Sometimes, one conversation is enough
Last week, I had one of those days that made me stop and think.
At the end of this particular day, I realised how significant shifts can happen, each as a result of a conversation.
One client messaged me that he managed to arrive on time for an important meeting, no small feat for him, after we had worked together on designing personal strategies for time management.
Another began to see that she doesn’t need to become someone else to be impactful. With a PhD and years of experience in her field, she carried imposter syndrome every day, never believing she was good enough, until this conversation helped her find the voice that is already hers.
A leader who was hiring for a senior position, managed to see his pattern of hiring people ‘just like him’ and defined more clearly what the role and team require.
Someone else named the overwhelm they were carrying at work and realised the emotional toll of being unable to say “no.”
My last client for the day told me about a difficult conversation she had where she asked for specific feedback about what went wrong. This was a conversation she had been avoiding, but faced courageously and openly and then used that clarity to ask for further work.
And somewhere in between all of that, I helped someone find the food they had been searching for locally (biltong!) which may not sound like leadership development, but honestly, sometimes the best morale comes in edible form.
To look back on my day and see that each conversation I have can leave a person feeling a little changed for the better, is extremely rewarding.
I know it doesn’t always work out that way and there are also some days that really suck.
But on this day, there was a knock-on effect as I moved from one conversation to the next and every time, I was thrilled to be making a difference.
The conversations we have with people, really do matter.
In my work with leaders, I see this all the time. People often don’t need a 7-step framework. There’s no formula or one-size-fits-all solution.
Sometimes a conversation helps someone make the decision they’ve been circling.
Sometimes it helps them say the thing they’ve been avoiding.
Sometimes it gives them language for something they already knew, but couldn’t yet name.
I believe this is the work beneath the work.
It helps us tell the truth, first of all to ourselves.
I love this quote from Margaret Wheatley – “Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.“
What conversation helped you see something different this week?