Whatever You Need
I was working as a consultant
in a beer company, helping the president and senior vice-presidents
formulate and implement their new strategic vision. It was
an enormous challenge.
At the same time, my mother was
in the final stages of cancer.
I worked during the day and drove
40 miles home to be with her every night. It was tiring and stressful,
but it was what I wanted to do. My commitment was to continue to do excellent
consulting during the day, even though my evenings were very hard. I didn't
want to bother the president with my situation, yet I felt someone at the
company needed to know what was going on. So I told the vice-president
of Human Resources, asking him
not to share the information with anyone.
A few days later, the president
called me into his office. I figured he wanted to talk to me about one
of the many issues we were working on. When I entered, he asked me to sit
down. He faced me from across his large desk, looked me in the eye and
said, "I hear your mother is very ill."
I was totally caught by surprise
and burst into tears. He just looked at me, let my crying subside, and
then gently said a sentence I will never forget: "Whatever you need."
That was it. His understanding
and his willingness to both let me be in my pain and to offer me everything
were qualities of compassion that I carry with me to this day.
By Martin Rutte
from Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work
Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Maida
Rogerson, Martin Rutte & Tim Clauss