“Individuals, teams and organisations move in the direction that they study … what is given attention grows.”
David Cooperrider
Practice a More Positive Vocabulary with Self & Others
Ø Keep a journal in which you practice positive language through creative writing. Spend 5 minutes a day writing about anything (make it up if you like!). Then, go through what you have written and highlight positive words and phrases – congratulate yourself! Look for negative words and reframe these into a more positive context.
Ø Review everything you write. Written communications are the simplest place to start building a core positive vocabulary because you can review and edit before you send.
Ø Monitor your speech. Catch yourself using positive words – congratulate yourself! Catch yourself using negative words, stop yourself (in mid sentence if you need to) and reframe your words into positive statements.
Ø Think before you speak. It sounds easy but it's actually rather difficult to put into practice. It's perfectly acceptable to pause when it's your turn in a conversation and give yourself a moment to organise, prepare, and present your thoughts in a positive way.
Ø Don't try to eliminate negative words from your vocabulary completely. While working positive language into your thinking, speaking, and writing is healthy, avoiding or ignoring the negative can be a form of denial. Acknowledge the situation or problem but flip it to what you want to achieve; to what is desired.
Ø Practice active and constructive responding (rather than passive and constructive, or active and destructive, or passive and destructive responding).
Ø Develop and ask positive, generative questions. The power of questions and questioning is to open the door to new possibilities.
Adapted from the works of M Seligman, D Cooperrider, B Fredrickson, G Bushe & D Whitney; and from guest writer Melissa Donovan at www.positivelypresent.com