Four of Work's Lessons
Everything about Braves relief pitcher Peter Moylan inclines me to listen to his observations on the team's atmosphere. At 39 in a young man's game, we are kindred spirits. The flecks of gray in his beard mirror my own. His Australian birth and accent not only lure my pre-existing Anglophile inclinations, they grant him a certain objectivity. He has been somewhere else so is a little less tied to the assumptions of one location. In fact, as a former Brave back again, his candor is particularly valuable.
Midweek, announcer Joe Simpson related Moylan's thoughts on the team chemistry. Moylan recalled that he had been unsuccessful teams before but that even those teams tended to huddle in clusters according to age and experience. Moylan's appraisal of the 2018 Braves was different. The young and talented players, and there are many of them, tend to actively seek out the advice of the veterans. They also tend to listen to that advice once sought.
With time in the bullpen in the middle innings waiting for a prospective employer's call, I've got time to reflect on what the veterans in my various employment settings have taught me, and how well I have implemented the wisdom they have offered. Here are a few of the moment of clubhouse wisdom I will carry with me when I reenter the game.
(1) Plan for time off stage. As a neophyte teacher, I looked for validation in every encounter. My job, I thought, was to dispense information to people who lacked it as they waited for my every word. Where that attention was lacking, I needed to enforce it. Carolyn, a Moylan sort of veteran teacher knew better and said so. She told me bluntly that the kids in my charge, and hers, were not equipped to listen to one voice all the time. Echoing another veteran teacher's thoughts that if at the end of the day the teacher was tired and the students were not, the wrong person was doing the work, Carolyn was also honest about the wearing effect of such a teacher-centric approach. For major portions of the day, the students need to be the ones doing the work, and the teacher needs time to think and be available for specialized intervention. This lesson is important and counterintuitive enough that Richard Nixon shared something similar with new President Bill Clinton, according to The President's Club. So ingrained is our need to be indispensable, and our fatigue and resentment at being thought indispensable, that we need to be confronted to unlearn it.
(2) Touch your gold. Sondra was introducing me to the list of computer-generated names which represented my new caseload as a rehabilitation counselor. A handwritten few on a lined sheet stood out. These, she said with a flourish, are your gold. They were the clients who were already working, the end goal of the rehabilitation process for the other clients somewhere in the stages of formulating a plan, getting medical treatment, or receiving an education. This too was somewhat counterintuitive. It was easy to assume that people so close to the end stages of our work together were self-sufficient by that point, or that they would be wise enough to call if they need assistance. But Sondra insisted on the value of proactive intervention, just in case. She instilled in me the discipline to focus on the end result by which one's work is being measured, and to work backward. Begin, as one of Stephen Covey's Seven Habits for Highly Effective People insists, with the end in mind. Executive mentors translate this into the corporate world with the dictum that the wise CEO will protect a third of his or her time so easily consumed by reacting to crises solely for the purpose of mentoring leaders in the making for their next opportunities.
(3) Respond. Don't react. Jane was the unlikely mentor who offered this nugget. She wasn't particularly happy. She exuded dissatisfaction with her position and the choices which had led her to it. Nevertheless, these two sentences in three words were above reproach. Perhaps they represented advice she wished she had taken, and I can relate to that. Jane, the casework technician who worked under my direction, saw my tendency to assume the pressure of other people's anxiety and expectations as a sort of contagion. In a quiet moment, she bequeathed to be ordered another mentor called God's greatest gift to humanity, the power… to choose. Reaction overflows. In the parlance of the Bible, out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. A response is selected rather than triggered. Response seeks less immediate relief from internal pressures than words or actions which will constructively solve a mutual problem. The response involves the weighing of several options and the cool reflection on past experience to consider which is likely to de-escalate the situation.
(4) Don't dismiss complements. Joel was sure of himself. He knew what his objective was and how to reach it. He showed this in how he confronted my mistakes. "I don't like doing this. This is your job." "I don't care what might be affecting your focus. You need to do it." When a person given to such straightforward appraisals read my report on client progress and said that I was a gifted writer, I tried not to internalize this particular measurement. He wouldn't let me get away with it. He paused the work in progress to remind me he meant it and that I was responsible for a gift.
I've had more time than I want off life's main stage in eight months of unemployment. Still, while I wouldn't have chosen it, such a pause in the flow of habits and assumptions has allowed me to touch my gold, to reflect on those I have been able to impact and weigh out my functional priorities as compared to the Bible's. As I have, I hope I have been able to store up considered responses, timely words and actions which will bless those I will be able to impact in future. As I have been able to write more and have been gratified by responses which would second Joel's, I hope to be able to dig deeper for the best words, even in the moment, with more confidence the Holy Spirit makes them available.
Midweek, announcer Joe Simpson related Moylan's thoughts on the team chemistry. Moylan recalled that he had been unsuccessful teams before but that even those teams tended to huddle in clusters according to age and experience. Moylan's appraisal of the 2018 Braves was different. The young and talented players, and there are many of them, tend to actively seek out the advice of the veterans. They also tend to listen to that advice once sought.
With time in the bullpen in the middle innings waiting for a prospective employer's call, I've got time to reflect on what the veterans in my various employment settings have taught me, and how well I have implemented the wisdom they have offered. Here are a few of the moment of clubhouse wisdom I will carry with me when I reenter the game.
(1) Plan for time off stage. As a neophyte teacher, I looked for validation in every encounter. My job, I thought, was to dispense information to people who lacked it as they waited for my every word. Where that attention was lacking, I needed to enforce it. Carolyn, a Moylan sort of veteran teacher knew better and said so. She told me bluntly that the kids in my charge, and hers, were not equipped to listen to one voice all the time. Echoing another veteran teacher's thoughts that if at the end of the day the teacher was tired and the students were not, the wrong person was doing the work, Carolyn was also honest about the wearing effect of such a teacher-centric approach. For major portions of the day, the students need to be the ones doing the work, and the teacher needs time to think and be available for specialized intervention. This lesson is important and counterintuitive enough that Richard Nixon shared something similar with new President Bill Clinton, according to The President's Club. So ingrained is our need to be indispensable, and our fatigue and resentment at being thought indispensable, that we need to be confronted to unlearn it.
(2) Touch your gold. Sondra was introducing me to the list of computer-generated names which represented my new caseload as a rehabilitation counselor. A handwritten few on a lined sheet stood out. These, she said with a flourish, are your gold. They were the clients who were already working, the end goal of the rehabilitation process for the other clients somewhere in the stages of formulating a plan, getting medical treatment, or receiving an education. This too was somewhat counterintuitive. It was easy to assume that people so close to the end stages of our work together were self-sufficient by that point, or that they would be wise enough to call if they need assistance. But Sondra insisted on the value of proactive intervention, just in case. She instilled in me the discipline to focus on the end result by which one's work is being measured, and to work backward. Begin, as one of Stephen Covey's Seven Habits for Highly Effective People insists, with the end in mind. Executive mentors translate this into the corporate world with the dictum that the wise CEO will protect a third of his or her time so easily consumed by reacting to crises solely for the purpose of mentoring leaders in the making for their next opportunities.
(3) Respond. Don't react. Jane was the unlikely mentor who offered this nugget. She wasn't particularly happy. She exuded dissatisfaction with her position and the choices which had led her to it. Nevertheless, these two sentences in three words were above reproach. Perhaps they represented advice she wished she had taken, and I can relate to that. Jane, the casework technician who worked under my direction, saw my tendency to assume the pressure of other people's anxiety and expectations as a sort of contagion. In a quiet moment, she bequeathed to be ordered another mentor called God's greatest gift to humanity, the power… to choose. Reaction overflows. In the parlance of the Bible, out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. A response is selected rather than triggered. Response seeks less immediate relief from internal pressures than words or actions which will constructively solve a mutual problem. The response involves the weighing of several options and the cool reflection on past experience to consider which is likely to de-escalate the situation.
(4) Don't dismiss complements. Joel was sure of himself. He knew what his objective was and how to reach it. He showed this in how he confronted my mistakes. "I don't like doing this. This is your job." "I don't care what might be affecting your focus. You need to do it." When a person given to such straightforward appraisals read my report on client progress and said that I was a gifted writer, I tried not to internalize this particular measurement. He wouldn't let me get away with it. He paused the work in progress to remind me he meant it and that I was responsible for a gift.
I've had more time than I want off life's main stage in eight months of unemployment. Still, while I wouldn't have chosen it, such a pause in the flow of habits and assumptions has allowed me to touch my gold, to reflect on those I have been able to impact and weigh out my functional priorities as compared to the Bible's. As I have, I hope I have been able to store up considered responses, timely words and actions which will bless those I will be able to impact in future. As I have been able to write more and have been gratified by responses which would second Joel's, I hope to be able to dig deeper for the best words, even in the moment, with more confidence the Holy Spirit makes them available.
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