Early last year I attended a meeting that left me incredibly frustrated.
Apart from the fact that noone had prepared for it, and aside from the usual “nobody asked me and I don’t want to do it that way” that you get in meetings in the company I work for, there was an individual that made it particularly unpleasant.
Every time I said something they disagreed. If I said something was black they would say it was white – and worse, that they weren’t going to change or contribute.
I was fuming at the end of the meeting. And frustrated that people could behave like that in a meeting and that it was acceptable. People copied them and rallied around them. I was left on my own with little to show from a 2 hour workshop.
So as you can imagine – it was with some trepidation that I attended a meeting with that same person yesterday.
But something has changed…me.
I have not only found a place personally where I am comfortable with myself and my skills, but I have learnt a lot about working with different types of people through my Cognitive Hypnotherapy course. I have learnt how to read their body language to understand how they like to communicate. I have learnt to watch where they look as they talk to see if they are visual, auditory or kinaesthetic. I have learnt to match my language and approach to find an easier way of communicating with them.
And most importantly I have learnt to ask
“How is this about them and not about me?”
And you know what? it was a brilliant meeting. My heart rate didn’t rise once through frustration (I might have got a bit ‘into’ what I was talking about a couple of times as the meeting was around our role in the Olympics and I am the lead for our part of the organisation on this)
We achieved a lot and agreed to work together more closely over the coming weeks – a thought that would have made me lose the will to live previously but that is fine now.
This is my first real face to face workshop since I’ve reached a point in my learning where I am cool with being me and really able to apply my skills.
And it is giving me lots of ideas for how I can set up the coaching part of my practice.
It’s quite exciting this Cognitive Hypnotherapy stuff!
