Difficult...with a touch of gratitude

We all experience difficult situations and handle them differently; I guess also, that what one person deems difficult may not seem that way by another. What constitutes a difficult situation can be varied and differ from situation to situation such as in personal or professional life, in family or social situations, general society and other aspects as well. I’ve had my share of them and feel I’ve mostly dealt with them well and on those occasions I’ve handled them badly I always reflected and learned from them...usually.

Recently I’ve been dealing with a very difficult and highly-charged work situation with a client and have gone through the different phases swinging from extremely problematic and stressful moments to moving forward in leaps and bounds. It’s been several weeks of effort and I’m happy to say, despite the complexities, a successful result was achieved and I have a happy client. That’s not to say they were happy throughout the process, they have been very difficult to work with, but just as I have found the situation challenging they have too and they’re well within their rights to react to the duress in their own way. These types of interactions between human beings don’t always go well, people can be totally unreasonable, but in this case it’s not gone too badly.

I finalised this challenging situation a week or so ago and had thought I was done with it but a couple days ago it came back to me and I was blown away by what happened.

I won’t go completely into what happened but in a nutshell, the client had sent through a letter to the Director of the organisation I work for in which I was mentioned many times and after the meeting I had with the Director during which I read the letter I just couldn’t believe what I’d read.

Words like, exemplary service and professionalism, extremely knowledgeable, results-focused, personable, decisive, inclusive, expert communicator, organised, responsible, ethical and other such words were scattered throughout the letter; that’s right, the letter was to praise my efforts, how I’d dealt with the situation and attained the results and solutions that ensued. A letter of gratitude.

The Director expects those things from me when I represent the organisation and internally with others within the organisation as well of course, and he knows I deliver, but he was really grateful that I’d managed to satisfy the client, one of our largest and most lucrative, and that I'd exceeded their expectations on a matter of vital importance to both parties and maintain that consistency through the several weeks of the process. I didn’t get a pay rise, but his thanks and gratitude, plus that of the client, was all I could have asked for.

And then the gift arrived the next day.

I don’t want to say what it was other than to say it was significant and quite clearly very expensive...very. It was also totally relevant to me personally demonstrating that the client cared enough to learn and understand who I was as a person and match their gift to me specifically. I was quite humbled really, but also felt happy that my efforts in handling this situation were so appreciated considering it could have gone pear shaped; I’ve done similar with other clients and not a word of thanks is spoken sometimes, so to receive it was a welcome change.

These things don’t always go so well and sometimes difficult situations and interactions become such thorns in our sides and cause a great deal of anxiety, stress, anger, resentment and other such (avoidable) things. This is usually because the sense of entitlement people feel, inflexibility, ego, hubris and pride – we all feel those things at some stage – but the best way forward is to avoid those feelings as things will be smoother if everyone works together and respectfully towards the same outcomes.

The client showing gratitude, thanks and appreciation helped round out the situation and sets the time for next time. That doesn’t have to be thank you letters and gifts either; a simple word of “thanks" goes a very long way...but it's a word society seems to forget much of the time, generally speaking.

What do you think? Have you had situations like this go very well or very badly?

What happened throughout, how did you and the others deal with it personally and what were the outcomes? Are you the type to offer thanks and appreciation to those who assist you or do you feel that isn’t an important part of interactions like this? Have you received such gratitude and if so how did it make you feel?

If you’d like to comment on this or anything else, please do.