Winner takes it all (or does the Boss?)
What a terrible time.
What a terrible day.
Imagine this scenario: You have been working on a project for some time. No, how about a LONG time. Something like at least 6 months. It’s been so long you can’t even remember when you started it.
A project that you know will bring some serious revenue to your company. You have just completed it, presented it, and, after some serious back and forth dialog and negotiations, got a CONFIRMED YES from them the customer that your idea has been accepted and will be implemented.
YAHOO! Time for celebration, right? You just became the resident “rock star” for the organization, didn’t you?
… Not so fast.
Boss-man calls you into his office when you get back to the building. Starts saying something about how he thought your presentation was “ok” but that it needed to be tweaked some, parts needed to be re-done, blah blah blah. You sit there thinking “but they just accepted the proposal” while he tells you where you went wrong.
You listen to the criticism, hang your head low and walk back to your desk, trying to figure out why he can’t just be happy we got the deal.
As you start to work on modifying your presentation that you just did, 30 minutes in you check your email and see that boss man just sent a message up line talking about the great sale that HE just secured and how HE just made the company some serious money without a mention of you.
A kick right in the stomach.
You start typing a “reply all” email to everyone on copy so you can let them know who REALLY did all the work. Who REALLY pitched this proposal and got buy in from everyone, who REALLY is doing the work around there, not just some boss man who sits in an office and tells people what to do.
…Not so fast again.
Christ teaches us to be humble in all we do. To give God the glory for all of our work, to praise him through whom all blessings flow. But what about this? What about someone else taking credit when we clearly did the work you ask?
Sure, this one hurts. Our tendency is to fire off an email like this to let everyone know who does the work around here. But in the end, what does this accomplish? Do you get more praise (or does God even get glorified more) or do you end up getting knocked down?
“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” (Prov 11:2)
My encouragement to you today is to remain “Christ-like in your business”. Keep your head up! Be a Real Christian BusinessMan in the workplace. Remain humble yet confident in what you do. God knows what you did, and you will be glorified in HIS time. Learn from this experience, and use your wisdom so that next time you can let some people know what you are doing while you are preparing your presentation. Change your approach at work so that up line they are aware but do it in a way that causes no one to be lowered, but everyone to be raised.
Eventually it will be revealed who truly did the work and you will be honored. Oh sure, it may not be in a way that you think. It may not even be at this job. But God will honor your humbleness for not stretching your head out like an ostrich to get it knocked down by sending an email like the one you wrote.
What is one thing that you could change at work today to reflect humility instead of pride?