The expression “we become what we think”  most probably appeared first in the Bible “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”. James Allan wrote a book based on this ‘As a man thinketh’ – worth a read. Follow the five day self help course to help you assess and improve this aspect of your life:

Day one – Change your thinking

Lesson
If positive thinking leads to positive words, then positive words lead to positive actions and positive actions become a habit and bring success. It is believed that we think around 80,000 thoughts a day and we repeat about 80% of these thoughts the following day. Positive thinking therefore must surely be essential if we are to remain focussed and successful.
 
Action
Check yourself  when negative thoughts begin to take over and begin to think of solutions instead of problems, how to help someone rather than who to blame, how to create a positive climate instead of a gloomy climate.

Reading
As a man thinketh by James Allan

Day two – Thinking Big

Lesson
Thinking Big is about breaking out of our normal mode of thinking and believing we can do better. Many managers become defensive when they are challenged about the way they operate or if they are asked to attend a course to improve their management style or skills. The author David Schwartz suggests that rather than becoming defensive we should be like a sponge and be willing to listen and learn from anyone who has an opinion to offer.

Action
Identify a problem you are presently encountering and ask opinions from three people say, your manager, a colleague and one of your team, then listen and learn. Try to make a habit of listening to the opinions of these people.

Reading
The magic of thinking big by David Schwartz

Day 3 – The ten minute rule

Lesson
It is very easy to become and remain negative, to have as they say ‘a bad mood’ thus creating a negative climate in your office, factory, warehouse, store, or wherever it is you work. Negative climates affect motivation and are often cited as the reason good people leave their jobs. We are of course only human and so we do sometimes let our negativity get hold of us and it can stay with us for several hours, causing damage to relationships, morale and the business.

Try the ten minute rule. When you are feeling negative or angry. Go somewhere private and allow yourself ten minutes to moan, complain and feel bad about the situation. Then stop and consider what you can do:

• Can you retrieve a bad situation? If so get on and do it
• If not then accept it and get on doing the things that you can do.

Remember – always focus on what you can do, and not on what you can’t do.

Action
Decide to use the ten minute rule – give it a go – it works

Reading
Positive Thinking by Susan Quilliam

Day four – Self Esteem

The Lesson
You would expect that managers should have high self esteem, but this isn’t always the case. Perhaps it’s when things go wrong that staff only see the grumpy old boss, and don’t notice that failure actually bothers him...or her.

The good news is that self esteem can be improved. We have to believe in ourselves, sometimes when others, and sometimes this may be the MD! have stopped believing in us. Time to take action.

Action
Purchase Jack Canfield’s CD on How to Build High Self Esteem – it’s brilliant - and you’ll be able to use what you learn to help you and your team:
www.canfieldcoaching.com       

Day five – Putting positivity into action

Lesson
Whatever you have learned during the first four days needs to be put into action. Begin to implement what you have learned when working with your team members. No doubt you are a good manager – we all could do with a little help sometimes. So start thinking about support – mentoring and coaching is good.

Action
Take a look at what we can offer in terms of helping you as a manager:

Coaching
Syd Strike Management Academy
Syd Strike leadership courses

And tell us how we can help you be even better as a manager.

Many of our clients have posters around their company premises displaying the difference between positive behaviour and negative behaviour – operating above the line. There are several versions of this about. We are giving you our version with this month’s ebulletin. We receive lots of comments about how seeing the poster helps people realise the futility of negative thinking and the benefits of operating above the line.

My claim to fame is that I did train terrorists! Please don’t be alarmed I didn’t train them to be terrorists. When working in an outdoor activity centre, I did some facilitation sessions with a group of probationers from a centre in Northern Ireland. Some of these people had been involved in terrorist activities.

If you have ever done management or team building courses at an outdoor centre then you will appreciate how this works. Delegates participate in activities that involve working in teams to achieve tasks using ropes, planks, barrels and the like, getting the team from A to B in a set amount of time.  Well our group were involved in these activities and it was my job to help them review their successes and failures. Well in their case, successes. They achieved every task successfully in record time.

During one review session one of the guys asked me if I had any ‘harder’ tasks I could give the group. My response was to encourage the group because only the previous week I had given the same tasks to senior managers from a bank and they struggled to achieve the tasks on time. This prompted an outburst of responses suggesting that they were as good as any bank manager. Well I had to do my ‘facilitating’ bit and throw back the challenge; “So why then are the bank managers successful and earning good money while you are probationers?” I asked. Brave of me! Don’t you think?  Anyway, joking aside the response I received was “Well we had a bad start in life”. Whilst this is true, so did many other people.

I often quote Professor Stephen Hawking as an inspiration. Despite his incredible illness and limitations he became a world-renowned scientist who has written books and given numerous public appearances.  Stephen Hawking has neuro-muscular dystrophy that is related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a condition that has progressed over the years and has left him almost completely paralyzed but this has never prevented him from achieving whatever he set out to achieve.

I passionately believe in the potential of people and I always feel rewarded when after delivering training to managers and staff I witness people making positive changes to their lives and their working practices. I believe that my group of probationers could become achievers, given the right support. I also believe that many people in the workplaces where I deliver my training are capable of achieving far more than they allow themselves to achieve. So why do so many employees fail to realize their potential?  Is it because they didn’t get a good start? Or is it because they have chosen not to try? Or is it to do with bad management?

What do you think? Does positive thinking work?