How do you show up for clients?

?My client was late… very late!

As always, a reminder of the appointment had been sent the day before confirming the time and a gentle nudge to ‘be on time!’ It all looked very promising when she sent me a text at 8.20 am confirming she was on her way and so I ensured everything was in place for the 9 am session.

To her credit, she kept me in the loop by informing me that she may be 10 minutes late, however, as the minutes ticked passed her appointment time I felt irritated and annoyed. ‘How disrespectful!’ ‘Surely she had checked the location map and directions I’d sent!’

Over thirty minutes went by… and she was still on her way. Over an hour went by… and she was still on her way. In fact, she eventually arrived with a very apologetic taxi driver over 90 minutes late!

While I was very annoyed by this time, rather than vent, tut or sigh, I took a few moments to step into my client's shoes, so to speak. In NLP (neuro linguistic programming) we call this Perceptual Positions.

Perceptual Positions give you the opportunity to understand a situation from another point of view other than your own and it’s invaluable in terms of gaining awareness and understanding of other people and situations.

There are three different positions which allow us to get a different perspective of the same situation. These perception points can be understood as different states of awareness. The first position is seeing the situation through your own eyes and being aware of your own thoughts and feelings. The second position is imagining what it is like to the other person in the situation, as if you are looking back at yourself, seeing, hearing and feeling as the other person would, given their own view of the world. And the third position is taking a detached viewpoint and looking at the whole situation as if you can see yourself and the other person. This is an opportunity to give ‘yourself’ advice about you are handling the situation.

Of course, my client had intended to be on time and instead, turned up for her session feeling stressed, anxious and close to tears. Have I ever been late for an appointment? Yes. Do I get stressed and anxious when I’m late? Yes.

So what did I do?

I managed my state, let go of all the irritation, ensured I was fully present and welcomed her in with a smile.

After giving her time to decompress and settle before starting, she experienced a powerful and successful session… and I shall look forward to welcoming her back again soon.

You can find out more at www.thepossibilityhub.com or listen to my podcast at any of these links – Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, YouTube