Leaders shape outcomes through mindset, so choose optimism, act on opportunity, and set expectations that inspire rather than limit your team.
"Expect the best and prepare for the worst.” We have all heard it. But do we LIVE it? Unfortunately many of us in leadership positions in AEC firms do not. Instead, we focus on the negative possibilities and as a result, we do not inspire our teams and potentially manifest the very negative outcome that we fear.
Why is this? Is it just because we are rational human beings and therefore preoccupied more with survival than we are maximizing our potential? Or is it because so much of our formal training is focused on risk reduction? I don’t know the answer.
The one thing I DO know is that now – as much as any time I can recall – we need to be the optimists – the maximizers – the sellers of positive possibilities. When all we hear is bad news it’s easy to slip into negativity and fear. I have done it myself, even recently. Then the epiphany came to me. Out of every “bad” event, there is always a new opportunity – IF you can see it and seize upon it. And that awareness made me change my expectations.
For example, we could lose a key long-term employee. We could wring our hands and lament the situation, or we could choose to see it as an opportunity to replace the person with someone who is even better and who takes us in new directions.
Or we could lose a big client. We could focus on the loss of revenue that this client gives us and look for ways to cut costs, or we could get creative and triple our efforts to find an even better client or clients to replace them with.
We encounter these situations and others like them every day. The question is, how are you responding to them? With optimism and action, or with fear and negativity? What are your expectations – for success or failure? And how do you think your words and actions impact everyone who works with you?
My first boss out of grad school, the late Michael Latas, was very fond of homilies. He told the same stories over and over and sometimes drove us mad. But there was always a point to them. One of his favorites was about the man driving through a town who stopped to ask another fellow on the street what the people of the town were like because he was thinking about moving there. The local resident asked him, “What are the people like where you live now?” The traveller said, “They really aren’t very nice. Everyone is pretty rude and not very neighborly.” The local said, “I think you will find the people here are pretty much like that as well.”
A few days later, another fellow is driving through the town and stops, telling the local resident he was thinking of relocating there and asking the same local the very same question about the people who lived there. Of course, the local asked him the same question he asked the other guy a few days earlier, i.e., what the people were like where he lived now. The traveller said, “They are all nice. Really friendly and neighborly.” The local said, “I think you will find the people here are pretty much like that as well.”
The point of the story is to realize that things pretty well turn out how you expect them to. What are your expectations?
Maybe you need inspiration yourself? Read books about successful entrepreneurs and business leaders who faced overwhelming odds of failure but instead chose to not give up and succeed. Or maybe you just need to talk to someone who can help you work through this. The right counselor. The right mentor. The right partner.
I think a big part of how we respond to situations and what our expectations are depends on our circle of friends, influencers, and mentors. Are they truly successful people who encountered challenges and took risks and broke through, or are they people who instead felt they were largely helpless and could only pull back when things got difficult? It’s been said before we are most influenced by the five people we spend the most time around. Maybe it’s time to remove the negative influences in your life in an effort to change your mindset.
Think about it.
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Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com. |