Pitfalls of Your Platform

By Sherry Peveto –

Recently I was asked to give the keynote speech at my alma mater to the graduating class of nurse practitioners. When I’m asked to speak, I work hard to develop something that is practical and adds value to my audience.  I decided to speak on the pitfalls of our platform of influence.  Ours happens to be in healthcare, but everybody has a platform.

Whether you are a CEO of a major corporation, a nurse practitioner, or a stay at home mom in middle suburbia, you have a platform of influence. Regardless of what circle we find ourselves in, we can lose our ability to effectively influence people from our given platform. There are attitudes that we can allow to creep in that will destroy our work lives and our home lives.

One of the biggest pitfalls of a platform is arrogance.  Arrogance causes blindness and deafness. This attitude can greatly reduce the effectiveness of a healthcare provider.  If you are arrogant, you can shrug people off and miss an important diagnosis. If you already know everything before listening to a patient, then you will not stop to truly see and hear the details of a situation. These are a few of the ideas I shared in my keynote speech, but unfortunately, the effects of arrogance ripple into every area of life.

Typically, we do not turn our attitudes on and off in the different arenas of our lives.  The profound truth is that no matter where you go, you take yourself with you. Arrogance at work will often translate into arrogance at home, as well.

An arrogant attitude will alienate your spouse, children, and your colleagues. It will cause people to be repelled by your presence. The Bible states in Proverbs 16:18, that pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Even with fair warning from the Scriptures about the dangers of arrogance, we are often prone to adopting a prideful stance or arrogant attitude.

Arrogance will make us impatient, do things out of order, and even justify disobedience. This was the case when Saul did not obey God’s instructions and was subsequently stripped of his royal title (see 1Samuel 15). Pride will make us claim powers we do not have. Moses made this mistake as a frustrated leader when the children of Israel were complaining about their lack of water. Numbers 20:10, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?”

How do we combat an attitude of arrogance? First, we must repent and turn away from this destructive attitude. Secondly, we can embrace humility and gratitude. Humility is taking a modest view of one’s own importance.  Phillipians 2:3 states that in humility, we should consider others as better than ourselves.   Jesus said in Matthew 23:11, “he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.” According to John 3:27, “a man can receive nothing except it be given to him from heaven.”  With that thought in mind, how can we be anything besides humbly grateful? A tool I use to cultivate gratitude is to ponder Psalm 103. How can we boast in ourselves when we think about the benefits God has graciously given to us?

Three practical action steps that will help you avoid the pitfall of arrogance:

1) When interacting with people, ask yourself, “How can I serve this person?”

2) Keep a gratitude journal

3) Read and ponder Psalm 103

Sherry is a women’s health nurse practitioner in West Monroe, La. She has the heart of a teacher and is an encourager to women. She is also an author, speaker, and the host of an iTunes podcast for women called See Jane Thrive.  Her website: http://www.sherrypeveto.com/.