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.
