Bias toward the negative

Humans, like all animals, have survived because we look for signals of danger.

This is a deep-seated tendency. It helps survival, but it’s not so good for rational thinking and empathy. It’s part of that lizard brain back there.

What’s the problem? Well, a sense of fear pushes you toward reactive thinking rather than thoughtful planning. Which is great when you have just seconds to respond, but not so great in most situations in modern life.

One very helpful tool is to spend time examining the positive side. What gives you hope? What are examples of good news? Where have we solved this problem before? Who else can help?

You can actually do this as an exercise to prevent fear. That’s one reason people like to do a gratitude exercise at the beginning or end of their day. And you can curate the balance of where you get your news, as most news outlets focus on the shocking bad events.

You start to realize that this is a choice.

It’s especially important in your role as a leader. Some like to manage by focusing on fear – the lost of job or incentives. But it’s far more powerful to paint a compelling picture of the future and then focus on building hope and confidence that the team can actually achieve that aggressive goal.

Even if you miss the mark by a bit, it was still motivating to work with a team who thought they were doing something important.

And it might just make our world a little better.