One unfortunate characteristic of many work environments is a culture of negativity and pessimism, which can start at the top and trickle down or begin at the bottom and find its way to the top. In either case, negativity is part of human nature, but when it overwhelms a workplace, it can do a lot of damage. An interesting finding from studying this topic is that many leaders will give up on teaching their employees to be positive without even trying. One thing that makes a leader a great one, is they teach not only skills but attitude. Great leaders are positive thinkers themselves. They are positive people.
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How to Teach Positive Thinking at Work
In order to teach positive thinking to employees, you have to be a positive person and a forward-thinking individual. Using statements such as “Let’s deliver the best customer service” or “We need to develop a culture of accountability” aren’t good enough because they are far too general and left up to interpretation. What do we mean by great customer service? Being friendly or responsive? What does accountability mean? Holding myself and others responsible? We all have our own ideas based on experience about what these concepts might mean. We therefore must be specific about exactly what positive thinking looks and feels like, and employees need to know whether or not they are exhibiting such behaviors.
Henry Ward Beecher, an American clergyman, social activist, and teacher of God’s love once said, “Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself – and be lenient to everybody else.” Aristotle believed that the ultimate goal of anyone’s life was to be happy, and each act by a person is aimed at achieving a greater state of happiness.
Here is a good place to start with this task. Positive thinking involves high self-expectations and working towards happiness. These are things you can teach your employees and hold them to it. You can also teach your staff that a measure of how successful they are in life is how happy they are most of the time. Success doesn’t only apply to finances, but to genuine life satisfaction and joy. Therefore, teaching positive attitudes in the workplace involves positive emotions like happiness, love, peace, joy and success as a team.
An important point to stress about teaching positive thinking to others is developing the habit of intentional positive thinking. It is easy to go negative. It has taken me years to evaluate my thoughts and reactions and determine if they are positive or negative. It is like “watching your thoughts” or “thinking about your thoughts”. For instance, someone says something hurtful to you and your initial reaction is to retaliate with a hurtful statement or thought. Here is where you stop and ask yourself “Why did I think that just now?” or “Why did my thoughts take me to a negative place?” In other words, you are analyzing your thoughts in real time and purposefully deleting the negative and replacing it with a positive thought. This seems like a lot of work, and it is. But, over time it becomes a habit, and a tough one to break. It’s worth the time and effort to develop a cycle of positive thinking for yourself and to teach your team.
Teaching positive thinking also involves showing employees how to clean their minds of justifying negativity and rationalizing negative thinking or reacting. A good way to explain this is to think “It’s not okay to be negative”. It’s also not okay to be judgmental or hypersensitive. There is no reason to make yourself a victim of other people’s behaviors. Teach them to eliminate blame and finger pointing and to practice forgiveness. Do you see a pattern or theme emerging here? Each one of these habits is more associated with happiness. Aristotle was right.
Final Words on Teaching Employees the Power of Positive Thinking
Obviously there is a lot more to teaching employees how to think positively than written in this short article. Sometimes keeping it simple is better, and I think that applies here. Watch your thoughts and be responsible for them. Hold yourself and others to higher standards. All of us can be better. And, always strive for the ultimate human goal in life – happiness.
To learn more about teaching employees about a lot of great workplace-enhancing ideas, visit collinslearning.com. We have a corporate solution that I think you’ll be happy with – no pun intended.
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