Today, we’ll go over your bad day survival guide. First, there are a few items you need to put together a bad day survival kit.
- Disinfectant wipes to clean up after your spills.
- An extra box of Kleenexes to wipe the tears away. Maybe you hurt someone’s feelings or someone hurt yours. Either way, you can wipe the tears away and get back to business.
- Sometimes there will be messes in your life that require taking out the trash, so keep an extra box of trash bags around.
- Band-aids will help heal all the minor cuts and bruises along the way.
- Keep some ibuprofen around to ease your work headaches.
- If you’re having an awful day, grab the plunger and push through all of your problems.
All kidding aside, let’s talk about how to handle a bad day. A client recently approached me and explained, “I’m having a really bad day. I want to cancel the coaching session.” I asked her if I could just have five minutes to help her work through it, and if she didn’t want to continue with the coaching session after those five minutes, I would respect her space.
Now, there are certain questions that I ask a client in this situation. First, I ask them exactly what the problem is. After, I ask, “What’s the big picture goal?” This is an important question because it helps the client realize how their overall goals will (or won’t) be affected by this bad day or event.
After that, I ask, “What outcome do you want right now?” Some people just want to shift their feelings. They don’t want to be upset or frustrated anymore. Others may benefit from creating a strategy or engaging in a creative thinking process.
Next, I give them five minutes to vent. They need to face the reality of the problem and have time to release all the frustration in their system. Rant, scream, do whatever you need to do to release that energy.
I help the client consider their options to move past the problem. There are two extremes to dealing with problems: you can let it stew and get stuck in the problem longer than you need to, or you can fight as hard as you can to tackle the problem head on. Maybe neither of these extremes is right for your situation. I’ll help you find what is right for you.
Finally, no matter what option the client chooses, I need them to make a commitment of action. What do you choose to do that will help you? Inevitably, when one of my clients has a bad day, I am able to shift their perspective.
This particular client made the shift and we had an amazing coaching session. They learned their wins and frustrations and committed to an action plan for the following week. Action plans keep us in transformation mode: forward-thinking and achieving results in alignment with our biggest goals and priorities.
In the coaching relationship, I am part of the bad day survival guide for my clients. As you can see, it’s important to create a bad day process and shift through it as quickly as you can. If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!