“Everyone has been the master of their particular space, their industry and they're very protective...

The following is transcribed from the Making It Work podcast, Episode 1: Perfectionism and Imposter Syndrome, brought to us by our friends at the Theology of Work Project and Fuller’s De Pree Center (This segment begins at 23m:18s, though the whole thing is worth listening to! Check out other episodes here).

“When I first came on as a consultant to this company, everyone has been the master of their particular space, their industry and they're very protective..."Who's this woman coming in, asking me for stuff and doing this stuff?"...

...I had written a simple email requesting something for a meeting and instead of just giving me a deck that had already been prepared, this guy wanted to lecture me on how I was going to deliver stuff. And I got like a cat, the hairs were jumping up on my head. And I'm like, "I wanna get this guy. No, he didn't, how dare he question me?" And I was in the midst of Attune and I was sitting at dinner with my boyfriend. I slammed down my phone and he's like, "What's going on with you?" And I'm like, "Aah, nothing." And in my head, I went through that checklist of, "What is healed and what is broken and what is good."

And I said, "What's good is this guy knows his stuff. And he knows I know my stuff, because I wouldn't have been hired." What's broken is, "You know what, we don't know one another well enough”… I've been consulting for about a month, and we haven't really struck up any kind of bond outside of that.

So I tailored my response, was a little less curt than what I initially wanted to do. And then I asked him, "So how are you doing?" I later found out that his grandfather, who practically raised him, was in hospice care and was expected to pass any day. I learned that he had some other things going on…So ever since then, we were able to have an interaction that isn't just work. It's not like we're best of friends but we have respect for one another.

Had I responded in my old way- my form of "I'm gonna check this guy and put him in his place," I would have missed out on a deeper relationship of knowing more about him, of being able to show him that love and grace that he needed at that very moment when his world was turning upside down. I would have missed my calling…had I responded in…the way Erin would want to and not the way Christ would want me to."