By Meridith Elliott Powell, CSP, CPAE
It’s been a week – a stressful, exciting, and incredibly rewarding week. After five days on the road speaking, I came home for less than 24 hours last Saturday, did a little laundry, repacked my suitcase and headed out for one of the most adventurous trips of my speaking career.
I was headed to speak in three cities (Helsinki, Bangkok and London), three countries that meant I would be traveling almost non-stop for one week. These were all different clients, separate engagements, and very diverse conferences. At first, I was not sure I could make the travel work. I mean trying to get from Asheville, North Carolina to Helsinki to Bangkok and then to London in just one short week is challenging in the best of times. But given all that is going on in the world right now, it was now close to impossible.
But working with my amazing travel agent, she found the flights, the airlines and just about the only route that made the connections work, gave me time to sleep and spend even a little time in each city and country. So, with my bags repacked, I was off and ready to fly on Saturday afternoon. This is where the story gets interesting.
Uncertainty Is Everywhere
As I walked into the airport to board my first flight, I got a message that my flight was delayed for four hours. Four hours, that when translated, meant there was no way I would make my connection to Helsinki. If could not get to Helsinki, I would not only miss my first speaking engagement, but I would not make it to Bangkok for speaking engagement number two. This was turning into a mess.
When I went to the airline desk to book another flight, the attendant let me know there were no other flights. No other flights that day, and no other flights to Helsinki until Monday. Meaning there were no other flights that would allow me to keep my speaking commitments. Uncertainty had struck, and I needed to think fast.
If I’m honest, at first I wanted to just give up. Call my clients in Helsinki and Bangkok, and share this story, and hope to be rebooked at another time. Certainly, they would understand. I could just rebook myself to London and keep that engagement. Honestly this was uncertainty outside of my control, and it was clear, everyone was telling me, I could not get there anyway.
But then I knew I was going to find a way. Afterall, this is uncertainty, my area of focus, my expertise, I could never just give up and then later get on a stage and share with any credibility to push through uncertainty to find opportunity. I could never do that, if when faced with uncertainty myself I did exactly what I told my audience not to do. Sometimes I think because my expertise is uncertainty, life throws me a little more of it.
So, I decided to drink my own Kool-Aid, take my own medicine and apply my own formula to the crazy, uncertain experience I was having.
3 Strategies to Turn Uncertainty to Competitive Advantage
Step ONE: Adapt Your Perspective
I knew that I was being told there was no way I was going to find a flight to make it to my speaking engagements. But I knew if I continued to focus on all the reasons I would not make it to these events, then I would continue to find more reasons this was not going to work.
So, while everyone else was telling me no, I just started telling myself yes. Lesson number one in the Ask for Change System is Adapt Your Perspective.
I made the decision that my perspective would be one of success rather than failure. Once I shifted my perspective, the ideas started to flow. I knew both the conference in Helsinki and the one in Bangkok were multi-day events, so I reached out to each meeting planner to see if they would “accept” me on day two instead of day one.
The Helsinki meeting planner responded immediately and said absolutely, but the other was understandably asleep because Bangkok was 12 hours ahead. So, I had to get more creative. I reached out to another meeting planner that worked in the same company, the meeting planner I had worked with last time I spoke for them, and the one that I knew was based in New York. I got lucky, even though it was Saturday, she responded immediately and told me to book the ticket and that she would make it work.
Great, I had approval from both meeting planners, now I just needed to find flights that would work. For the next two hours I talked with not one, not two, but three attendants to find the one who was willing to break a few rules to get me on the flights that I needed. I just kept asking for another attendant every time the one I was working with told me no.
Finally, she found a set of flights that would get me there – but the layovers were crazy. The timing was so bad for each, and I knew I was looking at a week of no sleep and crazy amounts of time in airports. But again, perspective, I was on my way and was going to deliver for my clients.
THE LESSON: When uncertainty strikes, you need to decide that what is happening is happening for you, not to you. And you need to decide that by working through the uncertainty, not being defeated by it, you will find the opportunity. You control your perspective, and perspective drives belief; belief drives action, and actions drive results.
Step TWO: Focus On People
As I headed to the airport lounge to wait six hours for my first flight, the reality of what I had just done sank in. I was about to fly halfway around the world, by myself, to places where I have never been, on multiple different airlines, ones I have never flown on, and ones where I have no status. Having multiple airlines involved greatly increased my chances of delays, canceled flights, or not making connections. Add to that, I was doing it all at a time when flights were not only getting delayed, but they were being canceled without options to rebook. People were stuck in the exact countries where I was flying.
Fear started to creep in, fear that I would get stranded, fear I would not make it all the way, fear I would not get home, and fear I would be all alone. The fear became overwhelming.
Then I remembered step two in the Ask for Change System, Focus on People. One of the most important lessons of uncertainty is that you don’t, and that you can’t, have the answers. How could you, you have no idea what is or what will happen. Your perspective shows you where you’re going, but the answers to how you get there will only be revealed through creating relationships, connecting, and listening to people.
If you connect and listen to people, they will not only give you the answers to all of your questions, but they will actually help you build your strategy for success. So, that is how I handled calming my fears and figuring out how to make this work. I focused on people, focused on building connections, asking questions, and listening for the answers.
Every airport I went into, every time I boarded a flight, had to find a gate, every time I had to land and the countless times I went through customs I just asked people questions, listened to what they told me, and took their advice. And no matter the country, no matter the airport, no matter the hotel, everyone was so kind, so helpful and felt so invested in helping me make it on this journey.
On paper this trip was impossible, not logical, and the odds of everything falling into place were slim to none. In fact, the pieces did not always fall into place. But focusing on people ensured I gained the knowledge I needed to figure it out.
There is no way I would have made it without people. Trying to go it alone, I would have made connections, had access to the visas and forms I often found out about last minute, and located the right gate when flights were moved without my app or the airline board did not reflect the change. People, connections proved invaluable and made a trip that seemed impossible somehow work.
The LESSON: When uncertainty presents problems and challenges, and it will present problems and challenges, don’t think what do I need to do, think who can I be working with. The answers to thriving in uncertainty are in connecting and listening to your network, your team, and your customers.
Step THREE: Commit To Process
And so I was on my way, making it through this journey, country by country, engagement to engagement, but I knew even with the right perspective and right focus on people, I still needed to be ready for more change and uncertainty.
And while I had made the mistake at the beginning of this trip of not planning for uncertainty, I was not going to make that mistake again. So, while flying on planes, sitting in lounges, riding to hotels, I would go through everything that could possibly go wrong and ask myself “What could I do now to prepare?” I would proactively think what would I do if this or that happened.
This is Step Three in Ask for Change System, Commit to Process and Get in Shape for Change.
I made plans for things like if I missed a flight, proactively calling the airline and finding contacts to work with should I need them. Talking to meeting planners to give me as much space as possible between landing and getting on stage. Booking car services from the airport to the speaking venue to save time and ensure accuracy. And the list goes on.
Still committed to my positive perspective, still focusing on people, I still planned for things to not go right. I was proactively planning for uncertainty, using the time I had to think about what could happen. Having and making a plan not only built my confidence but made it so much easier when uncertainty hit again, and yes, it hit again all through this trip.
THE LESSON: Uncertainty is ongoing, it never stops. Change can be your greatest opportunity if you see it coming; if you ignore change, it will derail you. So, use the time that you have to get in shape for change. The more you talk about change, think about change, and prepare for change, the more you will control change rather than allowing change to control you.
I am writing this article on a flight home from this journey and this week, and it still amazes me that everything worked, that we made it happen. The events were incredible, the audiences engaged and grateful, and the meeting planners were so appreciative that I had gone above and beyond.
What the week lacked in sleep, it more than made up for in standing ovations and the confidence I had in delivering a message that I had not only researched, but one that I now believed at such a deeper level because I had validated it myself.
This is so much more than a keynote or workshop for me; it is now a mission. I have seen the formula work for the companies, sales professionals and leaders I work with, and now I have experienced first-hand the power of Asking for Change!