We get organizations ready for anything
The road for organizations is now more uncertain and more unpredictable than ever. Bobbie’s methodology and insights help today’s leaders obtain and sustain a distinct competitive advantage in an environment marked by uncertainty, constant change and volatility.
We employ the principles of Positive Leadership—a fundamentally new approach to helping leaders deal with this complex environment. It is not a “Kumbaya,” touchy-feely, or “Let’s all be happy” approach to business. Rather, it applies the hard science of positive psychology and human behavior to help leaders redefine confidence and competence so that they can lead themselves, their teams and their organizations forward to new possibilities.
The Task of Leadership is to create an alignment of strengths, making weaknesses irrelevant.
How We Help Organizations Get Ready
Bobbie LaPorte and Associates can help your organization prepare for the uncertainty that lies ahead through:
Simple Steps to Get Ready for Anything
Following are a few simple practices and approaches that put you “in the now” and help you discern the possibilities in any situation. These can be put into action with minimal effort and disruption to your current routine—and the payoff can be huge!
Arriving at a Meeting
This deceptively simple but effective practice of “arriving” at a meeting can help you feel more “in control”. For those of you who are always double and triple booked, rushing from one meeting to the next, try to allow 30 seconds when you get to a meeting to “arrive.” Sit down, take a deep breath, compose yourself. Think about your goal(s) for the meeting—and then focus and begin. That brief moment of mindfulness should help you be more focused and effective.
Starting Meetings on a Positive Note
Research shows that negative emotions and actions hurt 2-3 times more than positive actions please. So why not focus on the positive capacities of your team? To reinforce confidence and competence, start your staff/team meetings with successes or accomplishments. These may be personal or professional, but asking everyone to briefly share a success they had over the last week helps to build self-confidence and empathy and creates a spiral of positivity that can extend throughout the week to other individual and team activities.
Three-Minute Breathing Space Practice
Take a few moments and give the Three-Minute Breathing Space Practice a try. This simple yet very effective exercise can help you cut through the noise and get back on course with your goals and intentions for the day. And no one knows you are practicing it!
Reframing a Negative Situation
Think about a situation that generated a negative reaction from you. Try to remember, as vividly as you can, the feelings and sensations that were triggered by the situation. Now, think again about the situation, but try to think of other explanations or possible viewpoints than the ones that occurred to you—more positive ones. What would they be? Imagine that these alternative interpretations are actually your true beliefs. How does this alter your feelings and sensations? And what is your impulse to act now?
Conducting a Pre-Mortem
Perhaps you have conducted post-mortems on some of your key projects, major sales or customer service goals, or other important initiatives. But have you considered conducting a “pre-mortem” before you make an important decision? This is a great way to discern built-in biases in decision-making and construct worst-possible-case scenarios that can help you minimize risks, maximize success and be in control.
Three Good Things
I encourage my clients to take one minute at the end of each day (yes, that’s all it takes!) to note Three Good Things (TGT) that happened during the day. They could be personal or work-related, big or small. Positive psychology shows that this habit that can change the emotional tone of your life, replacing feelings of disappointment or entitlement with those of gratitude—which is why this practice creates confidence that the best path forward is always there.