By Helen Whitten

Right thinking = right results

Thinking drives emotions, behaviour and actions and managers and HR departments need to understand the impact that thinking has on performance. Skewed perspectives, generalisations and negativity limit creativity and productivity.

Managers benefit from becoming experts in the mind and how it works as it is the brain that is behind the success or failure of any business. A thought such as: “I don’t think my manager knows what he is doing” will undermine motivation. A thought such as: “I’m afraid that my manager will put me next on the list for redundancy” causes anxiety and stress and, when people are stressed they become stupid. Their brain becomes fuzzy, forgetful, and irritable and the stress response shunts blood and oxygen away from the thinking brain and into the muscles and lungs to run faster or fight powerfully. Not very useful when you’re sitting at your PC! Minimise stress and you get clear thinking. Good thinking gets you good results.

Challenging habitual norms creates new perspective

New situations demand new perspectives and behaviours yet humans are deeply habitual and activities we do frequently become automatic responses. We drive unaware of changing gear and the brain adapts to traffic while you mentally rehearse your sales pitch. CB coaching questioning techniques identify which thoughts and habits are constructive and which need challenging to adapt to changing business situations. You check whether people are catastrophising to make situations appear worse than they are.

Whether they are ‘fortune-telling’ to imagine what might happen despite lack of facts; whether they are labelling themselves or someone else as stupid on the basis of one instance; whether they are seeing only the negatives in a situation rather than gaining perspective. You won’t understand how performance is being sabotaged unless you unearth the nature of a team’s thinking patterns. Without the right questions, people are operating like robots, on automatic. Thinking must become conscious.

Powerful questions to develop constructive thought

It’s important to identify the true nature of a team member’s approach. CB coaching highlights where a person has developed ‘thinking errors’ or lack of perspective. This develops rational and constructive thoughts that support the aims and goals of the individual and group. It’s not Pollyanna positive thinking but focuses on facts and evidence, so that people problem-solve strategies to achieve the results they are aiming for. 

Questions include: Where is it written that you must act that way? Who says? What’s the evidence that you must approach the project this way? What’s the worst that can happen if you do/don’t act? How important will this be in six months time? How might others approach this problem? What’s stopping you? How does this failure make you a complete failure? Just because this didn’t work before, how does it follow that it won’t work this time? Is your belief helping you achieve this goal? What thought would help you feel confident to approach this problem?

Developing the will to achieve goals

Constructive thinking is an essential ingredient in goal-setting. Most project meetings focus only on what has to be done such as the milestones and the deliverables. In order to engage staff’s will and skill, include time to explore which thoughts sabotage and, conversely, which support the success of the project.

Giving space to people’s concerns enables a manager to address them. Individuals will say “yes” when they actually mean: “I’m not sure I understand what you want me to do” or: “I’ve got so many deadlines to complete how am I supposed to manage this as well?” 

Invisible ingredients to success

When teams discuss concerns they can identify priorities and brainstorm solutions. Prompt them to identify the thoughts, feelings and behaviours to promote success. For example, thoughts like: “We can do this”, feelings like confidence and enthusiasm and behaviours like teamwork and assertiveness. These are the invisible ingredients to the success of your business. Thinking represents your competitive edge.