I have the skills to deal with this??!

You know how those who support others do an amazing job with clients, but can be there own worst enemies when it comes to implementing their own advice or skill set? Well that's been me this past week.

I've written an adaptation of the children's rhyme 'Incy Wincy spider' to explain to you what happened when we arrived home last week after spending an awesome September travelling.

Drippy, drippy raindrops, Fell on the roof with might, Down came the ceiling, Must have been a stormy night! Home came the owners, Relaxed and chilled, now blue, Then out came the contractors, To fix the roof anew!

The contractors left yesterday, I had a shiny new (presumed watertight) roof. Then this morning, I woke to more rain pouring through the current hole in the ceiling!

The contractors came back out and discovered more damage to the brickwork that they'd missed previously, plus the sealant-y stuff (I appreciate I'm using very technical terms with you here, and I'm normally not a fan of jargon ??) hadn't 'gone off' for some reason.

Another 'perfect storm' and more damage.

But bear with me here, there's a moral and a lesson to this story - of course there is!

I've felt totally discombobulated as a result. I could have easily turtled back into my shell. But I didn't. I juggled things in my diary, prioritised necessary client sessions and workshops, and and tried to re-combolutate myself.

But my recombobulation went completely off course this afternoon, when we discovered that the electrics were in jeopardy due to the proximity of the fuse board to the leak. A group of contractors with differing specialist skills stood arguing over the best course of action and who should do what and when - bearing in mind I have to wait for this current spell of stormy weather to pass and the insurance assessor to come back out before anyone can do much more anyway.

So what did I do?

Sat in a corner, rocked back and forth, and balled like a baby. (In my head.)

In reality, I used my facilitation skills, my ability to support people to collectively imagine what is possible, and knack of helping teams to co-create towards an end goal, and took control of the situation.

My roof. My whole in the ceiling. My circus. My monkeys.

As a result, we now have a clear plan of action that should minimise damage, without creating more work than might be necessary, and everyone knows the actions they need to take - and when - as a result. No one is working in a silo, and I feel reassured that the ideas they had will be effectively implemented.

The rest is in the hands of the weather Gods.

Just as in business, things won't always go your way. There will always be curve balls. Not everything will always be in your control and you will be tested.

And the weather Gods (customers/clients) will not always play ball as you need/would like them to.

Have you heard of Stephen Covey's 'circle of influence'?

It's a great mindset shift to adopt whenever anything goes 'wrong' in business or life.

If you can control something, take charge.

If you can influence something, do what you can.

If you can't control something, then let that ?? go!

Instead of sitting in the corner rocking back and forth and balling like a baby, I put my energy into client sessions, focused on the launch of season 2 of my award-winning podcast 'A Beginner's Guide to Design Thinking', and added in a couple of networking events and 'work mate dates' to provide me with much needed 'safe havens' whilst the work gets done.

So if you could all just prey to the weather Gods to be kind over the next week or so, that'd be much appreciated. ?

Now over to you...

Jump into the comments and regale me with your stories of times when you've used your circle of influence to deal with a situation, or share examples of times when you've realised that if you'd only taken your own advice, or used your own skill set, you'd actually have resolved an issue sooner than you did.

I could do with some cheering up. Plus, sometimes it's good to be reminded that there is more in our control and influence than we originally thought.

With calmness and controlled intent, Lucy. ??

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