Kasey Arguelles referenced a quote from Coca-cola’s former CEO Brian Dyson which is shared in the embedded video. This point was taken from a commencement address to graduates at Georgia Tech University in 1991 and is often claimed to be a 30 second speech, but the speech is actually longer and can be found in its entirety on page 3 of the link below.
These comments talk about how in life we are juggling five balls (work, family, health, friends, and spirit) and four of those balls are made of glass, where one is made of rubber. The work ball is the rubber ball. Kasey gave us a great example of how she worked to keep this thought in the forefront as she worked in a high-profile COVID response role while her husband was deployed overseas and she still had three kids to raise. Sometimes we have to let the rubber ball drop because it will bounce back up and the glass balls are much more fragile when we let them drop. Another thing that Kasey did a great job of modeling is knowing when to ask for help and who you can ask for help. We do not and should not juggle our balls alone. We all need support systems to help us manage the stresses and events of life. The more people we bring into our circle, the more we can share the burden of keeping these glass balls in the air and not allowing the rubber ball to bounce too many times. Those of us with more capacity can also work to be intentional about helping keep other people’s balls in the air. Some of us are amazing jugglers and can take on more than our own five balls. Even amazing jugglers need to let a ball drop from time to time and we can all work together to make sure those balls don’t need to hit the ground and shatter.
Listen to more amazing insights from Kasey at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/that-all-might-be-edified-discussions-on-servant-leadership/id1598799300?i=1000558852366