Many know that one of our client niches is Financial Service providers. So you can imagine that this has been an interesting couple of days as they cope with the financial meltdown of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and the challenges of AIG.
The mind’s tendency is to panic only to be exaserbated by others’ panic. Now is the time for you to stand strong for your clients. They will do their amount of panicing – what they need from you right now is to lean on your strength. I want you to think back to a time when things were tough for yourself. Think of who it was in your world that was a relief to talk to. It was likely the cool-headed person who you could lean on for their confidence that everything would be okay. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not encouraging anyone to lie, but I am suggesting that you encourage them to look forward to what they need to do next. Because it is human nature to dwell on what happened, it often prevents us from effectively and quickly moving on. What happened in the past has already happened. We can’t do anything to change the past, but we can look to the future to create a more effective outcome. The longer we dwell on the past, the more we perpetuate it. I mean not to minimize the situation – a lot of people have lost a lot of money that they counted on and for many this is a hard pill to swallow. Life has many challenges, be it illness, death or financial challenge. But the strength of character is determined by how fast one gets up from a fall. Who will you choose to Be for your clients as they weather out this storm? Will you choose to get caught up in their sense of panic, or will you transend circumstance and choose to be the iron rail for them to pull themselves up with?
Remember: As with all things, this too shall pass…
