15 ailments your Sales team or department can suffer from - by Pope Francis of SALES ?*

15 ailments your Sales team or department can suffer from - Pope Francis of SALES ?*

You may try to live a life of faith or be someone  of no faith, but maybe this  controversial  address to the Curia  by Pope Francis this Monday before Christmas Day has something for all of us to learn from and reflect upon.

For companies looking to rebuild trust, establish a better business culture or  develop genuine social responsibility , these 15 'ailments' may resonate.

The Curia of the Roman Catholic Church  assists the Roman Pontiff in conducting the business of the Church.  A curia is an assembly, council, or court, in which public, official, or religious issues are discussed and decisions made.

By simply replacing the 'Curia' word in these 15 ailments with Sales Team, Sales department,  Sales Office , ,  Business development Department  etc  you see what I am driving at.  Similarly replacing the word ‘Apostle’  with sales manager, sales leader , sales director etc these 15 ailments my well ring a note with you.

Pope Francis listed 15 “ailments” of the Vatican Curia during his annual Christmas greetings to the cardinals, bishops, and priests who run the central administration of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church.  Yet he could be speaking to any business team , you and me.

Here’s the list. See what you reckon

1) Feeling immortal, immune or indispensable. “A  Curia that doesn’t criticize itself, that doesn’t update itself, that doesn’t seek to improve itself is a sick body.”

2) Working too hard. “Rest for those who have done their work is necessary, good and should be taken seriously.”

3) Becoming spiritually and mentally hardened. “It’s dangerous to lose that human sensibility that lets you cry with those who are crying, and celebrate those who are joyful.”

4) Planning too much. “Preparing things well is necessary, but don’t fall into the temptation of trying to close or direct the freedom of the Holy Spirit, which is bigger and more generous than any human plan.”

5) Working without coordination, like an orchestra that produces noise. “When the foot tells the hand, ‘I don’t need you’ or the hand tells the head, ‘I’m in charge.’”

6) Having ‘spiritual Alzheimer’s.’ “We see it in the people who have forgotten their encounter with the Lord … in those who depend completely on their here and now, on their passions, whims and manias, in those who build walls around themselves and become enslaved to the idols that they have built with their own hands.”

7) Being rivals or boastful. “When one’s appearance, the colour of one’s vestments or honorific titles become the primary objective of life.”

8) Suffering from ‘existential schizophrenia.’ “It’s the sickness of those who live a double life, fruit of hypocrisy that is typical of mediocre and progressive spiritual emptiness that academic degrees cannot fill. It’s a sickness that often affects those who, abandoning pastoral service, limit themselves to bureaucratic work, losing contact with reality and concrete people.”

9) Committing the ‘terrorism of gossip.’ “It’s the sickness of cowardly people who, not having the courage to speak directly, talk behind people’s backs.”

10) Glorifying one’s bosses. “It’s the sickness of those who court their superiors, hoping for their benevolence. They are victims of careerism and opportunism, they honour people who aren’t God.”

11) Being indifferent to others. “When, out of jealousy or cunning, one finds joy in seeing another fall rather than helping him up and encouraging him.”

12) Having a ‘funereal face.’ “In reality, theatrical severity and sterile pessimism are often symptoms of fear and insecurity. The apostle must be polite, serene, enthusiastic and happy and transmit joy wherever he goes.”

13) Wanting more. “When the apostle tries to fill an existential emptiness in his heart by accumulating material goods, not because he needs them but because he’ll feel more secure.”

14) Forming ‘closed circles’ that seek to be stronger than the whole. “This sickness always starts with good intentions but as time goes by, it enslaves its members by becoming a cancer that threatens the harmony of the body and causes so much bad — scandals — especially to our younger brothers.”

15) Seeking worldly profit and showing off. “It’s the sickness of those who insatiably try to multiply their powers and to do so are capable of calumny, defamation and discrediting others, even in newspapers and magazines, naturally to show themselves as being more capable than

 
Perhaps the Business schools around the world will be including these 15 ailments on their reading list !

* The real Saint Francis of Sales Francis de Sales was born on 21 August 1567 in the Château de Sales into the noble Sales family of the Duchy of Savoy, in what is today Thorens-Glières, Haute-Savoie, France. bishop of Geneva and Doctor  of the Church.

Feast day 23 or 24^th January He is Patron saint of educators , writers and journalists – maybe bloggers count  as well !

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