They say that cats have 7 lives because they survive many falls from the roofs through which they often like to walk in search of a clueless bird.
These falls sometimes occur from considerable heights, such as 20 meters or more.
What does the cat actually do to survive that fall?
Yes, I know that he falls on his feet, but that does not explain why he does not break his legs irreparably in the face of such a blow.
What explains why the cat does not break its legs in an irreparable way is that it, during its fall in the air, relaxes all its muscles.
If your muscles remained tense at the moment of impact with the ground, your bones would have much more severe fractures, since the tendon-muscular tension would deprive your bones of their ability to absorb the blow in a more dynamically elastic, more resilient way.
So the cat survives the blow by basically relaxing. Curious, huh?
Positive Leadership, A Chimera?
Talking about Positive Leadership in times of crisis may seem risky to some at least.
Many people think that in times of crisis what corresponds is to worry and feel bad; not staying relaxed and feeling good.
On the other hand, we all know that when a problem arises, depending on how one approaches it, that problem can become more or less easy to solve or even give way to new and numerous additional problems.
That is, if my reaction to a problem is characterized by generating high levels of stress and negative emotions, such as anger, anger, frustration or fear; We all know that this stress and those emotions will provoke very maladaptive behaviors, characterized by impulsive, aggressive, clumsy or flight and isolation behaviors.
And, in turn, these behaviors will, most likely, generate new problems.
So the type of reactions we choose to have to problems we don't choose to have seems important.
Leaders of organizations or teams are now faced with a dilemma similar to that of the cat. These are times when our financial and commercial balance in our organizations is more precarious and where it is easier to slip and fall.
And perhaps we will not be able to avoid slipping and falling - This is the part of the story that some might call negative -
On the other hand, after slipping and falling, the only thing that matters is how we are going to absorb the blow: if the hit against the ground is going to be a very serious problem (irreparably breaking the legs) or if it is simply going to be a problem minor (some bruises) from which I can recover relatively quickly and easily to continue walking on the rooftops, where, in times of crisis, it is easier - and inherently more risky - to hunt some tasty little bird, the fall having also served to increase my knowledge and expertise in preventing future slips, as well as in controlling my fear response once the slip has already occurred and ultimately become a smarter hunting cat,better prepared and with many lives ahead - This is the part of the story that others consider positive -
Ultimately, then, it is about increasing our knowledge about the risks that we have to take, and controlling the fear of falls when the risk has become a confirmed problem.
Yes, I know that some may be wondering "now and how do you do that?"
Let's talk about it.
Positive Leadership and Fear
As for controlling our fear, we must start by saying that fear can be a very useful emotion.
Thanks to fear and its associated “Flight or Fight” response, man has historically been able to survive real life and death threats that had to be decisively and imminently acted upon, in a matter of just a few hundredths of a second or barely a few seconds.
In those situations, there is no time to think; We must act as I say decisively and quickly and fear is precisely responsible for preparing our body to focus only on "Flight or Fight", inhibiting all other responses, including all higher functions of thought: Attention, Perception, Memory, Taking of Decisions, etc.
And it makes sense: if I have in front of me a saber-toothed tiger about to leap at me with the intention of beheading me with one bite in the next 2 seconds, those higher thinking functions would actually hinder more than help and In fact, they would increase the risk of not reacting - fleeing or fighting - in time; risk that would pay with life.
Thus we are wired to react when what we perceive is a threat of life or death with a real risk to my survival for the next hundredths of a second or, at most, just a few seconds.
Now, in a problematic situation, where what is at stake is not my life or my physical survival and where the consequences of that situation will have to be handled in the best possible way for days, weeks or months, the fear response is completely useless and highly ineffective and destructive.
In these situations, it is not "Flight or Fight" that will help me solve or overcome the problem, which will also require that all my higher brain functions (attention, perception, memory, decision-making, etc.) continue to function and continue. working fine.
Continuing with the metaphor of the fall of the cat and making a translation to the problems that we face in this crisis, once we have slipped, the fall, until it hits the ground, can actually last a long time (some years)
And during those years, we are probably going to need to look for new and ingenious ideas, we are going to have to make use of all our intelligence and we are going to have to learn to relax, no matter how antagonistic it may seem at first as a reaction, to a situation of crisis. Exactly like the cat.
Fear and Personal Importance
After conducting, as a coach, many stress management training programs, both for groups and individual clients through coaching, I have become convinced of something that I always knew deep down: Psychic tension creates physical tension.
Thus, it is now clear to me that although there are many effective techniques for reducing and self-regulating physical tension, true mastery of stress management is learning not to generate psychic tension and that this is, above all, a matter of attitude; a question of attitude towards life.
And I have also realized that what most directly contributes to generating psychic tension is the IMPORTANCE that we attribute to life events that do not fit with our previously manufactured "script".
The more important an issue is, the easier it is to generate fear when facing it.
On the other hand, reducing the importance attributed to something does not mean not taking responsibility for it and not trying to manage it in the best possible way. Moreover, often, "the best possible way" requires acting smart and balanced, which is very difficult to get hold of the emotion of "fear".
Yes, I know that some will find it very difficult to "downplay" certain issues.
Well, it's actually very simple and life gives us excellent examples of how to do it for free: For example, if it seems very important to you that another car has scratched your new car and someone, at that precise moment, when you feel so angry and so frustrated why something SO IMPORTANT and SO BAD has happened, would come and whisper in your ear: "Your house is burning…", automatically the importance attributed to the fact that your new car has been scratched would decrease radically.
Yes, there is no way to have a REALLY more important problem than the minor one that you are giving so much importance to, so that one can relativize its importance. Easy right?
No, I don't mean that we have to look for really important problems to learn to relativize the importance we give to trivial things - besides, we don't have to look for them; They come alone, especially if one lives long enough -
The question is: do you really need to wait for life to hit you with a really important problem so that you learn to relativize your minor problems?
If you answer yes to the previous question, then your wait will be full of useless and gratuitous suffering and you will live more scared, which will make your behavior less effective, intelligent and adaptive, which in turn, will end up attracting really more important problems to your life.
Life always gives you the reason. Your choice is always fulfilled. If you think that the world is an unfair and cruel place, full of dangers, where you have to fight in order to survive and where you can't trust anyone… you already have it, your own fear, distrust, and bellicose and spiteful attitude will infallibly bring you what you expected: struggle, difficulties, conflictive relationships…. People will find your company difficult, you will see betrayals in the free choices of others, you will anticipate dangers paranoidly, and your paranoia will actually create many of those dangers… See? It is you with your attitude and beliefs who ends up creating the world you hope to find.
As Gandhi said: "Be the change you want to see in the world"
Positive Leadership and Intelligent Optimism
Positive Leadership is therefore based on the proven fact that, once basic needs are satisfied, our beliefs and attitudes direct our behavior and vital choices and that therefore, maintain positive beliefs and attitudes towards oneself, others and our future possibilities may bring us more good and fortune than holding negative and limiting beliefs and attitudes.
In this sense, we could say that Positive Leadership is optimistic. And this is where some people, especially convinced pessimists, deeply doubt its effectiveness.
The explanation for those doubts most likely lies in a skewed and distorted understanding of what optimism actually is.
To begin with, the optimism that characterizes Positive Leadership is not a naive way of looking at the world.
The positive leader is fully aware of the difficulties and problems they will have to face, although, to begin with, they probably do not see them as eternal and unsolvable difficulties and problems, but as challenges and challenges at least partially manageable and with a solution of continuity.
On the other hand, the positive leader sees not only difficulties and problems, but also possibilities and advantages; something that the pessimist does not do, who only sees everything that goes or can go wrong.
Second, the positive leader maintains the idea and feeling that his behavior is decisive in affecting the course of things, that, at least up to a certain point, what he does or does not do has an influence on these challenges and challenges. Therefore, you keep the idea and the feeling of a certain control over the circumstances.
Third, the positive leader does not give up easily and maintains his level of commitment to the search for viable solutions to his challenges and challenges, usually for much longer than the pessimist, who usually does not find valid enough reasons to persevere, because to persevere To insist on something, not to give up, the basic condition is "believe that it is possible." Again our beliefs become decisive here.
Smart optimism also makes us more flexible. If, after trying thoroughly, something has not worked, the optimistic leader will assume it and try to do something different, look for another way, try to achieve their goals by looking for different alternatives or even be able to modify their goals without calling this "failure" but simply "way in which it has not worked" (There are no failures, only results)
When Thomas Edison, inventor of the famous electric light bulb, was asked “How do you fit in with the thousands of failures you have had before getting your light bulb to work ?, Edison replied,“ Thousands of failures? No, we have found thousands of ways it doesn't work. "
However, Edison continued his search and, as you know, he ended up finding a way in which it DID work and thanks to him and his intelligent optimism, you may be reading these lines with the help of his invention.
"You don't really fail until you stop trying." Have I failed or have I not succeeded yet? You decide.
Positive Leadership, Resilience, and Stress Transformation
Resilience, at a physical level, is the ability of a material to dynamically absorb a blow, an aggression, so that, after its impact, that material recovers its full shape and functional dynamics without undergoing structural deformations or significant functional alterations. In this sense, a rubber block is more resilient than a steel bar, because if I hit both with, for example, a hammer, the rubber will absorb the blow and after a while it will be the same as before, while the steel, apparently harder and stronger, it may suffer permanent scratches and dents.
In people, resilience is characterized by the ability to recover (to "bounce back") after having gone through a difficult, sometimes potentially traumatic situation, even coming out stronger after that experience.
The positive leader is resilient. The difficulties and challenges of life not only do not sink him, but end up strengthening him. The resilient leader assumes the painful facts, but does not stop there; Find reasons to remain excited and motivated by the rest of the good things that are still in your life or that will come, for which it is worthwhile to keep trying.
The positive leader draws powerful and enlightening life lessons from his challenges: yes, also when he does not achieve what he hoped for, making sense of it and appreciating the good that can be in the "bad".
The optimistic leader views painful experiences as an unavoidable part of existence and does not add extra and superfluous suffering or pain to this natural pain. You simply feel the pain, accept it fully and then begin to transform it, to give it an "outlet", making room again for the positive and happy experiences that you can continue to live if you do not lock yourself in the pain.
In this sense, the positive leader is a person more resistant to stress, for many the plague of our century.
The positive leader possesses and develops internal resources for self-regulation of his bodily, mental and emotional functioning and, in potentially stressful situations, he knows how to relax and "release" stress, so that even though he experiences stress, he controls its levels and it prevents its accumulation, which is the real problem of stress.
In addition, the positive leader cultivates healthy lifestyle habits: he knows how to eat, rest, exercise, use his leisure time wisely, use his emotional intelligence, and focus on his innate personal strengths - rather than on their weaknesses - they can become important allies in the face of stress.
Positive Leadership, Open-mindedness and Innovation
These are times in which for many businesses and companies it is becoming a priority to be effective again than to continue being merely productive.
Being productive is only effective if what you produce sells well, in volume and on margin. But if what is produced sells little and with little margin, then one can be tremendously productive and, at the same time, very little cash.
Productivity and effectiveness require very different competencies and emphasis. In times where our markets have remained stable and where consumption has been high, many companies have prioritized productivity: the more, the better; which has generated management models based on learning quickly the methods and functions already created, working quickly (often under great pressure) and thinking little (little re-investment in R + D + i)
On the other hand, right now, there are a large number of products and services already produced and that are still being produced (houses, cars, clothing, restaurant and leisure services, business services, etc.) that, however, are sold little because apparently little is consumed.
In addition, the internet is enabling the sale and provision of services globally with significant cost savings: intermediaries are disappearing, there is no need for physical offices, outsourcing of services can be done practically anywhere in the world, often at prices up to 700% cheaper than the same services provided by locally consolidated firms, etc., which is making it possible to offer very low prices to the end customer, maintaining and even exceeding the quality of the services provided.
All of this really allows us to produce much more easily and at a much lower cost. You see, being productive is really not the issue. We can all be productive and now we really have it easier than ever.
However, we are seeing that our productivity does not translate into increases in turnover and profit margin… What are we doing wrong?
We are not being effective.
The truth is that people continue to consume, but our consumption habits are changing: we consume different things in a different way.
We want things that are cheaper, much cheaper, with added quality services and guarantees, and furthermore, we find more and more offers like this, especially if we open ourselves to the possibility of being consumers of the global supermarket that exists on the internet.
For many traditional companies, focused primarily on being purely productive, mainly at the local level, this is going to mean a slow death - or perhaps not so slow -. Their competitors are growing like mushrooms, breaking prices down and generating a global customer base, which allows them to increase their turnover and profit margin, since they have much lower costs and although they have less margin per customer, they have many more customers from all over the world, attracted by low prices and good quality.
These companies are also continually innovating, improving their services, creating value-added services and bundles… they are focusing more on being effective than productive.
Customers are fast learners - they have more offers than ever, at ever lower prices, and no one needs to marry. Consequently, it is not easy to retain them… or yes, if you are able to offer them more and more value at a better price.
More value at a better price… uhhhm
To achieve that and stay at that you have to be very, very smart.
We have to unlearn and learn new things agile and quickly; we have to have brilliant ideas that work and are viable; we have to offer a lot of quality at ultra-competitive prices; we have to invent, innovate and, literally, create new demand drivers in our consumers.
In a word, we have to be effective.
And to be effective, you have to think outside the box, change flexibly and quickly, and learn new things with agility.
And for all this, a lot of open-mindedness and capacity for innovation are needed; things that are somewhat at odds with high levels of stress and stale and toxic emotional climates, factors unfortunately very present today in many organizations and personally embodied by many leaders.
The positive leader, on the other hand, based on his better management of personal stress, his intelligent optimism, his emotional intelligence and his resilience, is able to think more clearly and coherently, using all his capacities for innovation, open-mindedness, active ideation, creativity and intuition to produce new and better ideas and to convince others with decision-making power of their benefits and advantages; it is capable, in a word, of being effective and not merely productive.
And that, dear friends, is going to be very, very decisive and necessary in the coming years to reinvent our businesses and companies.
Invest in Positive Leadership. You will not regret it.
