Good morning, Team!  It’s Friday!

I may have posed this open-ended question before but find myself coming back to it regularly.  Here is how I respond to it today.

If we “suddenly” find blessings; love, an abundance of work, a major life milestone comes to a long-awaited close, a tax windfall, extraordinarily beautiful weather or a host of other things, we are quick to claim justification like “I worked hard for it…and therefore deserve it”.

However, if we encounter pain or suffering; anger, conflict, sickness or death, we tend to ask “Why is this happening to me?”

Are we lucky or unlucky?

Is it destiny?

Divine intervention?

I’ve traveled a fair amount during my career and when calling home at night, I heard the famous phrase, “This ALWAYS happens when you’re gone!”  Whether a flat tire, the furnace or A/C quits, a letter from the IRS or some other thing that makes your stomach tighten up and ask yourself … “Why?!”

In the scenario above, from my perspective, stuff IS always happening, not just when I’m gone.  It might be that many things get fixed when I’m at home and no one even knew it was found, fixed and forgotten rather than frantic, fretted over and flailing (like a partially broken toe nail).

Leadership includes how we react to things that come across our desk as well as the things we face proactively.

Why did something bad happen?

•Why did the stock market crash?

•Why did a bunch of employees leave?

•Why did a major client change course?

Sometimes, you don’t and won’t know.  But you might want to strengthen the found it fixed it and forgot it muscle because that’s what leaders do.  Don’t question why.  Be prepared to find solutions when things go wrong.

A final thought…when you look at a peer, someone you admire and are tempted to say, “Joanne has it easy.  Things are always going her way.”  It might be prudent to pause and recognize Joanne is facing the same stuff day in and day out, albeit her own version, but the appearance of everything going her way is likely the way in which she faces and responds to each thing.

Have a blessed weekend!

As my old pastor Jerry Carlson used to say, “As you go out into the world this week, remember, everyone is fighting a battle of some kind, so Be Gentle.”