Guest Column: The Risk of Positive Thinking
by Shawn Casemore
Several years ago when my business was still in its infancy I dealt with many peaks and valleys in business development. At the heart of these waves of business was my inability to continuously focus on business development. Several projects would come about which in turn would consume my time and upon completion, because my efforts had been consumed in delivery, leave me looking at an empty calendar, which would drive me to crank up the business development efforts once again.
The ups and downs were not only nauseating, but stressful. It wasn’t until after some reflection and recalibration of my thinking that I realized what was at the heart of the matter.
The problem I had was in thinking positively.
This may seem counter-intuitive I realize, but truth be told I think that thinking positively rather than constructively, can result in risks which need to be recognized.
What I found upon reflection is that during the cycle I described earlier, my emotional state would change. Let me share with you the three phases of the cycle I described above and see if you can relate.
Phase 1: Business Development:
I have a passion for meeting and connecting with people, which in turn means that I love business development. When I was calling, networking with, and meeting new people I felt energized. From a business perspective, this energy came from the knowledge that I had significant value to offer and in turn could help most of the prospective clients that I was connecting with. My mood was optimistic and positive, and remained so when I was in business development mode.
Phase 2: The work:
When I reflected on all of my client projects in Strategy, Leadership, and Succession, it became apparent that I love what I do. Truthfully. I find my energy and attitude is at it’s peak when I am interacting with clients on projects, bringing their ambitions into reality. Once again I retained a positive attitude and I was optimistic. After all, if I can make my clients happy there is sure to be a line of them waiting when I am finished, right?
Phase 3: Empty pipeline
With my projects complete I returned to my office and quickly came to the realization that because I had been so consumed in client projects, I had failed to continue to invest enough time in Phase 1 and in turn I didn’t have any new business ready for implementation. This is the point at which, after being back in my office for two or three days that my optimistic and positive mental attitude plummeted. It’s not to say I would become depressed, but I did begin to fade into negative thoughts and negative self-talk.
There were several realizations that came from reflecting upon and understanding these phases, all of which I’ve helped my mentees overcome. I wanted to share them with you in the event you are facing similar ups and downs in your business and attitude.
Lesson #1. Business Development is a daily ritual, just like brushing your teeth. We are never too busy to make a few calls, have lunch with a prospect or colleague, or send out a few emails. If you set Business Development aside, you are simply neglecting your responsibility as a business owner.
Lesson #2: Every business has peaks and valleys, although not as violent as the ones I had experienced. Planning ahead for those peaks and valleys is a key to understanding when you need to ramp up Business Development in order to avoid sitting in what I call the trough of despair.
Lesson #3: The point of this article and the key lesson for me. Positive thinking can lead to false beliefs and expectations. In reality, I was riding high on the energy from meeting people, closing business, and working with clients; so much so that I was allowing myself to set aside fundamental rituals (see lesson #1 above). We have to manage our positive thoughts constructively. What I’ve found helpful is to set triggers whereby I automatically act when a trigger is engaged. For example when I close business I have a rule that I will automatically call two or three people (past clients, prospective clients, association connections) to catch up and see how they are doing. By setting triggers I can constructively use positive energy and thinking in order to drive myself to be diligent on the lessons I mentioned earlier.
The reality is that most everyone I’ve encountered at every level of success has peaks and valleys in their business. What I’ve learned however is that for those who achieve higher levels of success use positive thinking constructively to apply the lessons above, rather than letting momentary success be destructive.
How are you going to use positive thinking to be more constructive?
© Shawn Casemore 2015. All rights reserved.
Shawn is the President and Founder of Casemore and Co Inc. a management consultancy helping CEO’s and Business owners empower their organizations to new levels of productivity and profitability. Learn more at www.casemoreandco.com or follow Shawn on Twitter @ShawnCasemore.
