As I was preparing for my talk, I was thinking that my talk today seems to be centered around the word 'maybe' – maybe this or maybe that, etc. It brought a smile to my face as I thought that maybe this talk would be relevant or maybe it would not. But I'm going to talk about it anyway.
I don't know if you've heard of the term "glass ceiling'. It came to the fore some years back. The dictionary defines it as 'an intangible barrier within a hierarchy that prevents women of minorities from attaining upper level positions.' Women found that they could never get to higher-level positions – VPs and above – in companies that were maie-dominated; even for minorities to get into positions that were not open to them.
Maybe today, that's what you feel, that there is a glass ceiling above you that seems to hold you down and you can't go up. For some reason, you find that the progress beyond where you are is difficult. Whatever you try doesn't seem to work. Maybe you don't have the job that you had, or a project proposal got knocked down and another one got taken up and you're wondering what's going on. Things are not going the way you planned or expected it to. Maybe you're just feeling down and sorry for yourself. You look around and wonder if it is time to make a move.
The danger with glass ceilings is that sometimes we turn them into steel ceilings. Glass ceilings can be broken but steel cannot. Sometimes we look at the things above us that are preventing us from moving on in our jobs and say, "They're completely insurmountable. There's no way out of this. I'm going to resign myself to the fact that this is who I am, this is where I'm at and this is what I'm doing. I guess I'll just carry on through the rest of my career in this position.
Jim Collins, in one chapter of his book 'Great By Choice', talks about the wilderness experience of Steve Jobs. He says, "From 1985, when he got sacked by his own board, to 1997, 12 years when he was out of Apple, it must have been a terrible time for him." Imagine losing a boardroom showdown with John Scully who was the CEO that Jobs had brought in to help him run the company in the early 1980s itself. His own person, John Scully, had been responsible for getting him out of the board. Then to watch the company fail, stocks plummeting 60% behind the general market. Nobody thought that Apple would ever come back to be a great company. In fact, Michael Dell, the founder of Dell computers, told an audience at the Gartner symposium, the IT Expo in '97, when asked "What would you do with Apple?" he said, "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." Yet, 12 years later, when Jobs came back, he took it through the roof. The general stock market went up by 127%, eventually becoming the most valuable technology company in the world in 2010.
What Jim Collins is really stressing here is that he didn't go and just lick his wounds. He didn't go and feel sorry for himself. He went and took a hard look at himself, what he was doing and all the other things that had prompted this 12-year exile. But he also got off the mat. He began to work hard at some of the things that he thought were important for him. What did he work on? He worked on discipline. He felt that that's what he needed. Jim Collins says, "Twelve years away from Apple, Jobs had turned himself from a creative entrepreneur into a disciplined creative company builder. Jobs always knew how to build insanely great products, but he had to learn how to build an insanely great company. He didn't allow the setback to deter him. Instead he went on to start another company called Next, then got involved with Pixar and all kinds of things. But he didn't stay on the mat. He didn't feel sorry for himself and allow it to erode into the kind of person that he knew he could be. He didn't take a hit and let it stay there. He didn't make the glass ceiling a steel ceiling. He took his creativity and he put in the discipline that he felt he needed to make his life a better place."
Maybe that's where you are today. Maybe you're looking around, wondering whether it is worth it, do you need to move, are there things that you need to do? I want you to take a moment. Look at yourself. If you're in your office, look at your office. Look at the people around you, look at your name and ask yourself, "Five years back, would I have been here? I've come a long way. I'm doing something that I thought was important to me. Maybe this is not the end of the road. Maybe it is a minor setback, a correction really." Maybe this morning you need to make just a little course alteration and think, "What is it that I need to add?"
When Steve Jobs came back, one of the first things that he did was to bring in Tim Cook, a world-class supply chain expert. And together Jobs and Cook formed a perfect team of creativity and discipline.
Again, maybe that's not where you are this morning. Maybe things are going well for you. Maybe you have a great job. Maybe you've landed yourself a new job. Maybe you've got a good profile, or you've just got a promotion. Maybe your project has been accepted and you're doing well. But this morning, I want you to look around, if not in your office space, in your mind's eye, and look for people who may be on the mat today.
One of the first articles I read today was an article by Douglas Conant, entitled "Leaders Choose Your Words Wisely." He talks about simple 3 or 4-word phrases that made a huge difference in his life. When he was at Kellogg's School of Management at Northwestern University, Ram Charan noticed that he was not doing as well. He came and put his arm on his shoulder and said, "You can do better." Those four words inspired him. When he got his first hob at General Mills, he was lost in the building and a man came up and asked him, "Looks like you're lost. Where do you need to go?" The man pointed him in the right direction and then told him, "Give it all you've got." It turned out that the person who directed him was Jim McFarland, CEO and Chairman of General Mills. Words like this are so important. "I'm so proud of you." "How can I help?"
Then he talks about when he was in a serious automobile accident. He woke up in the Intensive Care Unit and his wife Leigh was next to him, and she just looked at him and said, "I'm right here."
Conant calls these touchpoints – powerful touchpoints, an interaction with another person, people or group, that's just a minute or second, but can do immense good for people around.
And for all of us, I think God has those touchpoints for us, because He said out of His Holy Book, Isaiah 43:1-2, 16-17, 18-19 "Don't be fearful. I am with you. You don't need to anxiously look around you. I am your God. I will strengthen You. I will help you. I will uphold you with My hand. I will not ever leave you. I am The One who will make a roadway through the wilderness, a way through the sea. When you pass through waters I will be with you. The rivers will not overflow you. Don't call to mind former things or ponder things of the past. I will do something new for you."
Encouraging touchpoints for us this morning. Maybe you're here, maybe you're not. Maybe you need to do something about it. I hope that you will take that maybe and make it a powerful step forward in the direction that you need to go this morning.
Let me pray with you. Almighty God. Help us this morning to see ourselves and where we are, whether we are on the mat, if we've taken a beating, if we need to think differently and see through different lenses, help us to do that. If we are not there and things are going well, help us to look around us and see people who need a word of encouragement. Above all, let your words be upon each one on this call, encouraging us through the day and through this week. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
• "Glass ceiling," definition: www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glass%20ceiling
• Collins, Jim, and Morten T Hansen. Great By Choice. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011. Print.
• Douglas Conant, "Leaders, Choose Your Words Wisely," http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/07/leaders_choose_your_words_wise.html
• Bible quotations: Isa 43:1-2, 16-17, 18-19
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