Your Pain Is My Priority

Quick, that client has an emergency! What are you going to do about it?!

When this happens, we have two choices. Let’s start with the popular one…

“Your emergency is my urgency”

This is the default setting of anyone new to this concept who truly cares about those they serve. If you care, you want to “make everything better” when there’s an emergency. To fight the fire, to save the day.

By adopting their emergency as your own, you do so while unwillingly sacrificing your own priorities which, from that same heart of service, was likely set with their best interests in mind anyway.

What’s the alternative?

“Your pain is my priority”

This option isn’t popular because it doesn’t feel natural to most of us.

This option remembers that saying “OK!” to the emergency sacrifices a better version of the future for the client, in favor of short-term appeasement. This option knows how important it is to invest time in explaining the importance of that bigger future.

When you adopt the “your pain is my priority” option, the focus isn’t on the emergency, but on solving the problem for good.

You’re in the problem-solving business, not the firefighting business, aren’t you?