ASSISTANTS: What will you do with adversity?

No question this year has been a year of adversity. There’s a good chance some of you reading this column are working with the smallest budgets you’ve had since arriving at your facilities. You also may have experienced a cut in your compensation, a salary freeze or reduction/loss of personal benefits or bonus this year. Maybe you have had to deal with a reduction in your staff or in their hours worked and have had to pick up the slack. We all deal with workplace adversity.

Earlier this year, a small-town football coach and teacher was tragically killed in the community of Parkersburg, Iowa, when his former player shot him inside the school’s weight room.

Ed Thomas was a leader in his community and had helped bring the town through a deadly F5 tornado in May 2008, partly by insisting the high school’s football field be rebuilt to reinstate pride in the community after the storm. You may have seen coverage of these events in the national media. ESPN broadcast Aplington-Parkersburg High’s first football game versus rival Dike–New Hartford on August 28.

Coach Thomas’ younger son Todd was my college roommate and is someone who has experienced an indescribable amount of adversity over the past two years. He was in his in-law’s home when the tornado destroyed it. When the storm had passed he ran down the street a few blocks to his parents’ home, which was also leveled, to find his parents, thankfully, had survived the storm as well. In the wake of the storm, he and his family had been interviewed hundreds of times by the local and national media.

Much has been made of how the Thomas family has been willing to forgive and pray for the family of the accused killer. The families have been friends for more than 30 years and attend church together. When Coach Thomas’ wife, Jan, was asked about this reaction, she said she was surprised people have had such a hard time accepting their willingness to forgive. The Thomas family is a true testament of the power of mercy and grace.

During Coach Thomas’ funeral, his oldest son Aaron gave this charge to those who were in attendance.

"You can be sad the rest of the day, but come tomorrow, once you wake up, it’s time to get going. And the way my dad’s memory’s going to live, and the way we make up for him – there’s not one of us here who can make up for what my dad did. There’s not one of us here who can be Ed Thomas, but this can be a better place than it was with Ed Thomas, but for that to happen, it’s gotta come from each one of you.

"I don’t care what your job is, and one thing I’ll never forget of my father – no job is too small. No job is too small. I don’t care what you do, what you make. When you step up and you go to work, come tomorrow, you give it everything you got. And if work starts at 8:00, make sure you’re there at 7:57. You’re not rolling in late. And if you work until 4, you work until 4:05. Don’t shortchange anyone; don’t shortchange yourself. He talked a lot about character. Character is you doing what’s right when no is looking and no one will know."

No matter what adversity you’re facing, whether it’s personal or professional, you choose how to respond. You can choose to respond with bitterness and resentment or to make the situation better than it was before. Take a page from the Thomas family’s book and be an example to those around you by taking ownership of the situation. GCI