Cinhange LEANING INTO
2022
WAY BACK WHEN,
before I was the spiked hot chocolate version of me that I am now, I had the opportunity to work as a car salesperson. Now, there are a lot of things I could tell you about the car business, like the old “take their keys and keep them in the office waiting for the managers offer all day” trick. It was really painful but immensely effective.
YV W CO LUMIST
written by KAREN GROSZ
I also learned that if you give a customer a lollipop, they’ll buy the car without too much banter. The lollipop lulls them into sweet gooey kids who always wanted a new car. What I didn’t know, when I signed onto the role, was that I’d not only learn just about everything I needed to know about humans, I’d learn a lot of things about me, as well. Like, I don’t always pay attention to the details. Take for instance the time that I took the would-be customers on a test drive only to discover they were dropping off a bag of drugs and running from the police. Yes, I was still sitting in the backseat talking about the car, when the police lights flashed, and the doors flew open. I also — and this was an insight I didn’t really expect — don’t like change. OK, OK, I really do like change, but only, and this is very important, if I initiate it. If you and I are going to dinner, I may change the location six times even when we are on the way because inspiration, or a commercial, gave me a better idea. If, however, I am on the way with the target loaded into Google Maps, and you change the location, or heavens forbid, the time, well, I turn into madam cranky pants. A lollipop won’t solve it. I discovered this while going through a corporate training. When we came to the question about who on the team was the most vibrant, the entire team pointed to me, and I, as if to prove the point, glowed and took a bow. When the trainer
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asked who was the least likely to accept a policy change everyone again pointed at me. I was flabbergasted. I loved change. I argued just a bit, but they were heartless and unrelenting, accusing me of being scary when it came to telling me about any changes that had been made while I was out of the building. Are you kidding?! Me? The vibrant one? I had a new haircut, we’d recently moved to a house I liked, we ate at the latest and greatest restaurants that I diligently discovered … oh, yeah … I liked change … that I initiated. Ouch. I paid attention to that lesson, and have tried to be more open-minded about changes, but really, if I have decided how things are going to go, where we are going to sit, and whether or not we are staying to the end, isn’t it just easier to go along with my plans? Kidding aside, it is by leaning into change — both those that are my idea and those that aren’t — that has provided me with the most growth, the biggest opportunities, and the chance to live a life of wonder and grace. Adapting to change gives me, and the people I coach, strength. So, here we are, day 9,287 of a pandemic, a pandemic that has rocked my world, and I would assume yours, with changes to just about every facet of our lives. Businesses have closed, events have morphed into new, changed-up versions of what they once were, and casual family dinners often contain the need to change the subject of conversation because no one agrees on what is right and what is wrong in a Covid world. But in this, especially as we tumble and bumble to 2022, is the opportunity to change. We can change where we work, how we work, where we go and don’t go, who we listen to, and who we spend our
