Adopting a Spirit of “Yes”!

I’m typically a pretty cooperative and easy going individual but someone recently made some requests of me that sent me into a place of defensiveness and guardedness in my work. Trust me when I say the details don’t matter much, but my revelation regarding what I witnessed does.

A few days before, I’d found myself mildly moved by someone else’s inability to come to the table with a more helpful attitude, something that I’d witnessed as a pattern with this particular person. And then, as it always seems to happen, I found myself unexpectedly mirroring their behavior in a totally non-related situation, i.e. the defensiveness and guardedness that seemed to come out of nowhere was just a different version of what they had delivered to me.

So, in spite of categorizing myself as a generally positive and helpful person, I was reminded that there is always room for growth.

In my trainings, we spend a good amount of time doing exercises and activities that help individuals to see themselves and the ways that they’re showing up at work and honestly, it’s one of my favorite aspects of training. These types of ah-ha experiences feel so expansive and it’s always so amazing to witness folks recapture pieces of their power.

One of the reflective questions that’s posed is are you a “Gleeful Glenda/Gary” or a “Negative Ned/Nancy”? And the question is not necessarily about whether or not someone shows up happy and bubbly all of the time. Rather, it’s about one’s overall mindset and outlook in their work.

We’ve all encountered the person who meets every opportunity or request with a negative orientation and who, by default, seems to instantly come up with at least five reasons why something “won’t work”.

“A new procedure? Forget about it. We tried something like that 5 years ago and it was way too complicated.”

“You need the report by Friday? Oh, I can’t do that, I’ve got two other projects that I’m working on right now. They aren’t due until next month, but still.”

I’ve actually worked in places where the entire work culture was one in which people more readily looked for reasons to say “No” than “Yes”, even with regard to serving their clients and constituents.

Once this mindset sets in, it becomes routine & customary and typically, folks who are like this are either (A.) unaware or (B.) they feel completely vindicated in their habitual dissension.

So, today’s invitation is for you to search within yourself to determine if this orientation creeps up within you at times. It’s important to be critically observant because it’s so easy to slip into this type of dysfunction without even realizing it. It’s especially easy to do when working in a negative and chaotic work environment. Oftentimes, a sort of mass mania and spirit of contrariness easily seeps in.

Success and opportunity gravitate towards individuals who are helpful, encouraging and optimistic. They are rewarded to those who will dare to take the blinders off of what’s possible. So, do your best to adopt a spirit of “Yes”.

This does not mean that you become the go to “yes” person. It means that you are open to creating winning possibilities for those you serve with and for those you serve.

By the way, once the spotlight of awareness was gifted to me in this little situation that I found myself in, thankfully, I was able to shift and adjust. And what unfolded was a brilliant and beautiful opportunity that I, unfortunately, almost missed.

“When you’re stuck in a spiral, to change all aspects of the spin you only need to change one thing.” — Christina Baldwin