How to Use the Power of Suggestion Like a Leader
Thank goodness they didn’t make us read the potential side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine when we arrived for our second shot.
I shouldn’t have read the two page ‘death manual’ when we arrived for the first shot! By the time we were seated in the cramped exam room, I felt my throat constricting. I was sure I had anaphylactic shock. Even though I hadn’t received the shot yet.
I thought about the wife of a friend who ended up in the hospital after her shot. I was pretty sure I would too.
My friend’s wife got Bell’s Palsy. Her face drooped on the left side. Was it a stroke? Thankfully, about a week later, her face returned to normal. But she was still drooping when we rolled up our sleeves the first time. I felt my face drooping.
Before the nurse administered the shot, with a straight face, I told her my throat was constricting. She laughed. The same thing happened to her. Our son is a Physician Assistant. He wondered if he was having trouble breathing before he got his shot. It’s not comforting that professionals imagine side effects like the rest of us.
The power of suggestion is real. What are you suggesting to yourself? What are you suggesting to your team?
You’re worried about a million things. Keep most of them to yourself. Unless you want to suggest that your team is completely incompetent, bring up concerns with confidence.
If you wonder what’s being done to prevent a problem or reach a goal, ask. But please don’t constantly wring your hands. Suggesting people will fail may encourage failure.
What shifts in your thinking if you walk around suggesting people will succeed? (I’m not suggesting you ignore challenges. Just reflect on your approach.)
What energizing suggestions might you make today?
Influence is Easy – Just Drop a Few Hints
How Hints, Expectations, and the Power of Suggestion Influence Others
At first a good team will work to prove you wrong but the constant negativity will start to fester until it becomes a cancer, slowly killing the team. not because they can’t exceed but because they start to breed what is consistently being impregnated into their minds. It is all they hear, they feel as though all the times they pushed through to accomplish the goals or mission went unnoticed. Teams that don’t feel the gratitude slowly fade from great to good to just like the leadership that is always the “Negative Nancy” or “Downer Dan”
Praise good workers, show appreciation, give kudos when you can. If you do, you will see positive results and you will build what you suggest.
What shifts in your thinking if you walk around suggesting people will succeed? The fact those before us did succeed and those before them did as well, granted over the years challenges were different for those before us “The Great Depression”, World wars 1& 2 and many other conflicts, so realistically, if we are here today discussing success stories look at history. Apply those tough times to todays real life story. You make your life with what surrounds you, the Families & children fighting to get out of the Ghetto’s, they struggle but yet succeed, others do not.
What energizing suggestions might you make today? If we can do it you can do it, this is what we did that may work for you, this is what we didn’t do that hindered us. Real life examples with real life results. None of us are guaranteed to succeed but we can survive. Learn to lead by our best steps forward and others will follow.
Several years ago, I had a team of three brand new people (together they had less than 1 year of experience). I sat them down and told them I was going to throw them into the deep end and stand on the side with the life preserver. They laughed, because they understood what I was telling them: I knew they could do the assignment with minimal support for me. And that is exactly what happened.
Hmmmm I wonder if the power of suggestion is relevant when we’re talking about the potential effects of covid-19 itself…no, couldn’t be. Just roll up your sleeve and get the jab. Fear the virus, but don’t fear the experimental, yet-to-be-formally-approved vaccine that doesn’t technically meet the definition of a vaccine, and also comes with zero liability for any side effects including death. Yeah, we’re officially all living on Clown Planet and you’ve been fooled with the rest of them, Dan. What happened to critical thinking?
“The power of suggestion is real. What are you suggesting to yourself? What are you suggesting to your team?
You’re worried about a million things. Keep most of them to yourself. Unless you want to suggest that your team is completely incompetent, bring up concerns with confidence.” So spot on, I’ve found that if I keep a positive attitude regardless of challenges presented and regardless of how I might feel emotionally or physically I can face those challenges in a better way. I’ve attempted to impart this to team members and family. It seems easier to do on family since they know me fully and see me in action. It is difficult to impart said approach to work team members. I lean that one either has that positive approach within them or they don’t and unless they actively want to change they won’t. I blame the Fathers on this approach as it was my Father and Grandfathers who set me up on this pathway and I as a Father who has set up my children in this manner.