[January 26, 2018] There is an interesting commercial on television that is my personal favorite regarding office hours. The message it sends is that there are jobs that offer no excuses for not doing your work. A woman knocks on a door, enters, and says she needs to take a sick day. The camera then pans to a small child in her bedroom with a voiceover that says “moms don’t take sick days.”
On YouTube (video 0:15 minutes) you can see the TV commercial spot here. If you haven’t seen it, take a look and you will see why it’s my personal favorite. Congratulations to Vicks’ DayQuil for having a classy spot.
“There are no office hours for leaders.” – Cardinal J. Gibbons, American prelate of the Catholic Church
I took the headline of my blog today from Cardinal James Gibbons (1834-1921) who had a notable career in the Priesthood and wrote a number of popular books on family and faith. Intelligent and forthright, Gibbons was quick to point out that priests should lead their flocks with their entire being. Thus, the basis of his quote.
A young relative (by marriage) told me once that he was looking forward to getting into the workforce after college but that he would only work 8 to 5 and not a minute outside that time. He was planning on starting as an associate manager in a large department store in Manhattan, New York. My advice was that his need to work those hours would not sit well with an employer. He never got the job.
Leadership is not bounded by time or artificial desires. Good leadership means that the leader gives over their life to leader duties and those who do not accept this fact will not succeed as a good leader. No surprise here that there are too many mediocre and deficient leaders that we see every day.
Junior leaders who want a fixed time schedule and are resolved to reject transparency in their work lives, will not succeed in the long term but will be immensely disappointed. That is the lesson of Cardinal Gibbons and of successful leaders worldwide.
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I do love and insightful the above demonstrations.