2020: A strangely wrapped gift

In every situation, there’s always a gift to discover…

Without minimizing in any way the losses or the challenges experienced over the past few months, I fundamentally believe that there are great gifts to be discovered at the heart of everything that happens.

As 2020 dawns to an end, I would like to share with you, in all humility, two of the gifts I see for us in this exceptional year – in every sense of the word!

A return to true values and priorities

The pandemic and confinement have challenged our values and priorities. With everything that happened, several clients – and entrepreneurs! –questioned their priorities in life.

They wonder about:

their personal situation: for example, the number of divorces has skyrocketed in recent months, and the number of babies who will be born soon will be impressive;
their professional situation: “Does this job really motivate me? Is traveling so much for work worth it?”;
their lifestyle: “I really like being at the cottage. How could one stay there almost permanently? You don’t need all those “adult toys”, the big house, the overflowing wardrobe…”

The return to true values and priorities brings a variety of gifts:

In my entire career, I have never seen a better time to talk about planning, values, life priorities to help our clients get back to the fundamentals, to what’s truly important to them.
This return to fundamentals is an opportunity to demonstrate the real benefits they will get by working with you. Not the plan nor the strategy, but the real benefits, such as the freedom to choose whether or not to continue working, the leeway of aligning their life with their core values, the choice to make their dream life a reality.

Deeper relationships leveraging the virtual

Once the initial shock of the confinement subsided, we got used to virtual meetings. And those who adapted to the change saw their relationships with their clients deepen and solidify.

Why? Because the virtual has removed hierarchical barriers. When your client is in your office or you are at their home, there’s an unconscious hierarchical positioning that takes place. You’re the “expert” and he is the “client”; you wear a suit, he also wears professional clothes, and the vibe is all about business, being rational, and focusing on logic, which leaves less room for emotions, for stepping back and getting to the bottom of things.

The virtual brings a variety of gifts:

Clients are in the comfort of their own home, a place they know well: they feel comfortable and emotionally secure. This helps open the conversation to more delicate, sensitive topics. To talk about real things.
You’re also in your house (or at the cottage), dressed in more casual clothes. This brings a more relaxed, more human aspect: your clients see your personal side, which greatly contributes to a better relationship because they see you more “like them” and discover another facet of your personality (and your home!).

Remember that a relationship is built on the frequency of your interactions and not on the length of time spent together. The virtual allows shorter and more frequent meetings.

The decision is yours

How to approach the situation of the past few months is a personal choice. Some see it as heavy and negative, while others see it as a gift: an opportunity to realign and reinvent themselves in order to really make a difference in their clients’ lives.

It’s all about perception and choice, always.

Personally, I decided to be in the second category after an almost complete collapse of my own business (because almost everything I did was face-to-face). I realigned myself on my mission and I adapted my whole approach to virtual mode. I launched two virtual coaching programs, I “virtually” met entrepreneurs from all over Quebec (and internationally), and I have an even greater impact, I make even more of a difference for my clients… and with more fun than ever!

And that’s exactly what I hope most of us are attaining. Because now, more than ever, the world needs strong leaders.

…because so much more is possible…