Most Popular?

Sadie stood up in front of her group of students – all future compliance professionals – and opened with her all-time favorite story.

“Once,” she told them, “Lo these many years ago, I was in high school and required to take a math class. Algebra.”

She began to pace up front as she told her story.

“I must admit, to all of you, here and now. I hate, hate, hated math. All math. Any math. Math of all shapes and sizes. I hated it all.”

She made eye contact as she spoke, seeing their faces as they wondered about her story. After all, what did math have to do with compliance?

“So there I was. Day one. In a math class. And in walked our teacher. To me he looked about 10 feet tall. Solid as a mountain.” She grinned, and the class grinned back.

“The man had muscles on his muscles. He coached football, and looked to me like he could win football games all by himself. He terrified me at first sight.”

A few of her students snickered. She could tell – some of them felt superior, strong, solid, sure of themselves.

“Well, that great big mountain of a man told us right at the start, exactly what he thought and felt. He told us there should be a vote day one of school – the kids should vote. They should choose the most popular teacher, the nicest, kindest, most caring, most understanding, most loved teacher in the whole school.”

She studied their faces. They smiled. They liked that idea. Choosing the teacher everyone liked most of all.

“Then you know what that algebra teacher and football coach told us? Anyone wanna guess? Huh? Wanna guess?”

No one offered a guess. As she studied their faces, she could tell, some of them were wary, a bit uneasy, unsure where this story was going, so she told them.

“You know what that football coach and algebra teacher told us? He stood up there in front of us, stared at each of us, frowned a little, then he gave us his answer. That kind, gentle, sweet most popular teacher should be fired! Immediately fired – done, gone, finished.”

Her class gasped in shock.

“He told us – he said, ‘Teachers aren’t here to be nice, lovable, kind and caring. Teachers are here to teach. You might not like the subject, what they’re teaching. You might hate my class – algebra. But that doesn’t matter.’”

She studied the students.

“Then,” she said to them, “he told us the rules for his class. He was tough. He was firm. He expected results. He demanded hard work and plenty of it.”

She watched their faces. She saw them processing her story.

“That,” she told them, “Is what you need to know, to learn, to grasp, to understand in this class. I’m not here to be popular. I’m here to help you learn to be compliance professionals. And when you get jobs out in the real world, you might not be most popular in your workplace. You might have to go toe to toe on rules and regulations, enforcing those rules even when nobody wants to hear it.”

She watched their faces as they processed her story, her words about their future jobs and workplaces, her warning for them all.

“There might be times when you feel alone. When you stand up for what’s right no matter what anyone else says or does. When you will not win any popularity contests. But you know what? I passed Algebra that year. I followed the rules, did the work and got a decent grade. I learned a lot from that man, that football coach, that caring and committed algebra teacher.”

She did not mention she even got 100% on a paper, and that big, burly, tough football coach drew happy faces in the 100% circles.

© 2024 K. Leet

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These are stories (usually fictional, but not always), based on insights and experiences from the world of compliance & ethics.