A client I hadn’t worked with in 15 years called and asked me to work with 30 people in his new company. Naturally, I was delighted that he thought enough of our work to get in touch with me.
I proposed a two-day process for getting the work done, which he and his colleagues accepted. A week later, I got a call saying that they wanted my team to work their new sales messages into the seminar. I said fine.
A few days after that, I was told they needed the morning of the first day of the two-day process to introduce the messages, and have a discussion about them-to “socialize” the messages. I said fine.
Then I heard that the second day had to end at 2pm. I said fine.
Then I began to wonder how this was going to work. I am accustomed to working with people in a certain way over a certain period of time. I had said yes to a series of requests in the spirit of being flexible, but I felt that I had twisted myself into a compromised position.
It is my experience that working on messaging and delivery at the same time is challenging. And yet I found myself boxed into just such an arrangement.
I will be more adamant about my own needs in the future. I will insist that I cannot deliver the results needed unless I am given the opportunity to do so. I will protect my turf, not to be a pain in the ass, but to stand up for the pursuit of excellence.
I will not allow the client to dictate how my work gets done. Since I am me, I have to do it my way. Could I do it another way???? Maybe, but it would take me a long time to get good at doing it another way. I will not, from here on out, customize myself into a corner.
Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.