The Self Fulfilling Prophecy
Did you ever believe you could predict the future? All of us have that ability yet many of us don't realize it. Every day we see the future, our future, and make our decisions based on it. The question is what future are you predicting?If you are a leader in an organization, you know very well about prophecy. Usually your employees spend a great deal of time predicting the future. Especially when that future is realted to change. Try and implement a new policy or procedure and you will usually hear "We have done that before", or "That won't work."
And, as many leaders have experienced, the changes either don't work, work not as well as expected, or take considerably longer than planned. Prophecy fulfilled.
Why is that? Why do we preach about change and fail to get buy-in? The reason lies within two separate areas. Fear and Attitude.
Fear is our look at a potential outcome that may result from implementing the change we are trying to achieve. Fear is also an acronym. It stands for False Emotions Appearing Real. When we look at future events involving change, we tend to focus on the negative result. If you have received an education in management, you have been taught to target or look for problems and how things cannot work. We tend to be the "devil's advocate" in order to produce a better result. The people we lead have learned this behavior as well. That leads us to look at our attitudes.
Attitudes are our behaviors, our thought process, and our habits to our environment. Many times these habits are created through a past experience. It may be our experience, it could be that of someone we know, or something we read. In any case, our past experiences and actions come into play when planning change.
Everything we do and every decision we make is based on our attitudes. Unfortunately 77% of our attitudes focus on a negative outcome. We learned at an early age about the things we shouldn't do. In fact, "No" is one of the first words many children learn. But do we learn this word because our parents and family members wanted to be mean? Usually, no and don't are words used to protect us from danger, or a potential danger.
For example, we tell our kids "Don't talk to strangers" or "Don't touch the stove." This later translates to "No, we can't do this", or "we shouldn't do this because..." The no's and don'ts of our childhood suddenly become the can'ts and won'ts of our adulthood. Yet there are things we can do to make change positive and effective.
First we have to start by looking at our own attitudes. Most people want to change others. The truth is we cannot change anyone else. We can only influence their decisions. So first we must look inwards to changing ourselves. If our attitudes are negative towards our employee's performance, our company, or our environment, how can we expect others to change their attitudes. In other words, we must first change ourselves before we can expect others to change. If there is a positive shift in our attitudes, others will notice, If that change is real, many of the people we influence will begin to change as well.
Second, change involves work. If you think there is a magic pill out there that will instantly allow you to change any situation, you're wrong. Most people want a quick fix. Reality is any true change takes time. That time could be a couple minutes or several years. It depends upon how strong our attitudes towards what we are trying to change. Add more people to the equation, and the more difficult it is. If you are passionate about the change, you need to stick with it and invest the time. Only then will the long term results pay off.
Third, you need to plan your change. Find out what you are truly trying to accomplish and break it down into smaller steps. We are good at setting goals, but many of us fail to achieve them because we focus only on the end result and not the steps it takes to get there. Thus, many obstacles are missed and many steps are not realized. Three weeks later we are back to our old habits.
Fourth, feel the fear and do it anyway. The emotion of fear is extremely real. That emotion can cripple our actions and prevent our achievements. If you can look beyond the fear to the possibilities and a positive outcome, you will be more likely to achieve success. There are always risks, and at some point you may fail. Just don't let the possibility of failure eliminate your success. If you do fail, learn from it and adjust.
So the next time you think about starting your own business, changing your career, or taking a major risk, make sure that you are not focused on what could go wrong. With positive attitudes, passion for change, and hard work you can chang the future. The future you choose to predict with more than likely your prophecy will come true.
