Has this happened to you? You’re in the midst of an important project, and the client just refuses to call you back. Provokes a lot of anxiety in you, doesn’t it?
In the midst of projects when clients seem to refuse to call back, I say to my teams and my coaching clients: “Don’t worry. When you’re as good at this as you are, and work as hard as you do, it’s not going to turn out that you were the problem.”
It’s Not You
I mean it’s not going to turn out to be their fault that the client didn’t call back this week. It’s going to turn out that the client’s time was preempted by a dozen other things, or the client was sick, or on vacation, or wasn’t able to call back for a hundred other reasons.
But Notice The Facts
Notice the facts here: “When you’re as good at this as you are, and work as hard as you do”. When all that is true, it won’t turn out that you were the problem.
But…
But if you could be better at technical or managerial skills, or better at your people skills and client skills, if perhaps you haven’t been working that hard to keep this client satisfied, then maybe it IS you. Maybe you ARE the reason they didn’t call back.
But…
But when you are skilled, you work smart, you work hard, you’ve been proactive, you’ve announced problems and work-around plans early on, and you keep answering questions and needs from the client’s point-of-view, you are not going to be the reason they didn’t call back.
I hope this helps your morale. It’s certainly helped me and my teams. Can you see yourself using this technique when the client won’t call back? Please comment and join the discussion.
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