Bandwagon Pt 2
My organization went through another painful transition last week. We made the decision to close some of our retail stores, and along with this closure came some loss of jobs for people that I have known a long time and worked with everyday.
I have been through this situation many times before over my career (I have even ended up as one of those that has lost their job). Sometimes you can see the change coming; sometimes it is all of a sudden (my old music industry friends may remember that we used to say that “someone got blown out” when it happened all of a sudden…).
Either way, when changes like this happen, it always puts into question the leaders that made these decisions and whether they were right or wrong.
That’s where our attitude of being a Real Christian Businessman comes in.
You see it is much easier to jump on the bandwagon with everyone else and start complaining about the decisions that were made – that our company should have done things differently or that a particular leader is the one that caused all of this to happen.
We can easily get caught up in a continuous babble of bad mouthing and cynicism.
Now I think that being upset about a situation like this and talking to others about it in a matter of fact, compassionate and sorrowful way is different than what I just described.
But it sure is a lot easier to join in and start tearing everything and everyone apart.
That was the case last week for me. I found myself in situations where the conversations starting going negative and all of a sudden I was talking badly about everything that had just happened along with everyone else.
Use my mistakes this week as a reminder not to jump onto the bandwagon when conversations start to go south.
Walk away.
Nod your head and listen.
Stay silent.
Or better yet, offer compassion.
Your example will ring true of a Real Christian Businessman.
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Eph 4:31 ESV