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The National Learning Institute™ |
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Are You Positive or Negative? Does your behaviour impact those around you?
Copyright © 2006 The National Learning Institute This article may be freely published electronically. It may be reprinted for individual use in hard copy but may not be reprinted in hard copy for commercial purposes.
Some years ago, I read a report by Spiro Zavos in the sports columns of my SMH newspaper, which described the behaviour of a football coach during a very tense finals game. The antics of the losing coach gave a very good insight into why his team did not win and in fact loses many close games. In part, Zavos’ report read “He was at his over-emotional worst at Lancaster Park on Sunday. The eyes rolled more wildly than ever, he stalked the sideline. Not even the television cameras were safe from his flaying arms. His antics sent a damaging message to his team: that the fates are conspiring against them and they are, somehow, destined to lose. And for the second week in a row they lost a critical game.” The winning coach on the other hand “ … sat impassively in the stands. The sign he gave to his players with this emotionless posture was that if the players wanted to win, they had to do it themselves. And they did. Just.”
Both these coaches were very experienced and knowledgeable about the game. Both had got their teams to the finals. But why did one coach’s team always lose the close games and the other always win?
It all has to do with the positive or negative outlook we take and which can dramatically impact those around us. Often we are not aware of the messages we are sending through our actions. Psychologists call this a Locus of Control (first developed by Julian Rotter, 1966). Locus of Control refers to a person’s perception of the main causes of the events in their life. For example, do you believe that your destiny is controlled by yourself (“I did it myself”) or by external forces such as fate or other people? (“It was their fault”) Put simply, if you believe that your behaviour is guided by your personal decisions and efforts, then you are said to be more internally focused, i.e. you have an internal locus of control. On the other hand, if you believe that your behaviour is guided by fate, luck, or other external circumstances, then you are said to have an external locus of control.
Is one better than the other? That’s always the $64,000 question in psychology. But generally, people with an internal locus of control tend to have greater influence on their motivation, expectations, self-esteem, risk-taking behaviour, and even on the actual outcome of their actions. As you would expect, some studies also suggest that people with an internal locus of control tend to be more positive in their behaviour and outlook.
Can you tell what your locus of control is? Perhaps the people who know you well can answer this best for you. But there are also a number of short tests freely available on the web (for example; http://www.dushkin.com/connectext/psy/ch11/survey11.mhtml or http://www.queendom.com/tests/personality/lc_access.html) that you can take. These only take a few minutes to complete and will also give you a good guide.
The second, and probably more important question is: That if you decide that you need to be more internally focussed, can you change your locus of control?
The answer is an unequivocal, “Yes”. Many studies have shown that our locus of control is a learned behaviour and as such, can be changed. My own experience in working as a coach to club, national and international rowing coaches, is that training coaches by getting them to change their behaviour with their athletes, can improve the positive outlook they display within 12 months! This approach has also been successful in my role as a training consultant in the work environment with new and aspiring managers who were looking to improve the motivation of their team (first look at thyself!).
Finally, how does one change one’s locus of control and consequently one’s outlook? There are a number of training programs available that use effective behavioural change methods to help move people from a more external focus to a more internal focus. But, if you want a very simple method that you can start applying straight away, then changing the words you use in every day conversations can have a major impact.
For instance, getting rid of the word “don’t” from your vocabulary and replacing it with the positive image of what you are suggesting, starts to make you far more positive in your outlook. Take a look at the following short statements and see what images you get when you read each one …
Don't drop it. Don't walk on the grass. In case of fire do not use lifts.
In the first statement, the only image that comes to mind is the picture of “dropping something” (and quite often the negative consequences of what we have just done and our previous negative experiences of dropping something, particularly when we were children).
The image that the second statement conjures up is of a person “walking on the grass”, not the footpath as the message intends (“footpath” is never mentioned!).
And in the third example, the only thing we can visualise is the “lift”. In fact, studies have shown that when there is a fire emergency and the vestibule or foyer starts to fill with smoke, the only word that people recognise in these types of signs, is “lift” and they immediatley head straight for the lift and not the emergency exit as was intended. As a result, some authorities have now changed their signage to read “In case of fire, use the emergency exit pictured in this diagram” (notice that in this new example the word “lift” is not used at all).
Start to get the picture? Each of the original statements immediatley has both the speaker and the receiver visualising and thinking of exactly the opposite (and negative) action that should be taken. However, by eliminating the word “don’t” and replacing it with the positive action you intend as outlined below, the speaker starts to think (and behave) more positively and impacts his or her audience more positively, and thus becomes more internally focused. Look at the way a person with an internal locus of control, might express the three statements …
Hold on to the glass very carefully. Walk on the footpath. In case of fire use the fire exit described in the following diagram.
In these new statements, both the sender and the receiver get the positive message immediately.
Can this technique work for you? I did some follow up interviews with the athletes of the rowing coaches I had been training 12 months after the start of their training. Without exception, the athletes all expressed the theme that “She has really changed over the last 12 months. We are not sure what you included in your training with our coach, but she is so much more positive these days. We really enjoy being coached by her”.
Is it easy to replace “don’t” with a positive image? In theory, yes. But in my own case, it took me about 12 months. Occasionally, I still find myself using a “don’t”, but when I do, an “alarm bell” goes off in my brain and I immediately rephrase my statement to the positive image I want to get across. As a result, over the last few years, people have commented to me “Bob, you seem to be such a positive person. Even when you are faced with adversity or a real problem , you always seem to take a positive approach. I really enjoy working with you”.
If you would like to discuss your locus of control with me, I’d be happy to share some experiences. In particular, I’m always looking for examples of behaviour change that I can use in my consulting and coaching.
So, You Want To Be A Consultant! 4 Steps To Take On The Pathway To Success.
Copyright © 2006 The National Learning Institute This article may be freely published electronically. It may be reprinted for individual use in hard copy but may not be reprinted in hard copy for commercial purposes.
During my career as a manager and since I myself became a consultant in 1987, I have had many colleagues and acquaintances move into the consultancy profession. Sometimes this move was by choice as a genuine career move. In the late 90s however, the proliferation of consultants was exacerbated by the downsizing of organisations and so, people who had been “cut” and who were unable to find a similar role in another organisation tried the consulting path – often with little success and a great deal of pain.
The following suggestions on becoming a consultant have been developed as a result of my own experience, my advice sessions with colleagues starting out on their consultancy career journey and the lessons I have learned from watching people either succeed or fail to make the grade as a consultant. My belief is that there are at least four things that one must do to develop a successful career as a consultant:
Firstly, decide on an area of expertise and "research it to death!". Become a real "expert" in your chosen field. Organisations are looking for people as consultants to fill a gap in their skill base, knowledge, expertise etc and that's why they go to a consultant (otherwise they would find the expertise internally).
Secondly, find a mentor who can assist with your development over the longer term. These people are not so easy to find, so be patient. They must be experts in your chosen field of expertise and be willing to pass on their knowledge and experience freely to you. You also need to develop a good personal relationship with them. I've been lucky enough to work for one many years ago (Dennis Pratt author of "Aspiring to Greatness – Above and Beyond TQM", Business & Professional Publishing, Sydney, 1994) who became my mentor and who has remained a mentor for me ever since.
Thirdly, find a coach. This type of person is quite different to your mentor. Your coach is someone who will be able to help you in developing your skills as a consultant (as opposed to developing your area of expertise). These people you must find very early on in your career as a consultant, because they are very good "process" managers (as opposed to "content" managers, content being your area of expertise).
They can often be bosses you work for (so choose wisely) or business partners with more consultancy expertise than yourself. Sometimes your mentor and coach can be one and the same person, but this is rare. One of the differences for spotting a coach from a mentor is that your coach will have a commercial interest in your success (boss, partner, business associate), so he or she is committed to you for the short term. Your mentor on the other hand, will not necessarily have the same commercial and vested interest and will become your mentor because of his or her willingness to share their knowledge and the extent to which you build the relationship with them, and so will be committed to you for the long term.
Finally, gain experience. This generally only comes with time. When I say experience, I am not so much referring to your experience as a consultant (although this will come), but your experience IN your chosen area of expertise. For example, let's say in my case it's "hands on tools for new managers" - I really do need to be a new manager before I can offer other people advice on their own development. This will be particularly important to your client prospects. Sometimes experience is hard to get and as I said before, takes time. But you can speed the process for example, by taking part time jobs (or full time if you have the opportunity) or by volunteering to work in your chosen field, or working with another consultant who is considered an expert in your chosen field.
In writing this article for aspiring consultants, my hope is that the four steps I have outlined will help lead you to a very successful and rewarding career as a consultant. Enjoy!
How Busy Are You? - A Great Tip For Effective Time Management
Copyright © 2006 The National Learning Institute This article may be freely published electronically. It may be reprinted for individual use in hard copy but may not be reprinted in hard copy for commercial purposes.
You receive a phone call from the CEO who asks whether you’d be interested in taking on a special assignment. In this assignment you would report directly to the CEO and participate in making some of the important strategic decisions facing the company. This assignment would provide you personally with major growth and career opportunities. The offer has only one catch; because the assignment is only part time requiring about one day per week, you would have to do your present job in the remaining four days. Would you take the assignment?
Before reading any further please answer “”Yes” or “No”
HBR (October 2002) reports that this question has been posed to hundreds of managers, most of whom believed that they already lacked the time to do their jobs properly. Yet, ninety nine percent of them take the assignment. Why?
Are these managers (and perhaps we could include ourselves): · Admitting that if the motivation were powerful enough, they could eliminate or do in much less time eight to ten hours worth of current activities each week without negative consequences? · Currently spending time performing unproductive, time wasting activities (that they could easily drop) to avoid or escape job related anxiety?
Like the other 99% of managers, did you answer “Yes”?. If so, what activities that you currently do, could you eliminate or do less of to free up some of your time for the more important things you need to do?
Almost all managers escape some job-induced anxiety through a variety of unproductive, often unconscious, psychological mechanisms – rationalization, denial, blaming and so forth. One of the most costly is busyness; the escape into time consuming activities that managers find less threatening to perform (though much less productive) than the tough aspects of their jobs. I call these “comfort tasks” – comfort because they are generally mindless and easy to do. However, having done them, have we progressed any of the major tasks we need to achieve? The answer is almost certainly “No”. And like good food, “comfort tasks” make us feel good, but if we have too much, we feel bloated. The trick is to keep the comfort tasks to an enjoyable minimum and thus not become “time management obese”.
So, how do you reduce the amount of time spent on “comfort tasks”?
The first step is to become aware of how much time each of us spends on these comfort tasks. Remember, for most of us, these comfort tasks are done unconsciously, so we need to find out what they are. For the next week: · Place a very bright post-it note somewhere visible with a large question: “Is this a comfort task?” (You will quickly learn to identify them because they are the things that you start to do when your mind wanders AND you find yourself not working on the required major goals, tasks or activities) · Take a note of the things you do that are comfort tasks (i.e. they are not progressing your major goals or activities) During the following week: · Make a conscious effort to reduce the amount of time you spend on identified comfort tasks. · Keep in mind, that some time spent is ok (and healthy), but overdoing it is overdosing!
In the future, should you find your mind wandering, remember the “comfort task” trick and get back on track. This simple technique is bound to free up some of your time to focus on the really important things either within your job or private life. |