By Uju Onwuzulike

“Embracing vulnerability is your path to wholeness”…Rosalene Glickman

WITH the current realities and business uncertainties, what brings about success in your organisation today might not bring the same success tomorrow. An idea, thought, or belief that we have been used to in the time past and that has worked may not work for us in the same manner it did in the time past.

But that does not mean that those ideas or beliefs that worked in the time past are not necessary, they may still be necessary, but are not sufficient for today’s world. They could be parts of the ingredients needed for success in your organisation, but are not sufficient ingredients. In a bid to improve our individual performances, we have been introduced to positive thinking. We have been thought amongst other things to be positive and things will be okay, avoid negativity, always alienate ourselves from any negative thoughts or feelings, and always believe that situations will improve over time. A very pertinent question to ask ourselves is: can our organisational problems simply varnish because we have positive thinking mindset? Is positive thinking enough in this ever changing and turbulent world?

Positive thinking
For years, the motto of the productive world has been “Think Positive.” Even countries are not left out, with or without clear cut game plans, they are always positive that challenges like terrorism, unemployment, unfavourable economic situations etc will one day become things of the past. The reality is that without being definite of what to do whether as a country or an organisation challenges and issues will continue to rear its ugly head.

I remembered speaking to a young entrepreneur who was having serious challenges driving sustainable business. During our meeting, my first question to him was: what do you think will happen to your business given the current situation? He quietly answered, “I am positive that things will improve in the future”. Having said that, I quickly asked him; do you have clear cut strategies of what to do?

His answer clearly showed that he has left the success of business to chance or fate. In another situation, a senior person in an organisation (in my presence) has also told his subordinate who had some official challenges and required a superior input to “just be positive” that with time everything will be okay.

Off course, I quickly advised him to call back that his subordinate (who had trust in him) and proffer step by step solutions and never pretend there was no problem. The truth is that it is totally impossible to grow any organisation by mere wishful thinking or by being positive without having a strong desire to commit plans to actions. So, are we saying that positive thinking is not necessary in this age and time? No, positive thinking is valuable, and useful, however dwelling only on positive thinking as a magical way to achieve result in this ever changing business world could only do more harm to organisations than good. The belief of most organisation is that positive thinking is always in there best interest, but that is not always the case.

We have been thought to always see the brighter side of the business alone and most of the times, we ignore the treats and the warning signals for optimisation. Martin Seligman, who wrote Learned Optimism said, if the cost of failure is high optimism is the wrong strategy. As a result of dwelling alone on positive thinking, organisation performances have been impacted negatively; bad debt has increased and the road map to organisational success has been reduced to mere wishful thinking or “business as usual”.

We all remembered when foreclosures were off the charts in America. What did you think that happened? Many people bought homes when they did not have the money to pay for them. They suppressed their doubts and concerns, and eventually were hit with foreclosure. In addition, the global financial crisis that we had came as a result of questionable strategies that were used by some Wall Street executives. Those that questioned the workability of those strategies and who also expressed doubt were labeled negative thinkers. Indeed, positive thinking has not been enough. The world and indeed the business world require a more realistic style of thinking that empowers individuals and organisations to be their best and at the end deliver targeted results.

In most organisations, positive thinking is often used to suppress negativity. Why do I say so? Because many positive thinkers often judge, suppress, and ignore negativity. What they want to hear alone is good news, and as a result they distance themselves from any negative thoughts, events or actions that are likely to ruin their organisations.

They often do not pay attention to the red flags. Like, Dr Rosalene Glickman will say: by alienating themselves from negativity, they sacrifice authenticity, vulnerability, wholeness and intimacy. Secondly, it is often no more than wishful thinking. It is a mere wishful thinking when an organisation announces that they want to make $10 million in six months without having clear cut strategies.

Believe me, a lot of organizations engage in this kind of false expectations all in a bid to sound positive. Thirdly Positive Thinking has different shades. There are extraordinary positive thinkers and mediocre (moderate) positive thinkers.

Communications between positive thinkers on different levels is often problematic. Fourthly, suboptimal thinking is not the mental basis of peak performance. Lastly, if we don’t optimize a situation, we don’t complete it.

Final Note:
Having said that positive thinking is not enough in this volatile world in driving organisational peak performance, and then what is the way forward? Organisations should move from mere wishful thinking and begin to think optimally. Optimal Thinking is a realistic style of thinking that empowers individuals and organisations to be their best (and stop settling for second best) in every situation.

An optimal thinker will not just announce that the company wants to make $10 million just to sound positive or impress shareholders, but will rather ask the question first and foremost, how can our company make $10 million profit in 6 months? Is it realistic? What are our best options, what are the definite steps to take in this circumstance in order to achieve our goal?

So next time you are interviewing someone who sounded so good and vowed to deliver exceptional result, just relax and simply ask: how can you deliver this exceptional result on step by step basis? You might have suddenly developed a skill that will fish out wishful thinkers – and your organisation does not require them.