Gracious Professionalism. I love this phrase. This week our robotics team went to the First Lego League competition in Loma Linda and gracious professionalism is a core value of FLL. The phrase basically means you compete to win while being respectful of your competitors and sharing your knowledge with others to help them learn and improve their own skills. Two years ago, at the competition, I was highly impressed with a coach from another team who exemplified this value. One team arrived late and was experiencing some technical difficulties with their robot and their coach was also struggling. The team started to spiral a bit and was contemplating pulling out of the competition. Another coach noticed their dilemma, checked in with her team, and then moved across the room to help the struggling team. Wow! Her goal was to help everyone succeed. She graciously shared her knowledge and got the team back on track. I LOVE this for several reasons but most of all that her concern was about helping everyone do their best. Her team was functioning well without her help and another team needed her expertise. Gracious professionalism personified. On a side note, her team did win the competition that day and also the respect of every team in the room.
What if we all approached life with this core value in mind? To respectfully do my best but in addition to doing my best, I’m helping those in my sphere of influence also do their best. My focus is beyond myself. Life isn’t all about me. I graciously share my knowledge, my resources, my time, my understanding, my empathy. I graciously lift others up. We all win when we practice gracious professionalism.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Philippians 2:4 ESV