The Bipolar Attitude

💡 When the wall won’t budge… what do you do?

A customer came to me frustrated.
End of Support had been announced. The timeline was fixed.
Although they knew, due to so many ongoing projects they simply didn’t have enough time to prepare.

I had tried multiple times to “move the wall.”
No luck.
Now I was stuck—
Do I keep banging my head against it?
Or just send a final email: “Sorry, this won’t change”?

That’s when I shared the situation with a mentor.
His advice puzzled me at first:

👉 “Take the bipolar attitude.”

I raised an eyebrow and thought,
Bipolar? That doesn`t sound too promising…

But then he explained:

• Externally: Be firm. Communicate the reality. End of Support won’t change. Expectations need to be managed.

• Internally: Do everything you can to help. Explore what’s really at risk. Dig into the details of the impact what is really at stake? Check processes on why it got to this, and see where workaround might exist—without moving the wall itself. See if there are other stakeholders you might be able to reach out to.

This clicked.
It wasn’t about choosing one path.
It was about holding two truths at once:
🔹 Stay clear and firm on the immovable.
🔹 Stay resourceful and empathetic on what can be influenced.

The “bipolar attitude” I think I will remember this word.

Even when delivering bad news, you can still lean in, build trust, and sometimes find a way where there seems to be none.