Do you ever find yourself confident to the point of near arrogance and then something happens to bring you back to reality? If it happens, are you appreciative or just frustrated? What you do from that experience will either make you better or shake you up to the point of paralysis.
This past week I found myself in that very predicament. Now if you follow my blog postings and Career Fitness Tips, you know I spend a lot of my time on the road teaching management, leadership, and basic skills classes all over the country (and soon internationally by the way). The sheer volume of this work has, in my opinion, sharpened my presentation and preparation skills down to a razor's edge. This has boosted my confidence (but not arrogance by any means) so I now march into a workshop with no expectation of problems.
I was teaching a public seminar this week in Northern
Virginia, one I do all the time to rave reviews, and found myself dealing with
some pretty tough customers. It wasn't a behavior issue, just one where
the group had some very specific learning objectives that didn't mesh with what
the canned course offered. I'm not sure where the disconnect was when they
signed up, but Day #1 ended with some very unhappy campers. I left fairly
perplexed at what to do as I faced a very uncertain Day #2.
How you handle tough issues while enjoying a track record of success is pretty crucial. If a tough day breaks you to the point of fear, you're not looking for the benefit. If we pad our record with easy wins, we'll never know if we are truly good at what we do.
I was watching the movie Rocky Balboa the other day and thought about what Mason "The Line" Dixon's handlers said when they criticized their fighter for not having had to endure a war in the ring and that a fight with the seasoned, albeit ancient Balboa might be a good experience. If you watch the movie, you'll find out if that statement holds true. If you look at occasional adversity as "seasoning" for your track record, you'll certainly see the benefit.
So how did Day #2 turn out? It was a winner. I went home that night, rethought my strategy, and then came back the next day with a tailored approach that resulted in great comments from the group and some really high scores on the evaluations (although I take "smile sheet" results with a grain of salt - the real win comes if these folks can implement the material and get great results). The experience reminded me not to rest on my laurels and be prepared for tough crowds at any time.
What will you do with adversity? Will you let it break you or will you learn from it? Are you looking for opportunities to sharpen that razor's edge or are you content to let it go dull from easy projects or inactivity? Think about it this week...
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