During our weekly coaching session, my client, a talented marketing executive who has enjoyed her career, was having a tough time maintaining a positive attitude. Like many of you who are out in the trenches, she is working longer hours with limited resources and a meager budget. She was fortunate to have landed the position three months after being let go from a company she helped build.
15 years ago she worked around the very same issues she is facing today. The difference was she felt appreciated by her bosses. Now, she waits anxiously for her boss, who is located across the country, to return her calls. During our meeting she confided to me she feared he wasn’t interested in hearing her ideas.
Having coached her for several months, I knew I would be unable to convince her otherwise. Yet, I had to come up with something to help feel better or risk seeing her lose her new job because of her attitude. That’s when the word “perhaps” came to mind. I took a chance and asked her what would happen if she started her internal dialogues with the word perhaps? Perhaps, he is isn’t interested in what I have to say? Perhaps he is too busy ot respond to my email. She smiled, she could deal with knowing he might or might not be interested in her ideas. After practicing this for a few days, she called to tell me that her boss called her and said he wanted to hear more of her input.
Perhaps is a powerful tool. With an 8% unemployment rate there are a lot of people competing for work. It is stressful to wait for a response to your perfectly written cover letter and resume. Yet, stress can drain you of your optimism and enthusiasm. Both of which are needed to catch the attention of hiring managers. Perhaps, you could retain some of your optimism by saying to yourself “perhaps. I will be called in for an interview.”
The next time you find yourself filled with thoughts of gloom and doom, preface your thoughts with perhaps. You might feel a little better.
