BEING able to always remain positive in the face of adversity has an enormous impact on your career.
While "hard skills" like technical ability and subject-matter specialisation are important for anyone's career, it is the ability to reframe thoughts optimistically that plays a pivotal role in achieving any sustainable growth at work.
For instance, this week I had to coach a manager who was struggling at her job. It turns out that the problem was not that she was incompetent or disengaged. It was entirely founded on stress.
At a glance, her worry and stress were totally unnecessary. But unfortunately, the complications surrounding her latest project weighed so heavily on her, and this was adversely affecting her capacity to function effectively. As we chatted, I worked out that she is, in fact, continuing to act very professionally, and still enjoys the full support of her bosses.
I spent time helping her unravel her problems. Our discussions gave my coachee some context to put things into perspective. And this process helped her recalibrate her thinking pattern. After our coaching engagement, she felt more at ease with having to deal with difficult assignments.
This is a common dilemma for many people that I coach. They feel tremendous stress and upon reflection, this condition is often caused by fixating entirely on the negatives or complications of doing something.
Focusing on the "worst-case-scenarios" is a common condition that affects many people.
Recently, I flew from Kuala Lumpur to Penang. It was an early flight and judging by the formal attire many were wearing, they were on their way to important meetings.
It was a stormy morning and before long, the dreaded airline announcement came through that our flight was delayed. There was a collective sigh of displeasure echoing across the departure lounge.
In an instant, a fastidious man sitting at the table next to me with some colleagues exclaimed how flying this particular airline was a complete waste of time. He continued to moan and groan.
He then proceeded to telephone someone I assumed was from his office to complain that they had booked him on the wrong airline because "once again" the flight was delayed.
I was perplexed. How could he berate his colleague and blame the airline for bad weather? We could see the thunderstorm raging outside and, quite frankly, I was thankful that we were not going to be flying in those conditions.
Of course, meetings would have to be rescheduled. I, too, had to make a phone call to inform my client that we had to postpone his coaching session by a few hours.
I am certain that many at the airport had to do the same. But I also suspect that many people there, who got their day disrupted, were disgruntled yet remained thankful that their lives were not endangered.
The man then turned to me to moan about the delay. I had to politely whip out my mobile phone and pretend to urgently deal with something because I didn't want his negative energy disturbing me.
I have learnt that negative thoughts make me worry and stress in the most inappropriate ways.
A study on the effects of worry and our ability to perform tasks by Pennsylvania State University, cited in the Journal of Clinical Psychology in 1990, shows that people who are anxious 50 per cent of the time or more have a reduced ability to sort objects as the difficulty of those tasks increased.
It went on to demonstrate that this disruption was a result of increased levels of negative thoughts. It appears that when the brain is faced with complex tasks, negative thinking actually hurts your ability to process information and think clearly.
Just remember that thinking negatively about your problems doesn't solve anything. It actually makes it harder for you to come up with any useful solution.
The man I encountered at the airport definitely overreacted to the stress of the delay. And, based on this research, his brain was only focusing on the negative, therefore he was unable to think constructively.
Further, a 2014 study at the University of Berkeley in California indicates that stress from negative thinking creates changes in the brain that have an impact on mental disorders, such as anxiety, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia and mood disorders.
Psychologist and author of the book Hardwiring Happiness, Dr Rick Hanson, argues that if you successfully train your mind to replace negative thoughts with positive or constructive ones, you will experience less anxiety and depression.
When you learn to look at the silver lining in every situation, you will have greater compassion, love, contentment, joy, gratitude, self-esteem and satisfaction with life, and overall happiness.
So, if you want to reduce and mitigate the effects of any adverse circumstances around you, keep focusing only on the positive. Now your life, and career will become better.
The writer is managing consultant and executive leadership coach at EQTD Consulting. He is also the author of the national bestseller 'So, You Want To Get Promoted?'
