Our thinking is our greatest ally or our worst enemy in our pursuit of excellence. Below we continue the article we began in the last post from The University of Kent in the United Kingdom.
The article gives some examples of the kind of thinking that prohibits us from excellence:
Negative performers
– Are content to leave performance at existing levels: how [have] little interest in developing their skills further.
– Disown responsibility for their own tasks.
– Distance themselves from responsibility for the team’s performance.
– Give up in the face of obstacles and don’t demonstrate a sense of personal responsibility for delivery.
– Take a narrow focus, taking [making] decisions in the interest of their own team or self.
– Are risk adverse: undermine confidence by focusing on difficulties, problems and obstacles.
– Act as if ‘knowledge is power’: reluctant to pass on their skills to others.
– Don’t involve team members where appropriate.
– React to symptoms rather than trying to understand the underlying causes.
– Are resistant to change.
– Avoid difficult conversations and confrontation.
“When optimists encounter a setback they are less likely than pessimists to just give up.”
Suzanne Segerstrom, Professor of Psychology. University of Kentucky.
“Optimists tend to respond to disappointments such as being turned down for a job by formulating a plan of action and asking others for help and advice; whereas pessimists tend just to give up.”
Michael F. Scheier, Carnegie-Mellon University. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Have you got a positive or a negative outlook?
– People who have an optimistic mind set achieve more positive outcomes than those with a negative mind set.
– People who believed that they could achieve a certain goal did so in 80% of cases whereas people who did not believe they could achieve their goal only achieved it 20% of the time. Optimists were found to put in more effort, were more persistent and acted more creatively to find ways to overcome problems.
– A study of salesmen found that salesmen who had a more optimistic outlook sold 37% more insurance in their first two years on the job than did those with the pessimistic view.
– Optimists handle stress better than do pessimists. Have a sense of well-being and improved health and have better coping skills during hardships.
“Pessimistic children do less well on achievement tests. It is not that they are less bright: they give up when things get frustrating.”
Martin Seligman, University of Pennsylvania. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
How to turn a negative outlook into a positive one.
– Cultivate a “can do” approach. Take greater responsibility for your decisions and actions. Don’t pull yourself down: focus on what you can do rather than what you can’t. Don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to anyone else. Use positive language: praise and show appreciation of others.
– Take [Perform] regular exercise: this will release endorphins – brain chemicals which make you feel good.
– 80% of the things that we worry about never happen and most of those that do we learn how to cope with. Worry is about the future, not the present. When a problem arrives we learn to cope with it.
– Compare yourself with other less well off than yourself rather than those better off. For example with people in developing countries who have nothing but are still often cheerful whereas many rich people in Western countries are unhappy.
– Count your blessings. Each day write down at least three things to be grateful for. People who have done this have found an increase in happiness. Remember what you like about yourself. Looking at the glass as half empty rather than half full can make you focus on trivial problems.
– To every disadvantage there is a positive advantage: remember that challenge = opportunity. Make a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).
– Action generates the impetus for further action. The more you take control of your circumstances, the better you will feel.
– Resilience involves reacting positively to negative outcomes. Learning to cope with adversity makes you stronger: helps in teaching us how to bounce back. The most successful people are often those who have had the most failures: they are more adventurous and learn from their mistakes. If you have never had a failure, you have never taken a risk. Failures should be thought of as opportunities for learning: you learn far more from your failures than from your successes.
– Find a role model: read the biographies of people you admire.
– Neuro Linguistic Programming is another useful set of techniques. It provides step-by-step procedures to help people achieve excellence.
“If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re absolutely right.”
Henry Ford