Instead of sighing, shrugging shoulders or getting depressed when things don’t go as your hope, use self-coaching to:
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put the situation in perspective
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analyse what happened and why
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learn from your mistakes
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reduce prospects of repetition
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mentally rehearse better alternatives.
This framework may be helpful:
- Were the objectives realistic?
- How did I handle introductions?
- Did I encounter obstacles in developing rapport and establishing credibility?
- Did I use questions skillfully to obtain information and shape the conversation?
- Did I spend enough time coming to an understanding of the client’s situation/problem before promoting my services/solution?
- Did I use consensus building techniques throughout the session?
- When did things start to go off track?
- Did I fall into any of the traps of making sweeping statements, exaggerated claims, not having evidence at the ready, arguing or debating, becoming angry, being embarrassed, not being forthright and clear, avoiding issues?
- When things started to go wrong, what else could I have done to recover?
- Did I think about those options at that time?
- What other techniques might have worked to convey my capacity and willingness to help?
- What alternatives did I have to recover the situation?
- Thinking back over past encounters which had the potential to this way, what was it I chose to do which worked so much better?
- Given a similar situation in future, what will I do differently?
Self-coaching through this frame will help you select more effective behavioural options in future for substantially improved prospects of success.
Look forward to doing a whole lot better!
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