As a company executive, what is an appropriate way for me to discipline my workforce? Q # 979: I am the managing director of a company with 290 sales consultants. While many of them do their jobs well, others produce unsatisfactory results. Some of the less successful consultants do things such as work only a few hours per day, fail to visit all their customers, fail to follow company rules, take many sick days, and even embezzle money or goods. These cases are often reported to me and I am expected to do something about them. Being a student of A Course in Miracles , in every case I ask myself what the appropriate action or non-action would be. Can you help me? A: The Course does not give us any specific guidance about what we should do on a behavioral level. It does, however, tell us the one thing we need to do in our mind to resolve every problem: remove the blocks to loves presence (T.in.1:7) . Again, it is important to remember that Jesus is not telling us what to do behaviorally. Rather, he is teaching us how to change our thinking. Once we have done this, our actions will automatically reflect the loving kindness of our thoughts. Jesus speaks to us from the perspective of a healed mind, which knows that despite the apparent complexity of this world and of our lives, there is really only one problem and one solution. The problem is our choosing the egos thought system of sin, guilt, and fear. The solution, therefore, is to turn away from the ego and choose instead the Holy Spirits thought system of love and forgiveness. With this in mind, Jesus first has to make us aware that most of the time we listen to the ego, and that as long as we do so we will be unable to solve our perceived problems. He tells us … in your state of mind, solution is impossible… You are in conflict. Thus it must be clear you cannot answer anything at all… (T.27.IV.2:2; T.27.IV.1:5,6). Then he lets us know where the true hope for solution lies: Therefore, God must have given you a way of reaching to another state of mind in which the answer is already there. Such is the holy instant. It is here that all your problems should be brought and left. Here they belong, for here their answer is. And where its answer is, a problem must be simple and be easily resolved (T.27.IV.2:3,4,5,6,7) . The holy instant, of course, is the moment we choose the Holy Spirit as our internal Teacher -- something we want to do because Only the Holy Spirit can resolve conflict, because only the Holy Spirit is conflict-free. He perceives only what is true in your mind, and extends outward only to what is true in other minds (T.6.II.11: 8,9) . What is true in our mind and in the minds of others is that the memory of Gods Love remains there, and we are simultaneously terrified of it and desperate to remember it and awaken from this guilt-induced dream. Because of this conflicted state, we live our lives unconsciously at war with God. And since it is unconscious, the dynamics of this internal battle with God get projected outward onto other people and objects, which serve as substitutes for the egos real enemy. This then explains what drives people to do the many unconscionable things they do in this world, such as lying to, and embezzling from their place of employment -- a potent symbol of authority and therefore a worthy opponent to the ego. So, to answer your question, the first thing you would want to do when confronted with unethical behavior by your consultants is to recognize that their actions reflect the delusional [thought] system of those made mad by guilt (T.13.in.2:2). And since guilt caused their behavior in the first place, the answer lies in recognizing that they are not guilty. Of course, on the level of behavior, they are guilty -- as are we all. But on the mind level, they have simply made the mistake of first misperceiving themselves as guilty and then acting in accordance with that misperception. So your job becomes to ask the Holy Spirit to help you see past the guilt in your own mind, so you can look at them without judgment and know the most helpful action to take. The tricky part is to be sure to genuinely ask the Holy Spirit for this help and not to prejudge on your own what a loving or spiritual person should do. As a director, paid to ensure the quality and integrity of your company, it is likely that the appropriate actions for you to take would be exactly the ones expected of anyone in your position. The difference would be the attitude with which you do them. Rather than doing them with anger or a desire to punish, you would do them in order to help your consultants stop hurting others and themselves. facimoutreach.org/qa/questions/questions198.htm#Q979
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 12:07:36 +0000
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