Meeting Etiquette

Guest article by Elaine Godley.

Today, for the first time that I can recall in 50+ years in business, I was taken to task by a young lady who had the bare faced cheek to insult me before we'd even spoken a word together.

As a long time student of the late, great Napoleon Hill AND the inimitable late great Bob Proctor, who I was privileged to be personally trained by, in the 1990s, I was introduced to 

The STICK PERSON

What the illustration implies, is that it doesn't matter what happens to you but how you respond that makes the difference in life.

I've been banging this drum for nearly 30 years in one way or another.

Nasty stuff happens to us all and we have a choice.

We can choose a positive reaction, or a negative one.

How we respond will depend upon a number of factors including:-

• the precise situation
• the context
• our mood
• our personality type/style
• level of tiredness
• previous experience
• importance level of the incident
• how we are perceiving others/the situation
• and probably other factors too?!

Rather bizarrely, I had two 1 2 1  meeting appointments today and neither made it to my online calendar. Not only that, a person who I did manage to speak with said the same thing happened to her too today.

Naturally that led me to be reassured that it wasn't me being silly, the tech had failed, I was feeling embarrassed but not upset. Until.........

I received a tirade from this young lady who was clearly upset at my no show. She went on to tell me that she had a 'label' and that I was unprofessional and didn't care. Really?!

She made judgements and accusations that were unfounded and hurtful to me.  I suspect she lashed out because she was in pain herself. Naturally I apologised of course - profusely, again - to no avail - the insults continued.

I wished her well and said that clearly we weren't meant to connect after all.

And the insults still continued!

Suggestions to minimise risk of missing a meeting include :-

• regardless of whether the 'booking system' tells you, put the date and time in your digital diary with the contact details of the person you will be linking with.
• ensure that your system sends at least one/two reminders of the booking
• email/WhatsApp the person directly yourself if you have time to confirm
• ensure you have the contact details/re schedule link in case you need to change the booking
• IF there is a no show, telephone the person to remind them of the call, or at least leave them a voice message and ask if everything is OK

• apologise immediately via the main communication channel/all channels if unsure.
• eat humble pie.
• follow up with an email to explain why you missed the call - if  the person is human, AND your reason is true and transparent and you show remorse, you will be forgiven.
• send flowers if it was a VERY serious breach.

Elaine Godley, MBA, O.A. Dip (Psyche) is the founder of The Perfect Health HUB . Do join our multi award winning tribe soon.

I chose to put on my big girl pants, apologise, rise above the insults and wish the young lady well.

What would you have done ?!

[email protected]

The following day I received a giant apology from said young lady which was welcome. However, the relationship has been soured by this incident. Recovery will take time and has started by her making a booking in my calendar booking system this time (the error was from her system ironically).

Onwards and upwards!