Angels in the Workplace

Excerpted with permission from "Angels in the Workplace" by Melissa Giovagnoli, with permission of Jossey-Bass, John Wiley & Sons.


"I have found that the greatest help in meeting any problem with decency and self-respect and whatever courage is demanded is to know where you yourself stand. That is, to have in words what you believe and are acting from."


Courage is a matter of choice. As obvious as that concept might be intellectually, it is difficult to grasp emotionally. Faced with an ogre of a boss, the threat of losing one's job, a lawsuit, missing an important deadline, or countless other real and imagined workplace terrors, we do not feel as though we have the choice to be courageous. In addition, the current work environment makes many of us feel like victims. Because of the pace of change, we feel helpless and put upon. If downsizing does not get us, transfer to some outpost on the other side of the globe will. It is hard enough to find courage within ourselves. How then can we transcend our fears and help others in turn find their own courage?

If we take a moment to reflect on the reality of the workplace today, we realize that we are more empowered than ever before. In many organizations, empowerment is not just a word but a growing part of the culture. More people than ever are included in the decision-making processes and allowed to use their ingenuity and leadership on cross-functional teams. Even more significant, however, is self-empowerment; I have observed it in people who work in every conceivable industry and at every level. As our society becomes more open and as individuals raise their consciousness through the spirituality movement, therapy, Internet communities, and in other ways, individuals feel a surge of personal power. They are much more willing to take risks, fight city hall, or take on scary issues than they were in the past.

I know this from my interviewing. As you will see from the stories that I share with you, there are many angels out there with the courage of their convictions. These people have chosen to be courageous. They could just as easily have chosen to be victims. To paraphrase Rene Descartes's famous saying: I choose, therefore I am. Each of us has the choice to be courageous in our workplace, and it does not matter if that workplace is as totalitarian and unspiritual as a former communist regime or a command-and-control corporation of the old style.

When I was 12, I chose to be courageous. Growing up in a very dysfunctional home, I took the role of martyr until I reached the cusp of adolescence and declared to my mother, "You aren't going to hit me anymore." I realized that some victims of physical abuse find that words do not stop the beatings, but for me, they worked. From that time on, my mother no longer slapped me as she had done daily since I was little.

Looking back on the 30 years since that incident, I still wish I had stood up for myself sooner. I am guilty as anyone of forgetting that it is a choice we can make at any time. Customer service representatives often forget they have a choice. They put up with an unreasonable amount of abuse and are terrified of confronting awful customers. But it can be done. As one customer service person at the safety equipment company First Alert once said, "When someone calls me who is obnoxiously rude and abusive, I say, 'I'm sorry, sir, but you cannot talk to me that way. Please talk to me nicely or this conversation will end soon.'"

Continued on page 2: Be an angel of courage »