I Changed the Rules
This Week's Theme: Becoming a Coach
Tuesday, February 27
Key Bible Verse: Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity (1 Timothy 4:12).
Bonus Reading: Romans 14:4
Newly promoted, I prepared with dread for my first meeting with a sales staff that now reported to me. I'd be the youngest one there. I recalled discussions by company managers over the last few months about this sales force. The performance of individual salesmen had been discussed as openly as yesterday's baseball scores. It dawned on me how unfair this had been.
The skeptical salesmen gathered, and I welcomed them with pounding heart. "Since joining this company one year ago," I dove in, "I've been in meetings where each of your performances has been analyzed." They looked puzzled, wondering where I was headed. "Most people in these meetings had no right to know your personal information.
"From now on," I continued, seeing a change on their faces, "this data will be kept confidential. When things need to be discussed or dealt with, you and I'll do this one on one."
Twenty years after that meeting, one of the men who'd been sitting at the table, wondering about my youth, my inexperience and my ability to lead effectively, told me that at that moment he relaxed, believing he was in good hands.
—Robert Wolgemuth in Daddy@Work
Respond:
Can you be relied on to keep confidences of your team, your family?
Thought to Apply:
Often loyalty consists of keeping your mouth shut.
Anonymous
Adapted from Daddy@Work (Zondervan, 1999).
Inspiration from www.christianitytoday.com
