You get it, positive cultures make work more enjoyable. They inspire you to serve and help you feel like a valuable contributor. They make for a more collaborative environment, help with employee retention, welcome innovation, and drive productivity. You can see it in your mind and you just know your team, department, organization would thrive if they could just see it too.
But where do you start? You’ve been the positive one at the meetings. You’ve pointed out the obvious need for change. You’ve bent, shifted, given of yourself until you can’t anymore, and you feel like you just aren’t making a difference. How do you get everyone else to see the light and jump in? How do you get them to see that positivity is a cultural and competitive advantage that addresses obstacles and negativity rather than ignoring it or being too “Pollyanna”.
You can do this, but the right tools and approach make a big difference! Here are a few tips to get the positivity train going, growing, and eventually thriving with your crew of negative Nancies and Debbie downers.
Create Buy-In
Introduce Small Groups that offer support and connection to build relationships
Get a copy of The Power of Positive Leadership and The Power of Positive Teams in the hands of your leaders.
Live it, model it, and encourage it
Bring in the experts. Schedule a training, workshop, or consulting.
Leadership is a transfer of belief. We have to believe something is possible so much that others can’t help but want to be a part of our vision. We have to transfer our energy and our vision into the belief system of our teams and organizations, into our communication and our actions so that negativity has no room to grow.
Here’s where it often goes wrong: In our frustrated quest for change, we can sometimes spend to much energy pointing out the flaws. We point to mistakes. We gripe about how people won’t listen or change. We can easily, in our own quest to be positive, actually become incredibly negative in our pursuit. You must believe, deep down in your thoughts, actions, and words that change IS POSSIBLE. You must hold onto that belief through challenges and it must be greater than any doubts and stronger than the negativity around you. Then you must be open to the changes taking place and understand that it’s not linear, it’s not always pretty, you may not get everyone person to embrace the light, but it’s worth it.
Creating buy in is about helping people see the vision and how that vision will personally affect their quality of life, work, and goals in a positive way. Turn around “meetings” by inspiring solution building, rather than time suckers like complaining and arguing. The exercise of turning challenges into opportunity as a group inspires the idea that this meeting can truly bring about forward momentum for change and productivity increases. How often do we enter a meeting already defeated thinking things such as – this is just how it is here. We never accomplish anything. So and so is going to derail everything again. This is a waste of time…. Those beliefs become a reality and we eliminate the chance of making true lasting change.
We can introduce the idea of positivity to our teams and organizations when we aren’t in a leadership position by meeting our teams where they are and providing a space to grow together and connect. Rather than pointing a finger of woe towards negativity, invite them into your positive vision.
You don’t have to have a title to be a great leader. Influence is leadership and everything you say, think and do is going to influence everyone you interact with daily. What are you consistently communicating through both successes as well as challenges.
A morning coffee meet and greet group can help bring people together. Starting encouragement activities can spark some positive flames. Interrupting complaining with a positive spin, changing the subject, or simply refusing to add to the negativity cyclone that can build so quickly and destroy everything in its path, is another great start.
When you create a positive tribe at work, you are uniting people under a common purpose and vision. It’s not about you being perfect, it’s not about making everyone happy, solving every issue, ignoring obstacles or getting people to like you. It’s about providing the opportunity for people to see what life and work can be like when you come together, connect, communicate, care, and commit to each other.
Sometimes you need a little help. That’s the reason book clubs can be so successful. You can start by giving that morning coffee connection group a boost of direction, purpose and a healthy dose of perspective shifting through a great book! Try reading the Coffee Bean together and then become a group that is working to transform the environment around you. Companies, organizations, and teams all over the world have been successfully using a book club to introduce concepts and get people on board.
But maybe you need a little more help. That’s when you bring in the experts. Sometimes a little spark can start the a positive shift in mindset. A workshop with leadership, teams, or groups in your organization can be a powerful experience. In an interactive and engaging half day workshop or a full day of training, coupled with a few consulting sessions can build great strides towards real and lasting change that drives all the great things that positive cultures create. The trainers on the Jon Gordon Companies team have been working with corporate, non profit, educational, and athletic organizations all over the country to drive positive change through teaching the applications and principles that create it. They help organizations connect to the principles, bringing them to life and anchoring them to an action plan. to address your specific challenges and goals.
You can transform your environment. Jon talks about being the coffee bean, not letting your environment change you but rather you seizing the opportunity to become the catalyst for improving the environment around you – just like a coffee bean transforms water into delicious coffee!
If you need a little help getting started you can reach out to get more information on how to schedule a workshop to come out to you, a full day of training, or team consulting.
Making the decision to start, fueling the belief that positive change is possible and that the obstacles in front of you are in your best interest in providing the opportunity needed to grow and become better is the hardest part – after that it’s just getting up each day to live your purpose and seeing the powerful shift that can bring!
Email me for more info at kate@jongordon.com
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