Food for Thought: Deploying Kindness Pt. 2 Positivity
Positivity is such an undervalued mental tool. Shifting from a glass half empty to a glass half full mindset is the difference between giving yourself a chance to win and not. As an entrepreneur, most days aren’t quite a walk in the park.
Positivity
is such an undervalued mental tool. Shifting from a glass half empty to a glass half full mindset is the difference between giving yourself a chance to win and not. As an entrepreneur, most days aren’t quite a walk in the park. Think about it, C-Suite level employees are often the last level of decision making for many businesses. That means all the success, all the failures, all the good times, and all the bad times land on those folks. That’s a lot of stress, and since company culture trickles from the top out to the spokes of the umbrella, the way you handle that stress affects the way you talk to employees, and ultimately, how your employees will engage with the customer.
It all starts with Awareness.
Observe yourself. Are you able to adjust quickly when things don’t turn out as expected or do your negative emotions overpower you? Dwelling about the “what if’s” and “if only’s” instead of just solving the problem. Someone who commits to making positivity a practice in their life, in general, are able to adapt and handle those road blocks much better. Navigate the twist and turns and unpredictability of life and be grateful for the things that are going well. Here are a few things that help me adapt positivity as a lifestyle:
Routine:
Establishing a steady routine is important for me. Things that I can count on will happen almost every day gives me a sense of control in my life. Also, the discipline in establishing a routine helps me practice discipline in other areas of my life as well. If I commit to eating healthy during the weeks and indulge a little more on the weekends, i’m also more likely to get all the things finished that I need to for the week and still have time for the things I want to do when my free time finally does come.
Exercise:
Exercise slowly releases Serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is one of the “feel good” chemicals the brain naturally produces to help fight off things like depression and anxiety. Getting in a daily exercise routine that I can count on gives me a sense of control, again, over my life. It gives me more energy and makes it easier to adjust to the inevitable ebbs and flows of life that remind us we are not always in control and that’s ok!
Meditation:
Meditation has a stigma surrounding it that only women, hippies, or folks following certain religions practice it. We need to get over that now. Meditation is a very useful tool to help relax the mind and the body and bring a more full sense of awareness to our lives. It allows time for the mind to reflect and for you to connect yourself with your body. We tend to abuse our bodies just by living our daily lives and doing day to day tasks. The stress adds up quickly and can really do a number on us. Meditation is an incredibly helpful tool to ground yourself and allows you flow with the tides of life instead of against them.
Know Yourself.
Like I said, It’s important to observe yourself. Ask yourself why you’re experiencing certain things as they happen and find ways that help you cope with those emotions and stresses. Everyone is different and has different techniques for managing these things but being mindful, giving yourself grace as you learn, and instilling good habits in your life will go a long way towards adopting a positive mindset for life.
“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.””
Food for Thought: Deploying kindness Pt 1. Patience
Before we dive too here I need to confess something - I have very little patience, myself. Some might say zero. Haters shall hate, but anyways, I share this because I want to preface this conversation by saying being eternally patient is a lifelong practice and takes lots of time and self awareness.
Hi there,
Before we dive too deep I need to confess something - I have very little patience, myself. Some might say zero patience. Haters shall hate, but anyways….I share this to preface our conversation by saying being eternally patient is a lifelong practice and takes lots of time and self awareness. Self awareness comes with experiencing life so take it easy on yourself through this personal journey. If our “perfect self” is always a day ahead of us then we’ll never stop growing and that’s a beautiful thing.
Congrats on being a business owner. If your juggling that with being a mother, father, husband, or wife Mazel-freakin- tov to you. You are truly a miracle worker and might even have more to offer here than i do. For me, being an entrepreneur and owning your own business is truly a balancing act. You have a vision for your company. You know how you want to execute it. You hire a team of fine folks to help you execute it. And they’re doing a great job, by all means….BUT, they aren’t doing as good of a job as you could do, or as you envisioned it in your head. First of all Charlie, hold your bloody horses. You’re the head honcho. You’re the reason everyone is there. It’s YOUR visions and YOUR ideas. Of course no one is going to execute your ideas with the same level of passion as you would. The business isn’t their baby like it is yours. That leads us to our first tip in practicing patience.
Setting the Proper Expectations…
..or better yet, don’t set any at all. Human beings are not robots. They make mistakes and where there is margin for error, of any degree, ultimately and inevitably error will follow. You have two choices: to live in the reality being experienced and “react” instead of “predict”, or live in the altruistic place in your mind that rarely ever comes to fruition in real life. Either way, the burden of those thoughts will weigh only on your shoulders and responding poorly to employee error will only negatively affect how that employee interacts with customers throughout the day.
Accepting the “blame”
Wether you like it or not, everything that happens in your business is your fault. All of it. The employee that rang out a customer incorrectly. The customer that wrongfully yelled at one of your employees. It’s all your fault. Being comfortable in the present means being able to take ownership over every single thing that happens in your business, navigating tough decisions in real time, and being able to live with those decisions. If you made the right decision, great. If you made the wrong decision, adjust your plan and move forward. Once you’re able to accept blame you’ll be able to make decisions for your company much more efficiently and to the benefit of you and your employees.
The umbrella method
I’m quite honestly not sure if this concept has it’s own terminology attached to it, but what I call, “the umbrella method”, is a different way of conceptualizing your relationship with your employees. Instead of looking at a business job model as a hierarchy with the owner at the top, think of it as an umbrella. The owner is the little focal point at the top of the umbrella that supports the larger awning, which is ultimately the part that protects you from rain. Without your employees taking ownership of the brand and fully buying into the company, your umbrella has nothing holding it together and is ultimately useless. If a business owner can accept his/her role as a servant to the greater identity of the company - living to serve the employees that make the company operate - they’ll be much more gracious and selfless leaders and be able to respond and pivot with change more easily.
Hop you picked up some tidbits here! Thanks for tuning in. More to come soon!
Keep spreading love, good people!
Best,
D.B.