“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” – Charles R. Swindoll
In the past couple months; I have had the great opportunity to coach two different teams using the amazing Team Advantage (linked) process. It has been a great experience on many different levels. But, last week, I realized that I had left out an important piece of the team plan for one of the teams. I can still see the flip charts with the words that the team gave me during our kick-off meeting, but I have no memory of the specific words, at all! And the flip chart sheets are long gone.
It was a very embarrassing admission that this section was completely missed. “How am I going to explain this?”, “I am going to look bad, unprofessional, ______(fill in with awful adjective of your choice) and will never get asked back to coach a team at this client again.” All kinds of horrible images were playing through my mind. Thankfully I am working with a masterful Coach. In just a few words and powerful questions, she empowered me to remove the weight of the fear of this mistake completely off my shoulders. It is incredible how much fear and weight we produce in our heads that then limits our ability to be at our best.
Once that weight was lifted, I could see the possibilities of using this vey authentic example as the perfect opportunity to coach the team through their fears and challenges. It was an “impossible situation” that was “brilliantly disguised” until I had that great coaching conversation, when it suddenly became the “great opportunity.”
What impossible situation can you change into a great opportunity? Please share in a comment.
photo credit via Flickr creative commons: dianecordell