Driving Results through our Accountability Method – Reframing

In celebration of our tenth year and with the global success of our best-selling book “Winning With Accountability, The Secret Language of High Performing Organizations” (now in its eighth printing) we are offering you some of our best insights and practices to create an Accountability Culture in your workplace.

Hi, I’m Henry Evans, founder of Dynamic Results and author of “Winning with Accountability: The Secret Language of High Performing Organizations.” We’ve been talking to you about how you can drive better business results through our accountability method, and today we want to focus on one aspect of that, how you can reframe your thought cycle when you’re going to a meeting. You know a lot of meetings – they suck, I’m of the belief, after observing thousands of meetings in my career, sometimes we are the reason why. Sometimes, I am the reason why. Let’s look at how my attitude might impact a meeting.

Let’s say I’m going into a meeting, and I’ve got a bad attitude about it because it hasn’t been a productive meeting in the past, I haven’t enjoyed it, or maybe I don’t like one of the people in the meeting. Maybe one of the people in the meeting doesn’t like me. Whatever the motivation is, whatever the reason is, I’m going into this meeting in a state of mind that indicates that I’m not going to show up at my personal best. Wherever you are on the organizational chart, this might be relevant for you. I’m going into this meeting and my first thought is, “I hate this weekly meeting.” We call this a negative thought cycle, I want you to follow this. I’m thinking, I hate this meeting: what mood is that going to place me in? I’m going to be cranky, irritable, and upset. If I’m in that cranky, irritable, upset mood, my behavior’s going to be impacted. I’m going to have limited participation, I’m probably going to be a little withdrawn—I may even make a bunch of negative comments, which has me leaving that meeting feeling like I was victimized, like I was dragged into a bad meeting. I feel really powerless. Then I’m going into that meeting next week feeling even worse. I’m not thinking, “I hate this weekly meeting,” now I’m thinking, “I really hate it; it did really suck last week,” and I may be ignoring my own contribution to that. Stacy Colino wrote that, “emotions are like germs—they’re contagious.” If I’m going into this meeting in a state of hatred that might be impacting the other people in the meeting, and it might make the meeting worse.

Let’s look at that same meeting that I hate, but I’m going to tweak my thinking just a little. We’re going to call this a positive thought cycle. I’m now going into the meeting; instead of thinking that I hate it, saying, “I’m going to make a contribution in today’s meeting.” That changes my mood. If I’m going in with that intention, I’m now a little curious, I’m calmer, and I‘m more open-minded, so the way I behave is different. I fully participate; I’m more thoughtful, I’m more relational, and I add some value. I probably receive a little more value, too, and I leave feeling confident. What does that confidence do next week? I’m not going into that meeting now thinking that I might make a contribution; I’m going in thinking that I will make one.

We want you to switch these negative thought cycles to positive ones, whether you’re talking about a meeting you don’t like, or a person that you don’t enjoy interacting with. Instead of thinking, “This person fails me all the time and I don’t like them,” you might go into an interaction with them thinking, “I’m going to make a contribution to this person and help them improve.” These little tweaks in thinking are what we observe our highest performing clients doing on a regular basis. They are driving results through accountability, out-performing their industries with this kind of behavior. We appreciate you taking a few minutes to hear this concept of switching negative thought cycles to positive thought cycles. Our certified facilitators are always ready to come into your organization and help you drive better business results through our accountability method using emotional intelligence. Thank you.

As always, we welcome your comments. Like us on Facebook to share your experiences or email us at [email protected].

For more information on how to bring the method to your team or about any of the services we offer, contact Ede Ericson Cardell at [email protected] or 214-742-1403 x 106.

Find this article useful? If so, you might enjoy our book.