The 5 Step Process to Keep Your Emotions In Check In Tough Business Situations

The 5 Step Process to Keep Your Emotions In Check In Tough Business Situations

When business, money, or love is involved, emotions can rule your interactions and can cause a conversation to go sour very quickly. It can be a struggle to respond to difficult business questions, both in email and in person. Are your immediate instincts are to defend yourself?  Here is a simple process that helps to respond with confidence and ease instead of defensiveness. 

In tough situations, remember the SHARE acronym:

Background: Your boss comes to you and asks if you lost $10,000 on an important order. 

Defensiveness: “Do you trust me at all?” or “I did what I had to do to save the customer!”

Instead – SHARE it!

S – SITUATION: Give the facts of the situation. Include a timeline and overview, and if there are any other pertinent details.

• We made a sale to this customer a few months ago – we sold them 100 widgets. These widgets were top of the line – $1,000 each. 

H – HINDRANCE: Explain the problem.

• There was a bad batch from the factory and 10% broke in 45 days. The customer understood that these things sometimes happen, but the manufacturer only covers the widgets for 30 days.

A – ACTION: Talk about the action that you took to solve the problem.

• I took it upon myself to authorize the team to process their replacements at no charge even though they were out of warranty.

R – RESULTS: Your end results after taking action.

• As a result, their parent company is so thrilled with us that they are working on a purchase for 1,000 more widgets!

E – EVALUATE: Bring it full circle.

• I’m aware that you saw this charge coming through and saw this as losing $10,000. However, I am confident I made the right choice here and saved a customer.
• Boss: “That makes sense. Thanks for the information. Next time just get me to sign off on it, I know that you know what you are doing.”

Wow! Look at how smooth that process ended up being! Make sure to use the SHARE words in response to keep your answers succinct when responding. It provides clear and concise answers upon response.

Next time your first instinct is to be defensive, instead, SHARE it!

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