Using Positive Psychology in Your Coaching Business: How to Panic During a Pandemic ~ Part 1
Disruption – the disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity, or process.
What other than the Covid 19 pandemic better embodies this definition? It has interrupted how we eat, how we meet friends, and how we do business. Everything, as we have always done them, has had to change. But is this a bad thing?
Here, we will reveal tips for using positive psychology in your coaching business to help yourself, your business, and your clients accept change and grow. We examine business owners’ feelings during the pandemic, how to 
acknowledge and use those emotions, and the mindset reset needed to thrive during disruptive times.
It’s Pan(dem)ic Time
Covid-19 has caused mass disruption on a global scale from the little things like where we eat to the big things like how a supply chain functions. Handling the shift from routine and security to uncertainty and risk is difficult. What do you do when that process for your business that always worked for such a situation no longer works?
So, what do you tell your clients when what they’ve been taught to do does not work? Naturally, they panic, get angry or have some other stress response. Things are not going as expected, and their job in the company (or even the business itself) is now in jeopardy because of this disruption. These stress responses can lead to rash decisions because they want to fix it. Now.
A lot of coaches will tell their clients to not panic. But, why? Having normal business operations interrupted for who knows how long as a deadly virus sweeps the globe is stressful. Panic is allowed. Stress is allowed. Anger is allowed. We, as humans, are allowed to feel the full rainbow spectrum of emotions. They exist for a reason. So, you (and your client) can take a moment and allow yourself to feel what you feel. Embrace it, acknowledge it, cry, scream, take a nap. Do whatever you have to do to accept what you are feeling.
Now take the feelings not helpful in the current moment and set them aside. They are still there and probably will be for a while but they are not your focus anymore. You (and your client) are now in the eye of the storm. You (and your client) now have the time to get it together before the eye moves and you are walloped by the second half of the storm. Taking the opportunity to do this allows you to develop resilience.
Stabilize! Yourself, Your Business, and Your Client
First things first: find your anchor. You can not be any kind of problem solver if you are whipping around in a storm desperately trying to find something to hold onto. But this isn’t a real storm? How do I anchor myself to something that isn’t physically there? How do I help my client find their anchor?
Disruptive times are a great time for self-reflection. It may not seem like it because you have a million different things to fix, but set that aside for now. Take a look at you. Are you eating enough? Are you getting enough sleep? Are you in a good place mentally?
Can you, as a business owner and coach, make good decisions when your most basic needs are not being met? Can you advise others when your decision-making process is stunted by lack of sleep or poor nutrition?
You cannot pour from an empty cup. When you thrive physically, mentally, emotionally so will your coaching business.
Now that you have taken care of yourself let’s pour that energy you have into your business: how are your employees? They are probably struggling to find their spot in these disruptive times. They may have been the best workers ever before the pandemic changed everything. Now they’re struggling to hit their goals or doing patchwork to keep your business surviving. They need you to be their anchor.
So, how do you do this? You build for them a safe space by creating certainty. This can be done by communicating. By letting your people know you will make a decision, when you will have more information, or even just when more information will come. These seemingly innocuous pieces of communication do a lot to create a place of certainty in a time that is inherently uncertain.
To read the rest of the article, click here.
How does it apply to you in your life?
Let’s continue the conversation by connecting with your colleagues on our Facebook page
If you are not already, click here to subscribe to choice Magazine.
