Voices from the Workplace: Navigating Grief at Work with Kevin Colón

The Faith & Work Podcast

Kevin Colón, Communications and Community Engagement lead for the Town of Superior, played a crucial role during the devastating 2021 Marshall Fire. As flames tore through neighborhoods, he became a steady voice and guide for a community in crisis. Join us as we reflect on the shocking destruction in LA, where wind-whipped fire caused an estimated $2 billion in damage, and explore how to lead through workplace tragedies with faith and resilience. In times of crisis, leaders can be a beacon of hope—and Kevin will share the powerful lessons God taught him during his tenure in Superior.

HIGHLIGHTS

On Leading Through Crisis:

"...it wasn't so much pastoral presence, but just regular everyday disciple presence that was able to activate the pastoral presence once the disaster hit. So it's just that everyday faithfulness [...] kind of led to that space of being able to be a pastoral presence when the time came for it to be. But it really, you know, again, what I was doing as a person moving into that space is everything that Jesus, you know, kind of taught us to do, you know, to love Him and to love our neighbor. I'm really glad He made it that simple. Obviously very nuanced and very textured, those two big relationships that we're in. [...] And again, it was that kind of presence every day and that kind of movement every day that fueled and activated everything that I did. Some days it was totally in my wheelhouse knowing how to love my neighbor because I knew how to do it. Some days I was completely out of my depths and I had to rely again on God to teach me new ways of loving people, new ways of engaging people."

On trust:

"You're either building trust or eroding trust. And especially in this climate that we're in, everybody's skeptical, everybody's cynical. And the way we build that in a work setting is all those basic things, right? It's your work ethic and your attitude and how you handle conflict and how you jump in to unexpected assignments when they're not in your job description and how you treat constituents and residents through email and phone and online."

RESOURCES

• Download the episode transcript
• EquiSage