Positivity Is A Superpower for Successful Businesses

Business brings lots of challenges that as leaders we have to deal with every day.

One of the most important battles we can take on every day is getting our mindset right and bringing positivity to play with.

It’s a superpower.

It helps at times of change, it helps with creativity, it brings amazing talent who want to come and play and be part of your business, helping to deliver the things that are on your agenda.  And best of all it creates more chances for making your day and other people’s days more energetic, inspired and fun!

Positivity can give you an unfair advantage in work and life! That’s why it’s a superpower.

Not only does it make you more insightful. We know from research that it makes doctors diagnose quicker and more accurately, and it actually helps salespeople to sell better. 

It also helps us process things better when it comes to dealing with new stuff. So, for a business going through change—show me one that isn’t—positivity really is a superpower that can’t be overlooked.

The problem with humans when it comes to positivity is that we all have an inbuilt negativity bias within our brain. It’s there to help us to react to danger really quickly, and to keep us alive. 50,000 years ago, when we lived in caves, this was a pretty useful thing to have. It meant that if we heard a rustling in the bushes, we reacted quickly and grabbed our spears readying ourselves for a potential attack from a sabre tooth tiger that might be coming to eat us!

Fast forward to today, and we still have the same programming but of course there’s not so many sabre tooth tigers roaming our streets, so the things we react to now are anything new or different. 

So, in times of change (a constant in today’s world) we naturally become fearful of new people, new structures or new strategies, even new ideas. When this negativity bias is triggered by something strange and new, the old caveman kicks in and starts to try and protect us. 

We’ve all heard that voice in our head when we see or hear a new idea that goes “Hmmm, I’m not sure this is a good idea” (and if you’re reading this thinking “I don’t have a voice in my head”that’s the voice!). More often than not there’s a negativity bias attached to that voice.

When we want new thinking to happen, it’s down to us each to be explicit about the need for positivity from others and get people to sign-up to being more positive when we’re in meetings or interactions with them.   

By being explicit with ourselves and others that we want them to be open, positive and focused on the possibilities, not the problems, we can let new ideas bubble up to the top and have a chance to thrive, stopping any inbuilt negativity bias from killing new ideas before they get a chance to flourish into something truly amazing.

Introduce positivity as a behaviour you want to see from people in meetings and use it as feedback for the things that worked well or could be done better next time.

Positivity is even more of a superpower when things aren’t going our way too. Let’s face it, things don’t always go as we plan right? And, sometimes, things can be downright frustrating and disappointing.

Wallowing in the misery of that doesn’t do us any good. Instead, a positive reframe is to ask, “What’s the lesson or opportunity in this?” By dropping the resistance, we become open to the possibilities and positivity helps to get us through the tough times, and back to the good.

And best of all positivity is infectious…

We all know someone as they walk into a room the hope leaves!

We also all know people who when they walk into a room, they bring a wave of positivity and possibility with them, and the energy of the room just lifts. These are the people who make magic happen, get us to play about with ideas, and guess what? They get better output from us too and so they get better output for their business.

They’re using positivity as their superpower…. And so can you.

In fact, as leaders in business it’s your duty to get out there and infect people with your positivity. 

Not only does it make life easier and more fun, but you owe it to yourself to use your superpower as a force for good… And after all negative people suck so who wants to be one of them right?!

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