to be a full one. I just need to go to the meetings where I am likely to see them once a year and that would be enough affirmation to last a lifetime.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 14:15:44 +0000
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