This blog addition is a little more personal than I tend to go into.
I’m just back from taking a couple of days off to see some of my family who a few months ago moved to Tasmania. I wanted to go spend time with my niece and nephew and knew that my niece would be in kinder on the Wednesday and today. So I was expecting to spend a lot of time nursing my little nephew and letting my sister have some time to herself before my niece would come home. To the point, I took my laptop with me, expecting to get a lot of writing time in.
The reality ended up being, my sister took me sight seeing every day and allowed my niece a day off kinder to spend with me.
To me, I was trying to make sure I didn’t disrupt the schedule and assumed I’d slot right in alongside it.
For my sister though, it was more reassuring my niece that we hadn’t forgotten her. That she was still loved and we wanted to do fun things with her. While also an excuse to explore around their new state.
And to me, it really brings up an important question.
Do you go into potential client meetings with the expectation that you know exactly what it is that they want? Or even, more importantly, do you feel that a person couldn’t possibly need your service, because you feel that they would be needing so much more (or less) than you have to offer and so you talk yourself out of offering that service to them?
It’s interesting to reflect on your expectations versus the reality of the situation.
Sometimes, you need to go in with an open mind. Be flexible and go with the flow.
Allow yourself a chance to discover, to reflect and to respond appropriately.
