Not too long ago, I felt disappointed by the actions of a business associate. Actually, it was the inaction of this person that I found annoying.
We had reached an agreement on the execution of a project for one of my clients. He was going to provide a portion of the project that did not fall within my expertise. All started well and then things came right off the rails.
Long story short, it seems he had seriously overpromised to me and the client and simply wasn’t able to deliver. He then took several weeks to tell us that.
What’s interesting though is how I actually responded to the situation.
Old behavior would have been to lash out and/or feel my reputation with the client had been damaged. But I did neither.
Instead, I was confident that my client knew me well enough that our relationship would be undamaged and that is in fact the case.
My associate was doing the best he could. For my professional standards, his behavior was not appropriate and so I will simply not deal with him again. Period.
But is it necessary for me to fume, rant, gossip or in any other way spend my valuable time wrapped up in negative energy about this? Absolutely not!
Action – My story no doubt reminds you of a time you either felt let down or let someone else down yourself.
Write about how you would change your own response now if you could. What have you learned?
We cannot control what others choose to do. We can only control our own responses.
(Feel free to share your experiences or awareness by leaving a reply in the comments box.)