If you want to be a preacher don’t expect to be appreciated…

- H.H. Devamrita Swami

For the past two years I’ve been in a customer-facing role in the organization where I work. Being in a customer-facing role is a unique and tricky position in any organization.

On one side you advocate for the organization to the customers. When the company screws up, you take the straw in your mouth and apologize to the customer for your mistake. You bear the brunt of customers’ disappointment, frustration and anger, often in relation to decisions that you don’t necessarily agree with or even understand, and you do it with a smile.

On the other side you advocate on behalf of the customer to the organization. Within the organization resources are allocated and decisions are made informed by the input of the different voices within the organization. Engineering wants this, sales wants that, marketing wants this, the boffins advising management say that… your job is to be the voice of the customer, and to hear the inevitable: “What an idiot! Who cares about that!”

Your job is to advocate for the customers’ interest and their viewpoint, to be their voice in the internal conversation that informs the corporate decision-making process. And yes, you have to take the hits for them. You don’t necessarily agree with their position - hey maybe the customer is an idiot, but they’re your customer and they have to be taken into consideration.

So you walk a tightrope doing a balancing act, trying to represent the company to the customer, and the customer to the company. And yes, you often don’t get a lot of appreciation on either side. If you’re in it for that you’d better move to a different position. Sometimes you do get appreciation, and those times can help to keep going through difficult patches, but you need to have a deeper understanding of what you are doing, and why.

Here’s the full quote:

If you want to be a preacher don’t expect to be appreciated… but you will feel the warm smile of Krishna.

- H.H. Devamrita Swami

In a Loft preaching situation that’s your role - on the interface between ISKCON and the public. On one side you advocate for ISKCON to the public. You own the ISKCON organization. If there is something that you don’t agree within the organization - too bad - you own it, at least as far as the public is concerned. Internal divisions and distinctions are meaningless to them, they just see a homogenous organization that you represent. Anything that ISKCON or anyone in ISKCON does comes straight back to you. You have to explain the missteps, mistakes, and misbehaviour of others, and you apologize for it, with the straw in the teeth and a smile. The corollary of this is that you can bask in the successes of the organization, benefit from the momentum and goodwill created by other organizational units in your local area, and proudly show videos of activities in other parts of the world.

On the other side you must advocate for the public within ISKCON. You have to speak with management representing the perspective of the public. Managers within ISKCON allocate resources and make decisions in service of a wide and diverse constituency. There are many voices and many interests that must be taken into account.

Higher level managers rely on the input of key people within their organizational structure to empower them to make well-informed decisions. They need to hear carefully thought out presentations of the factors that their people are in contact with and aware of. They then balance all these factors to allocate resources and establish policies. Their responsibility is to make sure that the water floats all the boats in the fleet.

You have to take the role of representing the public, and at the same time represent the organization, understanding that there are a wide array of needs and interests, one among which is your particular responsibility - the public.

To be effective in securing the resources that you need, you need to have an understanding of the pressures that the management are under. If you are not getting something that you feel you need to serve your constituency you have to ask yourself: “Why am I not getting this?” When you ask this question honestly, with a sincere desire to understand the perspectives of others, and can then answer that question correctly, you can do something about it. Simply asking this question as a veiled means of criticizing out of frustration will not be so productive.

To be a preacher takes compassion. The dictionary defines compassion as “deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.” You need to have that to be effective in your role of ministering to the public on the outer edge of the organization, and to be effective in advocating internally for the guests. You have to be compassionate toward both the public, who are burning out there in a desert, and also to your internal managers, who have accepted the burden of responsibility for the mission!

If you think there is little appreciation as a preacher - wait until you try management…