Rising Up with Strengths

By Chad T. Ahern

It's rare for me to post about work on a weekend. It's also unusual for me to post about my faith in the context of my work. But this weekend is different. 

This weekend, as a Christian (Episcopalian), I mourn and then celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. Yesterday was Good Friday, today is Holy Saturday, tomorrow is Easter Sunday. What struck me this year, in light of COVID-19 pandemic & our "new world of work" is that we are experiencing a similar progression. Let me explain...

On Good Friday, I/we mourn the death of Christ. At the same time, we are told by Christ that he must die in order to conquer death. When I reflect on that progression I see similarities to what is happening our world of work. The coronavirus has brought about a "death" (of sorts) to many of the ways we used to work -- centralized offices, in-person meetings, limited/minimal vacation policies, work-life separation, the list goes on.

Which brings us to Holy Saturday. Today is about being hope-filled. Yesterday, we mourned; today we look to the future with anticipation. We can just feel that something new is coming. For me this is precisely where we are within our working world. We aren't quite sure of what the future hold quite yet. We sense that positive changes are afoot, so we wait with excited anticipation.

​For me this hopefulness was put front and center yesterday when a fellow Strengths coach, Damian Zikakis, shared the following video via LinkedIn. In a visceral way, it emphasizes & gives me hope that more companies, teams, and individuals will recognize the power of Strengths when it comes to envisioning new ways to work and to develop people.

Tomorrow, on Easter Sunday, we will celebrate Jesus' resurrection and victory over death. Within that celebration we are called on to remember that His death brought about a new paradigm -- he conquered death and sin for all of us; death no longer has power over us. 

I'm fully aware that any changes in our working life aren't on the same level as conquering death, but I do see our work paradigms changing. It is therefore my hope that when we do finally recover from this COVID-19 pandemic, our work paradigms shift for the better. We need to truly reconsider the old ways of work, continue to incorporate some of the new ways we initiated during the crisis, and rethink how each of us can use our Strengths to connect and collaborate with each other going forward.

For those of you who share my Christian faith, I wish you a very Happy Easter. To everyone else, I wish you continued health and safety during this pandemic. We will all get through this together. #staysafestayhome.