The Power is Yours!

It's lonely at the top.

It's a phrase people say all the time. But until you've been at the top, you don't realize just how true it is.
We mostly spend our lives somewhere in the middle looking up and thinking "Those people at the top have it so good" or "I could do so much better if I were in charge." Unfortunately, once you get to the top, you realize how difficult it is to be there. The work is hard, and people are harder.

So I wanted to give a special shout out to those who have recently been at the top. Consider this my e-card to the former PAE bargaining team and president.

Your sacrifice is not for nothing. Your thankless work has meaning whether people realize it or not. When people attack the work you've done, they are not attacking you.  Really. You worked hard. You created a good contract. In the end, members decided it wasn't quite what they wanted.  And that's okay. Every team before you has had similar near misses, and every team after you will too.  You did the job while it was yours, and you can take pride in what you created. Now the job belongs to someone else. Such is the nature of leadership.

It still hurts though.  It really does.

I get it.

People attack me all the time. Fortunately I'm not a real person, so I don't have any real feelings to hurt.

But you are real people, and you do have real feelings. When people voice opinions about the contract, they probably don't realize how personal that feels to you. However, if you are going to survive this storm, you've got to be able to separate yourself from what people say about your work. Don't let your frustration over this event sour all other opportunities in front of you.

Today someone else is at the top, and you have a choice (we all do really). You can either tear them down in an effort to get back at all those you believe have wronged you, or you can build them up and treat them the way you wish you had been treated. You may not be at the top right now (though these things have a way of cycling back), but you still have the power to choose.

Choose well.