In my work of building collaboration within organizations, I often come across individuals who say that their performance is hindered due to the various issues they are facing. I have especially observed this among people who have spent between 2 and 4 years in the role, they seem to focus on all the problems – lack of resources, lack of cooperation from colleagues, issues with vendor deliveries, and so on.
I then ask these people to ‘roll back’ their lives to when they came to this organization for an interview.
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At that time, the interviewer must have briefed you about the organization and your role, and probably also shared the challenges they are facing. Maybe there’s a crunch on resources, people related challenges or the market is sluggish.
So I ask these individuals, what was your mindset, what were your responses then? I’m pretty sure that you said, ‘fair enough, these are the challenges, but I will overcome them. I will find my way around, get cooperation from the ‘tough nuts’, influence the tough suppliers.
This is a great ‘can-do’ spirit, but somehow, I find that, after about two or three years, people have forgotten this ‘can-do’ spirit that they would have had during the interview.
So in my programs, I invite people, whatever their role, to recall that mindset and suddenly, there is a big ‘Aha’ moment for them.
If all of us, in our corporate lives, can start each day, with that mindset that we took to the interview, it will be magical. We will soon resolve the issues as our mindset is tuned to. Our approach will be, ‘I know there are issues, but the reason I’ve joined this organization is that I can make a difference. I will take charge. I will find creative solutions.’
I have found that this helps people to start seeing solutions, rather than problems.
Would love to hear from readers, have you seen this change in attitude? What can managers do to help individuals to find that ‘can-do’ spirit again?
