This time of the year we are often faced with people who walk around looking like they have the worries of the world on their shoulders.  They may be feeling this way because of the seasonal change, it could be the thought of the cost of Christmas, increasing energy costs or they could be a born worrier, with a half empty glass!

You like I may find these people energy sappers who can change the mood of the room or a meeting.  So how can we change this?

We need to accept that for this type of person when something triggers them into worrying they see it as a massive picture of things that have gone wrong in the past or the catastrophes that could happen in the future, they cannot see beyond this.  They may also hear those voices in their head saying, this cannot possibly work, and it hasn’t in the past… so much self doubt means they cannot see a positive outcome.

When faced with them we need to help them change the picture they see by asking some simple coaching questions that take the negative into a positive:

• What exactly are you concerned about?
• What needs to happen to stop that happening?
• What are the likely barriers and problems you think you will face along the way?
• For you, what needs to happen next to help deal with those?
• How likely do you feel this can happen based on your current situation?
• With this in mind what could ‘go right’ for you?

Hope this helps you to change their picture and their glass from ‘half empty’ to ‘half full’