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.

Power of Encouragement Revisited

Recently I wrote about the power of encouragement including a story from my point of view.  That was a very good post so I have provided a link back to it here.  If you have not read it, please take a quick moment to do so.  Today I will expand on this idea while adding in a new story about a recent hire at the store where I am a manager. 

Recently our store hired a new employee who would be working as a part of my team.  While I was not involved in the interview process I was consulted in the decision making process.  This new hire was my first trainee as a manager, which is a task I thoroughly looked forward to.  Throughout the training process, one thing stuck in the back of my head and it was the recent situation I told you about in my previous post.  With this in mind, I was constantly encouraging my new team member through both mistakes and breakthroughs.  This investment quickly paid off, as my team member quickly became one of the highest performers in terms of basic task performance or daily responsibilities, which represented the bulk of the training.  With more training and more experience on the job, I truly believe a recent hire can turn into a top performer on a team full of top performers. 

One you might be pondering is how much does this encouragement really do for the performance of the team.  Well every person has a point where if their efforts are not noticed they stop working as hard.  By simply noticing employees doing a job well you can work to avoid this loss of production.  Whether you are a manager or not take a moment to recognize the hard work of someone you work with tomorrow and just see what comes from that.  Do that every day and the culture of your workplace may change because of you.  

Superstore

A recent TV show that I saw relates nicely to what I talk about on here.  That show was Superstore, which airs on NBC on Mondays at 7p.m. central time.  In the same vein as The Office and Parks and Rec, this show is often over-the-top, but also shows some of what takes place in a retail setting.  Headlined by America Ferrera and Ben Feldman, Superstore focuses on what it is like to work in a big box store like a Wal-Mart. 

Leadership comes into the picture when the two managers are examined, because they show two different styles of leadership.  Glenn, played by Mark McKinney, is the store manager or general manager.  Glenn is a laisez-faire manager who is very passive and lets things happen.  For people who have seen the office, Glenn would be comparable to Michael Scott in his management style. 

America Ferrera is another manager, more of a shift manager, who leads by example focusing on working hard to set a good example for her subordinates.  She likes to have fun, which leads to people following her lead, because she does not take her job too seriously.  With a good mix of communication and hard work, Amy is a very effective leader. 

Most TV shows are not designed to be informative and educational, but in between the comedic and entertainment values, some insight can be gained into leadership practices.  Superstore is a comedy following a similar pattern to those of NBC shows before them and anyone who liked the previous shows is likely to enjoy this show.  Superstore is definitely not truly representative of a day in the life of a retail worker, but anyone who has worked in the field can relate to many of the events portrayed. 

Overall, I would rate this show a 4 out of 5 stars.  It score high in comedic value and exaggeration of a typical retail job.  Stronger leadership display from the main characters would strengthen the score, but while not perfect, this show is definitely worth a half hour of your time a week.  More information can be found on the shows IMDB page.

Throwback Friday

Today will be a throwback Friday, because with young people that is a popular thing to do.  Since this blog is not very old we will simply be throwing it back a month, but that is when the blog was born.  

If you are new to the blog please take a moment to read my About Me post, which you can find here.  You will learn a little about my background and why I am so passionate about helping young people like myself become more than managers.  More about my reason for this site can be found on the Purpose page, which is linked here. 

Power was a key topic early on and is something that I will revisit shortly, so it seems appropriate to dredge up these posts from the early days of my site.  The first post titled the Power of Encouragement is a good read about an experience I had with my boss who overall has mastered the power of encouragement, and can be found here.  Take a minute and read this short post, because of all the leadership advice I can give, this piece may be the easiest to implement and pay the biggest return on your investment. 

The second post on power and one that I promised to revisit and expand on is the “Power” of Hard Work and can be found here.  Again, this post is a simple to read post with a personal story and powerful message.  This centers on the five powers that are present in a workplace especially from a manager’s standpoint.  In the very near future, I will be putting up a lengthy post about expanding upon this background, thus making this post prerequisite reading for some of my next posts.