We never seem to have enough time to do the right thing right, but we always find the time to deal with the problems caused by failing to do so. In this episode of By Your Life, we’ll talk about the benefits of being proactive.
Mass Readings Audio
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/19_01_20.mp3
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time – January 20, 2019
Welcome to the forty-third episode of By Your Life. Thank you for joining me. If you haven’t already, please subscribe via iTunes, Stitcher, or on the right side of this page so I can send you notifications when each new episode is posted. And please forward to a friend you think would benefit from By Your Life.
My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular, business world. It is my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace and to trust that it is good for business. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.
In this edition, we will reflect on the readings for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Gospel tells the story of the Wedding at Cana and Jesus’ first miracle of his public ministry. I’m sure that there have been times in your business life where you wished you could have turned water into wine or straw into gold or your limited resources into the resources you needed to get the job done right. As amazing as this and all of Jesus’ miracles were, that’s not what struck me about this week’s Gospel. Instead, it was Our Blessed Mother’s role that stood out to me.
The Virgin Mary isn’t quoted much in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life. This is one of the most notable. When the wine ran short, she said, “They have no wine.” (Jn 2:3) But then, in what today sounds to us as a dismissive tone, Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” (Jn 2:4)
I’m sure that the Son of God was not being rude to his mother, but it sounds like he had no intention of doing anything to help this couple. He had a plan, and this wasn’t a part of it. But Mary was not dissuaded. She knew her Son and his unlimited compassion and mercy. So, she said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5) with absolute faith that Jesus would take care of it.
How was it that Mary felt so strongly about this problem that she ignored her Son’s response and assumed that he’d do something about it? Mary must have remembered the circumstances of her own wedding. There are no accounts of her wedding to Joseph, but we do hear that he wanted to divorce her quietly. As a pregnant bride, she probably didn’t have the wedding of her dreams, so in her compassion, she wanted to spare this couple from anything that would ruin this very special occasion.
I also noticed that Mary was paying attention and acted before there was a problem. The Scripture says “When the wine ran short,” (Jn 2:3), not “when the wine ran out.” She was proactive and helped the couple avoid the predicament. Imagine how much better our workplaces would be if we were all more like our Blessed Mother!
I was working with the general manager of an organization and he told me a story about one of his managers and an incident that had just happened. This company had recently hired a new employee who didn’t turn out to have the skills or capabilities that he claimed. After several weeks of training, the manager was very frustrated with this individual. In the end, when she realized that he wasn’t a good fit for the position, she let him go, but that wasn’t the problem. It was the way she let him go. She sent him an email and told him to pack up his desk. He did and then went to talk to her, expecting an explanation. She refused to talk to him and told him to leave.
My client, the general manager, didn’t know anything about the incident until HR contacted him because the now ex-employee had called and told them what had happened. The ex-employee explained that he understood that things weren’t working out, but he didn’t understand why he was treated that way.
The question for my client was, “What could he do now and what should he have done earlier?”
The GM acknowledged that he needed to talk with his manager and encourage her to apologize to the former employee for how she handled his dismissal. He also recognized that he needed to understand why his manager behaved the way she did. He needed to get to the root of the problem and not just deal with the symptom.
As we talked further about the situation, my client admitted that he knew his manager had been struggling with this employee’s performance problems for several weeks, but he never talked to her about it nor did he offer her any support. He just figured he’d let her take care of things because it was her responsibility. As a result, in addition to coaching the manager, he now also had to deal with a hit to his organization’s reputation as an employer in the marketplace. Worst case, he had to be concerned about the possibility of a lawsuit.
How often are we too busy to step in and help someone when we know they need our help? We wait for them to come to us with a problem instead of offering help when we know they need it. This was the situation I had with another client.
This manager is exceptionally skilled at project planning and he expects that his team should be as well. However, he’s always frustrated because they wait until the last minute to let him know that they are going to be late or that they are missing some major component or there is some other obstacle to completing the project on time. He always complained that if they had let him know earlier, he could have helped them. But, because they didn’t adequately plan their projects, he didn’t find out about the problems until it was too late.
My client was right to expect that his team should develop good project plans. However, when they repeatedly failed to do so and were constantly late and over-budget on their projects, he was allowing them to fail instead of proactively offering to help. He knew they needed help because they repeatedly demonstrated an inability to plan appropriately. Yet, he wasn’t proactive and didn’t step in to teach them, he expected them to ask for help.
It is fine to have an expectation of competency, but when that competency isn’t there, stop allowing the employee to fail. Either teach them, move them to a different position where they have the necessary skills, or allow them to find a job elsewhere so they can succeed.
I recognize that what I’m talking about takes time and most people don’t feel like they have the time. The problem is that it usually takes more time to reactively fix something than it does to prevent it from happening in the first place. When the projects were late, my client ended up investing time discussing why his employees failed to meet the deadlines, they then had to come up with a plan to deal with the issues, and he also had to reach out to the internal and external customers who were impacted and address the issue with them too. All of this takes much more time than proactively working with his team to develop a plan and manage the project while it is progressing. Will there still be delays? Sure, but you have a better chance of coming up with workable solutions and you have a better chance of managing customer expectations when you are proactive.
It usually takes more time to reactively fix something than it does to proactively prevent it from happening in the first place.This client said that he expected that his team would ask for help if they needed it and he was more than willing to help them, but they never asked, until it was too late. And that brings me to the second takeaway from Sunday’s readings that I’d like to mention. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Mary saw the problem and she knew she couldn’t solve it, but she knew who could. In the second reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes:
We aren’t all good at the same things and we shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help. The manager who was struggling with her new employee should have talked to her boss about it. The employees who were continually running into problems with their projects, should have asked for help. This sounds like a simple solution, but they didn’t do it for some reason. Perhaps it was their pride or ego. Perhaps it was a culture that didn’t reward admitting when you don’t know something. Perhaps it was a little of both.
Admitting that your pride is getting in the way is a huge problem because your pride is getting in the way.These issues are not simple to deal with. Admitting that your pride is getting in the way is a huge problem because, well, your pride is getting in the way. Changing an organization’s culture is a slow process that takes conscious and consistent effort. You cannot begin to make change until you are dissatisfied enough with the current situation and you are willing to look in the mirror and ask, “What part of this do I own and what should I do differently?” Only then will you begin to make the necessary changes in yourself, and perhaps influence those around you to do the same.
Let us ask our Blessed Mother to intercede on our behalf so we can be aware of others who need our help, proactively step up to compassionately help them, and honestly take ownership of our own opportunities to grow by asking for help.
O most gracious Virgin Mary never was it known, that anyone who fled to your protection, sought your intercession, or implored your help, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, we fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, our Mother. To you we come, before you we stand, sinful and sorrowful, (hopeful and blessed). O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not our petitions but in your mercy, hear and answer us.
May the God “who produces all of (the different gifts) in everyone,” (1 Cor 12:6) abundantly bless you and may you glorify Him by your life. Amen
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