Module 21 – Opportunity and Threat

LEADERSHIP BY DESIGN - MODULE 21

Comprehend the profound influence of positive thinking, equip yourself with strategies to transform your perceptions from weaknesses into strengths and threats into opportunities through proactive, optimistic action.

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TRANSCIPT

How did you get on with setting positive goals? Positive goals for yourself and your team. Hopefully you’ve got some where you really feel the difference and where you really connect with them, and you’re able to do that for your team now.

Now what we’re going to move on to keeps the same theme of positivity, but now looks at organisational change. Now we’ve spoken about change previously as a threat, and how people perceive it as a threat. But as a leader, it’s up to you to redefine threats as opportunities, to seek the positive where others might seek the negative. And if we can constantly do that, then we’ll get people moving forward more powerfully, rather than simply avoiding the negative.

Now, you’re probably aware of doing analysis, like a SWOT analysis, strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, when you look at how you as an organization might be able to face up to the challenges in your environment. So, the strengths and weaknesses relate to your business, the opportunities and threats that later would exist outside your business, in your market, in your environment.

And naturally, we get drawn towards the threats, naturally that’s where the drama, the excitement, the problems lie. And people will find those a more exciting place to be. But as a leader, it’s up to you to try and redefine those threats. Look for the opportunities, and get all to focus on those, the opportunities which take you away from the threats, circumvent the threats, negate the threats, but define them as opportunities. And people will move more powerfully towards those.

So, there’s material there about the SWOT analysis, but it’s actually about trying to look at that, start doing one for yourself, but to really look for how to convert threats to opportunities, and how you can communicate those opportunities to your team.

So that’s the task for the day, but don’t underestimate that. It’s not an easy one, but do you have a goal, and try and reframe anything you hear today as a negative into a positive, however hard that is. I know you can’t deal with everything but have a go and see what difference that makes to be able to see those reactions, when you talk to them about it. So have a go with that, and then tomorrow, we’ll talk about risk-taking and productivity with risk. But for now, think about reframing threats to opportunities.

Have some fun with that one. Best of luck.