“Let me not be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them.” – Rabindranath Tagore
Last week’s blog post struck a nerve. Apparently, there are a lot of leaders out there struggling with attitude and positivity challenges. The good news is that quite a few of them are aware of it, and understand the work they need to do to maintain a constructive attitude. The bad news is, quite a few of them aren’t aware, or think it’s justified based on how difficult their lives currently are.
Let me repeat: Having a positive attitude and focusing on success does not mean ignoring real challenges. It doesn’t mean we pretend everything is perfect. Great leaders can never fail to be brutally honest about the situations in which they find themselves.
Having a positive attitude and focusing on success means that you are honest and direct about the circumstances you’re dealing with, and that you talk about those circumstances in a constructive way. You don’t sit and complain about people, or customers, or things that are completely out of your control. When you talk about the realities of your situation, it’s with the idea that you’re going to make positive change that’s going to move you, and your organization, forward.
That requires a lot of discipline. It’s much easier to complain than it is to be positive, especially when we’re with other people. When someone in a group is negative, somebody else will probably join in, and pretty soon everybody’s doing it.
We make the excuse that complaining about stuff is cathartic, or that it has some healing properties, but that’s not really the case. The more we go down the rabbit hole of negativity, the harder it is to get out, and the more energy we lose.
Think about the conversations your leaders have. When you get together as a team, are the conversations about how you’re going to solve problems and develop solutions? Or are the conversations just about the problems themselves and why they’re so horrible? Too many leadership teams have the second kind of conversations, and they keep having them over and over again.
Break the cycle. For starters, have a conversation with your leaders about their attitudes and about how they talk about the organization and its challenges. Point out where you’ve fallen short, and where the team has fallen short, and why that can’t continue.
You as a leader cannot be the reason that your organization’s mindset is negative. If you focus on negativity and complaining, everyone around you will as well. Pick people up. Don’t drag them down.
