Monday, April 10, 2006
The Gift of a Woman’s ‘Positivity’
Carole Spiers - The Empowerment Guru grows successful people. An International Female Keynote Speaker, Conference Chair and Business Mentor who helps you to achieve step by step success with inspiration and motivation. www.carolespiers.com
An employer has come to think of his department as a well-assembled machine - all the right categories of staff in all the right places. Then one of them leaves, and suddenly everyone’s saying ‘It’s not the same without Anne-Marie … she’s left behind a huge gap.’ So what is this quality that marks out the person who is so sorely missed? Is it their qualifications or good track record? No, the special X-factor in such a woman is the positive charge she generates from within.
It is something beyond normal logic. Such women are often described as ‘magic’ or ‘special’, and are often able to bestow some of this quality on other people - creating new, unsuspected reserves of effort and goodwill, apparently out of nothing. There is something about them when they are in the room: they exude positive energy and are great to be with. Unlike negative personalities, they attract people to them and their positivity often rubs off.
It’s therefore worth trying to define this quality of ‘positivity’, with its huge range of impacts on everything from efficiency and punctuality to reduced staff turnover and improved customer relations. And clearly it starts with attitude - the root of all behaviour - which in turn dictates performance.
The Workplace as Theatre
The word ‘performance’ reminds us that the workplace is partly a theatrical arena, where people have to play certain roles in order to achieve a desired outcome. Actors have to play comedy on days when they may be feeling low, and in the same way, you have to speak on the phone in the same professional manner - whether it’s to a favourite colleague or a nuisance salesman.
Actors are there to carry conviction, to exude sincerity, or in other words to perform - brilliantly. They soon lose impact if they are seen to be just reciting lines written by someone else. So, for example, you should avoid the “Have a nice day” and plastic smile of the Disneyland waitress, even though for much of the time you may be having to say things you do not necessarily mean - possibly out of deference to a boss or client, or by way of the small-talk that lubricates dialogue with nervous colleagues or strangers. (Try saying what’s really in your mind, unprocessed and undisguised, and you probably won’t last two minutes!)
One half of your ‘positivity’, then, will be a successful act. But the other half has to be genuine – a core philosophy that defeats cynicism and gives you an indestructible optimism. This is what really connects, and will be missed about you when you’re gone.
Think for a moment about your legacy and what you are going to be remembered for. You might not be a Mother Theresa or Anita Roddick– but you might leave behind a winning smile, a happy demeanour, a positive energy that people want to package.
Your positivity is what you will be known for - and that is what will really be missed!
Carole Spiers - The Empowerment Guru grows successful people. An International Female Keynote Speaker, Conference Chair and Business Mentor who helps you to achieve step by step success with inspiration and motivation. www.carolespiers.com
# posted by Carole Spiers @ 9:22 PM 
