I was sitting around the breakfast table with a bunch of guys this morning and was reminded of an incident that took place at a former job. This was before ministry. I was a city manager–kind of like the CEO of a business. I was responsible for leading an organization with a $20 million budget and 150 employees. I was the man. I wore a suit. Everyday.
One day I was working at my desk, and I heard a woman scream from the other side of the office building. Just a few seconds later, the screaming woman ran into my office. She explained that she needed help. She had found a cockroach in her office. And, for whatever reason, she thought this was a problem for the “CEO.” Remember, I was the guy who wore a suit. Everyday.
I’m not sure why I did it, but I slowly pushed my chair away from the desk. Stood up. Walked down the hall. Entered the screaming woman’s office, and proceeded to kill the cockroach. I was wearing my suit, which, of course, I wore…everyday.
It’s been about eight years since that incident. I don’t wear suits anymore, but there are still days when I come home a little mopey. I guess the frustration is all over my face. Emily will take one look at me and ask, “Did you have to kill cockroaches today?”
I’ve grown wiser though. I’ve learned there are things I can do to avoid getting stuck killing cockroaches. It’s my responsibility to move beyond just reacting to what’s urgent. It includes things like:
- Blocking time out in my schedule–actually setting appointments with myself–to dream and plan and work on the big-picture projects.
- Empowering other competent leaders. Giving them significant ministry responsibilities and authority rather than just delegating tasks.
- Identifying my strengths. Positioning myself so I’m operating out of my strengths. And, finding others who are different than me to manage around my weaknesses.
- Hiring an assistant who’s not a secretary but a leader and a project manager.
- Surrounding myself with problem-solvers rather than problem-messengers.
I could go on and on, but the point here is I’m typically the problem when my day is filled with killing cockroaches. It’s easy to blame the screaming person who runs into my office, but often times I’m the one that has allowed and sometimes created those urgent demands.
So, the moral of the story is this: you get to decide where your time goes. You can spend it moving forward. Or, you can spend it putting out fires. You get to decide. If you don’t decide, others will decide for you. Then you, too, will be stuck reacting to the urgent. You may not be wearing a suit, but you’ll be killing cockroaches. Everyday.
In my opinion…THIS is your best post EVER dude! I needed it–thanks!
Killing Cockroaches is killer. Great insight and application. Keep up the good stuff!
Great timing…I just finished a week of killing cockroaches leading up to Easter weekend. And I even wore a suit, but only once. Gotta go….I think I’m going to make an appointment with myself now.
Great post! In fact, it helped me on both sides of the fence. It tuaght me about developing my leadership skills. As well, it made me look at myself to see how I’m apporaching the leaders I report to!
Maybe another way to look at this. (St Francis of Assisi and the humble cockroach…)
When I was a child I had a phobia of spiders and insects, especially cockroaches. We lived in Florida and South America, so this was not good. At some point, though, I worked out that the thing I was MOST afraid of was cockroaches, which were horrible and disgusting. So I would say to myself of every other insect: Well, it’s not a cockroach. So I stopped being terrified of crickets, beetles and so on because they weren’t cockroaches. I went to England to study classics at Oxford; someone told me all spiders in England were harmless. So when I found a large spider in the bath I would tell myself: Look. A, it’s not a cockroach, and B, it’s harmless. So I would pick it up and take it outside. Once you have picked up a large spider and held it in your hands you stop being nervous around spiders. The result was that I not only stopped being afraid of non-poisonous spiders, I also stopped being nervous around poisonous spiders, and, for that matter, bees and wasps.
I later moved to Chesterfield, where I had a garden infested with slugs. I had previously thought of slugs as repulsive; one day I discovered that slugs, like snails, have eyes on stalks. If a slug thinks something interesting is going on, it will put up the stalks so it can have a look around; if it’s nervous it will retract the stalks. I thought this was very endearing; I could not bring myself to kill these creatures, so I got in the habit of picking them off plants and tossing them over the wall into the wilderness below.
This left the cockroach as the Thing of Horror. A couple of years ago I read an article somewhere on the feeding preferences of Oriental cockroaches: they like sweet sticky buns. All cockroaches like beer. I found this too rather endearing, and I could not feel the revulsion for cockroaches that I had had all my life.
A CEO probably does have better things to do than kill cockroaches. Part of leadership, though, is not simply confronting one’s own fears, but teaching other people how to do so. So one could redefine the task: the subordinate sees the task as getting the cockroach killed, but the leader sees the task as learning to face fear.
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I hate Roaches, I bought (Flea Killer for Carpets white powder )
a Rug Deodorizer,A Tall round card board can the cost is less then 5.00 . The Roaches took off ,I put it everwhere You can buy it at Ace Hardware Lows or Homedepole ,I have not seen a Roache in my house in 20 years . At first put it out every 4 Mo. We live between the Intercoastal water way and the Ocean , Thank God in Jesus name . This was found by mistake , It was those no sees ,I was trying to kill .yesterday at Bed Bath and everthing I found a purple spray bottle ,that kill those . If you want to know the name of this please e-mail me .It works to.
In his heart (Jesus) Bunches of Blessing to all of you
Dorothy
[...] It’s been about eight years since that incident. I don’t wear suits anymore, but there are still days when I come home a little mopey. I guess the frustration is all over my face. Emily will take one look at me and ask, “Did you have to kill cockroaches today?” [continue reading>>] [...]
I have an honest question or two.
How does this principle of not “killing cockroaches” for any screaming lady line up with Jesus’ washing the feet of His disciples or giving the “bread to dogs”?
Can’t interruptions actually become appointments?
Thanks!
I think what tony is getting at here is; at the core of leadership there is management in service. Jesus effectively managed his flock/disciples (and is still doing that today). This doesn’t mean that Jesus did not serve them, he clearly did, rarely though did he let them set the agenda.
There was an old movie quote “Jesus came to serve man, but not to be man’s servant.” What I think that means and this post means is the leader is the one who sets the pace, tone and agenda for the daily runnings and the big picture. I don’t think a cockroach problem was an “appointment.” I think if Tony had a busy day and the lady came into his office screaming and there was an actual legitimate problem, he probably would’ve set his other “appointments” aside. But the point is not every problem people have is “major.” She had a problem with a petty cockroach and felt it was someone else’s job (the head guy of 150 people) to kill it. Probably not the wisest use of his time or the company’s.