When he said it that way, she sounded pathetic. “That about sums it up.”
He smiled and sipped his tea. “That’s a bare list, though I think there is more to you than that.”
“Nope.” She sounded curt, and she didn’t mean to be rude. But she didn’t care to look more closely at what there was to her. She was perfectly satisfied with what she’d presented and had come to terms with this version of herself. It didn’t do any good to go looking around for other things to add. That could only make the picture worse.
“For example, you’re a good salesperson,” he said.
“Oh.” She hadn’t thought of that. “Yes, I am. The best at Driskill. And that’s not bragging—I’m just really good.”
“I have no doubt. You manage a top-notch sales team too. The best in the company is what I read.”
Well. She didn’t know if she’d go so far as top-notch. Notch, maybe.
“But maybe not always as effectively as you would like?”
Okay,here we go.“Gross understatement, my man,” she said, trying to sound chill. Sometimes at work, when he wasn’t eatingfish and was being chill, she’d hear Lance say “my man” to his friends on a call.
“And you may have some unresolved personal issues getting in the way of effective management and interpersonal relationships?”
That was a strange thing to surmise and entirely wrong, and did he want her to be just annoyed, or was he going for furiously annoyed? “No. Everything is fine. Why, what did Deb tell you?”
“Deb?” He put aside his tea, opened the folder, and pulled out a piece of paper to examine. “Beverly Rich compiled the referral. Do you know who she is?”
“Unfortunately,” Lorna muttered.
“It doesn’t matter who referred you. It’s clear to me that people who work with you care about you.”
Wrong. No one at Driskill, save maybe Deb, cared about her. They were probably having a pizza party right now to celebrate her absence.
“I urge you to open yourself up to our process. The goal is to remove any internal blocks you may have to working effectively with a team. Or anyone, for that matter. And those who are able to remove internal blocks are generally much more forgiving of themselves.”
Thatwas the goal? Dumb goal. “I don’t have blocks. I work effectively with a team. I told you, everything is fine. This is just supposed to be a break.”
He winced sympathetically. “Butdoyou work effectively with other people? Because you said just a moment ago that you don’t.”
“Yousaid I didn’t always manage effectively.”
He said nothing.
“I work effectively with them. I assign work and all the other things managers do.”
Still nothing.
She did not understand what she was supposed to say. “Okay, I get it. I know they don’t like me, but we sell a lot of software.” There. She’d admit what she knew was true.
He nodded. “Wouldn’t it be great if you could sell a lot of software and also have a good rapport with the team?”
Would it? She honestly didn’t know anymore.
“I’m thinking a great place to start is with some exercises where you can learn how to connect with your innermost self. I like to use consistent meditation for that.”
This guy was insane. She was already composing the email in her head.Deb, thanks for trying, but the Bodhi Weirdo Place is not going to work for my particular issues.
“The idea is to gain mental clarity so we can really tackle issues that you identify. As you go along in the program, we’ll progress to some more out-of-the-box ideas to connect you with your inner peace and effect change.”
Whoa.She did not like the sound of that. “Okay, hold up,” she said, lifting her hand. “I’ve been to therapy before, and this doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever had to do. This sounds made up.”
“Nope. Our approach has been studied and proven effective for people just like you. What we do here is one, acknowledge the need for change, two, contemplate why that change is necessary, then three, prepare to make positive changes before actually making them. In other words, we work on giving you the tools to identify necessary changes and then make them in a way that lasts. And then, of course, we’ll work on tools to maintain those changes after the program.” He suddenly leaned forward, his gaze piercing hers. “Lorna... do you think you need to change?”
