The Postman Always Rings Twice (And Often More!)
So here is the scenario. You have spent a number of weeks putting the content together for a webinar to help people feel a little more confident. You want it to be a great learning experience for people – a short escape away for an hour or so from this crazy world that everyone finds themselves in. You have carefully crafted the content, you have checked the technology a hundred times, done the promotion and then the day dawns. You naturally feel a little apprehensive. It’s a free session – people are busy – will anyone turn up?
You hit “start webinar” and you are off. People have arrived – always a good start! Some of them have even come back after attending previous webinars and virtual learning sessions you have run (even better). If you are on Zoom and it is a webinar you can’t see anyone. You know they are there because you can see the participant count on the screen, and you can see people interacting in the chatbox.
It is going well. Then halfway through, you are sharing a story about the time you stood up to present to a room of a 100 people and you forgot your words. You are just about to hit them with the punchline (you were saved by the fire alarm and an evacuation of the conference room at the exact moment you went to say your first sentence) and then it comes.
A big loud knock on the front door.
You ignore it.
It’s the postman – except he isn’t going away.
He knocks again.
This time it’s louder.
In that split second you have to decide what to do. Do you leave your audience and answer the door or let him carry on knocking and hope they can’t hear? Of course, you know they can hear, and the postman isn’t going away so what would you do?
Last week was the second Managers Pit Stop, a virtual webinar creating a space for anyone managing people or simply managing themselves to take an hour out of their day, breathe out and leave with some practical tips to help them feel a little more confident.
And this was the very scenario that I was facing last week. For those who attended you know the answer. I paused the webinar and brought the encounter into the space allowing everyone to share in the chat any similar experiences that had happened to them. I was told later that I “handled it like a pro!”
In our new world of virtual, one of the things I give myself is “full permission to be messy” and I extend that into all areas of my life not just in the virtual space. If we have learnt anything in the last 12 months, it is that we aren’t in control of very much. Sometimes regardless of how much we have planned, and prepared things aren’t always not going to run smoothly. Putting huge expectations on ourselves to be perfect is never very helpful. It’s much better to let go of those expectations and give ourselves a break.
Permission to be messy has been a very helpful mantra not only to me but my friends and clients who have tried it to. What expectations might you like to let go of? What would be the difference to you if you gave yourself full permission to be messy!
The next pit stop is on Tuesday 9 March and the topic is ‘how to have great working relationships’. To learn more or to sign up, click the register button below.
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