Manufacture Your Day by FOCUSING ON SOLUTIONS

VIDEO ⇒

Do you and/or your team feel as mentally worn out as this cat? It doesn’t have to stay that way.

Unfortunately, the work atmosphere in many manufacturing companies is highly problem-focused.

Thinking about and talking about problems day after day will eventually take a toll on your mental and physical well-being if you don’t have a strategy to manage your mindset.

Anyone can identify problems. The real difference lies in training your mind to become more solution-oriented.

When you begin to see a problem as an opportunity to improve, innovate, or discover a better way of doing things, your daily challenges take on a completely different meaning.

Here are three simple insights to help you shift your mindset and move into action:

1) Positivity – How You Think:

Everyone on the team needs to understand that they have 100% control over their own attitude.

What you focus on is what you’ll notice more of. If you focus on problems, you’ll find more problems. If you focus on possibilities, you’ll begin to see more opportunities.

Have you ever noticed how many P.C.s (Professional Complainers) are tolerated in our workplaces?

What if we spent as much time acknowledging what’s going right as we do talking about what’s going wrong?

Your action:

Start by becoming aware of your own attitude. How do you look at situations? Is your language positive or negative? Do you expect people to simply fix problems, or do you expect them to find solutions?

The way we speak is powerful. We should never expect more from others than we are willing to demonstrate ourselves.

Help others recognize that a complaining attitude has a negative impact on the entire team. No P.C.s (Professional Complainers) allowed!

For the next three months, make positivity a priority. Pay attention to how people speak to one another. Increase your own awareness—and help others become more aware as well.

2) Clarity – How You Express Yourself:

It can be difficult to express what we want, especially when we don’t fully understand it ourselves. It becomes even more challenging when we expect others to understand our vision.

You can be the smartest person in the room, but if you can’t transform your thoughts into a meaningful message, your team won’t understand what you’re trying to achieve. They need to know where you’re going, why you’re going there, and why they should come with you.

What would it be like if people did what you wanted—not because they had to, but because they genuinely wanted to?

Your action:

Write down three positive workplace behaviours you would like to see more of.

If you want to see more…

• Kindness – be kind.
• Initiative – take initiative.
• Responsibility – take responsibility.

Start living and breathing the behaviours you expect from others.

When you observe these positive behaviours, acknowledge and reinforce them—over and over again.

For the next three months, make it your goal to look for the behaviours you want to see instead of complaining about the ones you don’t.

I’ll say it again: Acknowledge and reinforce.

After all, you don’t want to be a P.C.—a Professional Complainer—do you?

3) Identity – What You Believe:

Behaviour change starts with identity.

Every person holds certain beliefs about themselves. If you believe you’re not a people person, you’re right. If you believe you can develop stronger people skills, you’re right as well.

You get to choose what you believe about yourself. How empowering is that?

The same is true for leadership. If you believe your people can make a difference, you’ll lead them differently. And when you lead them differently, they’ll often begin to believe it too.

Can you see where I’m going with this?

Your action:

What are your beliefs about your role on the team? How much influence do you believe you have?

For example: “I am the type of leader who builds strong connections with the people on my team.”

Remember, you don’t need a title to be a leader.

Start proving it to yourself through incredibly small, simple actions. One small win could be scheduling one hour each week to have a conversation with a different team member. Get to know them. Show that you care.

Ask questions like:

• What’s going well?
• Where do you see opportunities for improvement?
• How can I better support you?

If you start to think differently, you’ll begin to feel differently. And when you feel differently, you’ll act differently.

Isn’t that what leadership is all about?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

What does a solution focused approach mean to you? 

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