I will and you will have to leave!
I could not believe my ears, but this was obviously what he wanted to accomplish any way. He could not fire me and was just looking for an opportunity for me to say something that would allow him to take the action he wanted to take any way.
My expectation did not match the reality that I experienced. I thought a lot about what I could have done differently that would have prevented him to take the action he took. There are a number of things that come to mind:
- While we were working on the project I should have kept him informed as we went along and not waited for the last moment and make the presentation without knowing what his expectations were. Instead during those four months I relied on the two individuals who also reported to him to keep him abreast of the status of the project. Instead I should have given him a call regularly to inform him as to what the status was.
- I could have simply said that I would like to sleep over the matter and come back the next day to talk more and see how we can find a solution that he and I could agree upon.
- I could have accepted his demand and implemented it. This would have been the worst of all, as I was sure that I would not be able to run the business with good results.
In other words, the expectations did not match the reality!
This experience gives me the opportunity to understand my clients who find themselves in similar situations. I believe I have sensitivity to create awareness with my clients that they may not have a realistic take on their situation or that they will benefit from reassessing their reality.
How can this tool be helpful to my clients I coach?
This is something that happens every day in corporate America and executives get fired because they did not take into account all the possibilities that might happen.
If I had a client that was experiencing a similar situation I would ask him/her questions such as:
- How are you going about the project you are working on?
- Are you keeping your boss informed about the progress on the project as you go along?
This would allow my client to get an insight into the expectations of his/her boss. I would continue coaching him/her to help him/her come to the right conclusions as to how to proceed with the project.
Depending on the situation, the type of project my client is working on I will listen to what he/she has to say so I can ask the best questions possible and help the client to come to the most suitable/appropriate conclusions.
I believe that by proceeding in such a way I would help the client to become more aware of the reality of the situation and not be surprised by the outcome. My client might be better positioned to influence the outcome as opposed to accept the likely turn of events.
This tool can be used in many corporate situations. What comes to mind is when there is a possible layoff and my client is sure he/she will not be laid off I will help the client to think about the possibility of being laid off and prepare him/herself for that.
This tool can also be used in many life situations where the client has expectations without taking into account many possibilities. It applies to marriage, children, family and friends. We human beings often wish for something positive to happen and disregard the possibility that it might not.
The more general questions I could use that would not be connected to a specific corporate situation would be:
Depending on the answers I would get from the client I would continue with questions that are emerging from the answers I got and move the client in a direction that would make the client capable of dealing with various situations and not be surprised by the outcomes.