Power of Positivity

The next entry in my series on power is the power of positivity, which can have a huge impact on your life overall not just in your work.  The power of positivity is easily controlled by an individual, in how they choose to display their emotions at work.  While it might take some serious emotional labor at first, like any change in life, it will become easier with time and practice.  Emotional labor is when the emotion you feel is not the emotion you display, because this takes mental ability to repress the felt emotion.  Being positive is important for a few reasons and it is definitely worth the emotional and mental labor.

The first reason positivity is important is because of the phenomenon known as emotional contagion, which is the spreading of one person's emotions to those around them.  If someone you work with is having a bad day, you can help them by being positive.  The same goes for customers, by being positive in your interaction with them you can give them a positive view of the company you work for.  The bottom line is no one wants to deal with someone who is always in a bad mood, so by being positive you can spread that to those around you and improve your team morale.

Emotional contagion aside being a positive person increases your personal power and influence.  This is because earlier we said no one wants to work with a negative person, but the opposite is also true, in that people want to work with a positive person.  This works to increase your influence, which is a key part of leadership.  By being positive in stressful situations you can help to create a sense of calm, which makes difficult situations easier to navigate.  Being positive will not be easy as there are a lot of stressful and negative things that happen to us on a daily basis, but being positive will definitely be worth it, especially when you find yourself as the leader of the team.


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Power of Paying Attention

The Hall of Fame basketball coach John Wooden once said, "It's the little details that are vital, little things make big things happen."  This is especially true for leaders and anyone in any organization looking to make the jump into leadership.  People reveal the most important facts in the smallest of details and the better you become at understanding and using these details the better you will be as a leader.

The power discussed here is personal power, and if you are new to the discussion on power please browse through the archives and perhaps the best place to start is here, where I explain the various powers at play in an organization.  Paying attention to the details of a conversation gives you insight into the person you are conversing with.  These details can help you evolve a working relationship with that person and connect on a more meaningful level, which is an important step for any leader.  By getting to know the people you work with and how they do things and what things they are especially good at you can benefit the whole team by leveraging each individual's best qualities. Developing meaningful relationships is an important step in gaining personal power and it comes from paying attention and listening intently.

Another way that paying attention adds to your personal power is in sales, whether it be retail, fast food, or any other kind of selling.  Knowing what your customer truly wants is easy to garner through simply paying attention to them during interactions.  From having their order ready to knowing how to greet them makes the customer feel special and adds to customer loyalty.  This also adds to your personal power by being able to connect with customers, which is something anyone around can see.  By paying attention, you can increase your power while really connecting with the people you are around the most.  Do not just go through life, be an active participant and as Coach Wooden might say pay attention to the little things in life.

Power of "Why"

As I was on break at work the other day, I was scrolling through my Twitter feed when a quote from John Maxwell caught my eye.  The quote goes like this, "The person who knows how will always have a job, but the person who knows why will always be the boss."  This got me thinking about how this has worked in my life and in my experience.  The more I thought about it the more the message made sense and I want to share that with you here now.

The truth about this quote is that rarely will a manger freely tell someone why something is being done.  This keeps the power with the manager, both manager and subordinate know how, but the manager holds the power in the why.  There are a few ways to figure out the why, with the first being wait long enough at the job and listen and eventually you might hear or figure out the why.  That option might not be enticing to most people, so here is a better plan, simply ask, "Why."  Questions like, "Why do we do this in this particular way" or "Why do we do that and not this," do many different things for you both as a subordinate looking to advance and even as a manager.

The first things asking why will do for you is show you care about what you are doing.  If you only take orders and produce, like the quote states, you will always have a job, but if you want to be more than a worker, asking questions to find out the why is a good place to start.  Another thing figuring out the why can do is allow you to think of better or more efficient ways to do something.   This is always important for people looking to climb the ladder, because people who bring key ideas to the table are the most valuable.  One more thing the why does for you is it begins to shift some of the power to you by means of increasing your personal power.

Another truth, more in general is that millennials more than any other generation want to know the why.  Many people in previous generations were fine with doing what they were told, but in an increasing phenomenon millennials want to know why they are doing things.  This is something I learned from coaches I have worked and talked with who have coached for many years.  Increasingly as a coach, you must be prepared to tell them why they are doing something to get the intended results.

The next time you find yourself in one of these situations, no matter which side of the conversation you are on, remember the power of "Why"

Millennial Leadership

Recently I stumbled upon a blog post that relates closely to what I like to talk about here on my blog.  This blog post was discussing millennials in leadership positions, and while a millennial can be a person of varying age from 30 to 15, we choose to focus mostly on the 25 and under leaders.  Many Millennials are moving into management positions for the first time and this trend will only continue as more workers from previous generations retire. 

This article takes a hard look at some of the questions facing the current leaders of today’s companies.  This post is unique in that it examines this idea from the side of a business looking at a millennial manager, where as I write from the view of a millennial manager.  Looking at the same things from both sides of the issue makes for a more well rounded view of the topic. 

One interesting point that the author makes is a point about salary.  From the viewpoint of the business he states that millennial leaders know what they are worth better than any other generation and will be adamant about getting that for their services.  This is an interesting point because from the point of view of a millennial, I can relate to this idea, and it makes perfect sense.  I had found a way to communicate effectively with every coworker I worked with before I became a manager and this led to me being able to communicate with each person in a unique way.  This is adaptive communication that the author talks about.

One of the most interesting things is how in-tune most, millennials are with the communication process and using soft skills mixed with emotional intelligence.  This will serve this generation well as workers, but will be of extreme importance when these millennials make the jump to being manager.  You can find this great post here, and follow the writers on twitter for updates when they add exciting new leadership content to their blog.