Spiritual Breakthroughs in Difficult Work Situations – Part 4

Continued from the previous post.

The next morning I woke up early to spend an extra bit of time in prayer and meditation.

I figured it was a good way to reinforce my conscious decision to surrender the situation to God, and to trust Him completely for the outcome. I had done my best, after all. God knew it, I was sure, and I rested in that.

Maybe I had wrapped too much ego into pushing my brilliant solution onto the organization. The other execs didn’t go for my idea – so what? Maybe there’s another pathway that I can help us all discover. Things will work out, one way or the other. I decided to be open, like a spiritual-leadership-vessel, for whatever God had in mind for this particular project. Yes, a vessel. I like that watercraft image. I’m picturing a nice little 20-foot cabin cruiser?

A follow-up meeting had already been scheduled first thing that morning with the same group of executives, to continue the discussion and determine the direction we would take for the subject at hand. 

As I drove in to work, an unlikely calm and confidence lingered in my spirit. My thoughts began to drift thinking about that upcoming meeting. Now that my idea had been tossed, what should I say? How should I behave towards the team? Humbled, but over it? A little ticked off, to keep them on watch? Should I break into a series of nervous facial ticks, indicating the seriousness of their decision to reject my plan? Then it hit me. What to say, that is.

“Here’s what you do,” God said to me from the passenger seat with a glint in His eye.  “Listen carefully, Bradley: I want you to go in there, and…”  He leaned over and laid out to me his brilliant scheme.

I entered the conference room, calm and unfettered. My fellow executives had a sheepish and hung-over look about them as they were taking their seats. “We didn’t get much accomplished yesterday, did we?” I overheard one saying. “No,” said the other. “We were a disaster.”  They knew they had behaved very badly in yesterday’s meeting.

I stood up and called the meeting to order.

“Gentlemen.” I began, with an earnest tone. “As you know, over the past several weeks, my team has put in a significant number of hours on developing this important project.”

No one could possibly argue with that.

I continued.

“Because of the time that we have invested, I am going to ask that you reciprocate with the respect and dignity to allow me to present the full scope of our plan, without interruption.”

The room was silent. One executive cracked an enormous smile that said, “You go, Mister!”

I kept the momentum going. “Now, I understand that there may be differing opinions, which I welcome. But for the next twenty minutes, I am going to ask you to suspend voicing your thoughts until I have had the opportunity to present the full extent of our proposed plan.”

In other words, keep your mouths shut until I’m done speaking.

No one breathed or moved an inch, so I kept going.

“Once I have completed my presentation, then I am open to discuss any and all ideas you may have. You can even tell me that our plan is terrible and we should start over. I am totally okay with that. But not until you have heard the presentation in its entirety.” 

The group nodded in agreement, relieved to have been called back on track.

The presentation went brilliantly, just as God said it would. It was the very same presentation that was taken hostage the day before, but this time the group listened intently. It was like another spirit entirely had swept through that place before I arrived, preparing the way.

At the end, several people very politely offered some suggestions to adjust the plan slightly. But overall, once they heard the entire presentation, everyone agreed it was good. Not just good, it was great, they said. “Finally. Someone has taken a stand and given us the direction that we somehow could not give to ourselves.”

Well, no one actually said that out loud, but for the next few days, I knew that’s what everyone was thinking.  Because this meeting was a turning point. It was a breakthrough. For me, for my executive team, and for the entire company. We are now moving forward on a transformational plan that will take the organization to an entirely new level of growth and performance. And everyone is excited about it.

In the end it’s all about the choices we make. I had the opportunity to choose – moping, or revenge, or beating myself up, or – hey! How about choosing to surrender the whole thing to God! By letting go and trusting God, I paradoxically gained a better end result. Probably because I was calmer, so I could think more clearly. And I was confident that it would work out, so I wasn’t all stressed and anxious. It gave me the ability to listen to God – and to get the insight for what this group needed.

 Leadership isn’t so much about us taking control. It’s more like losing control, and then getting back something much better, as a surprise.

Photo by nAncY.