Category Archives: Geny Y

Positive Self Talk Is Not Enough

Throughout your career there are many times when you will doubt yourself. Am I worthy of a promotion? Will my boss laugh at me when I ask for a pay rise? Can I really do this project that I have never done before? Will the audience really want to listen to what I have to say? Can I manage people who are older and more experienced than me?

For over 12 years I have coached leaders and developing leaders about the power of positive self talk. In simple terms, the words that you say to yourself in your head promote an image of success or failure in your mind. This image influences your performance.

Imagine that you were asked to do a presentation to senior management on a project that you had worked on. Throughout your university degree and career you have done your best to avoid presentations because you think that you ‘suck‘ at them.

In this example you are cornered. You can’t ‘run away‘ from this presentation. You have to do it. Imagine your self talk. “I’m going to be terrible doing this presentation. The senior management team are all going to know that I’m a terrible presenter. My future here is going to be damaged. Oh my god why did this have to happen to me!“.

No matter how much practice you did, if you maintained this type of self talk you will have created a self-fulfilling prophecy. Moments in to your presentation your mind will go blank. Then it will fill with the words, “See, I knew I wasn’t any good at presenting and now look at what has happened! My mind has gone blank and the senior management team now thinks that I am useless!

When your performance matches your self talk it re-enforces it which in turn re-enforces the image that you have of yourself either succeeding or failing. This can result in either a virtuous or vicious cycle that affects your performance.

The point of leverage is your self talk. You don’t have to create ‘fake‘ self talk. This is the type of self talk that even you don’t really believe. In the above example, ‘fake‘ self talk would be something like, “I’m going to be the best presenter the senior management team have ever experienced. I’m going to have them eating out of the palm of my hands.

You might have this type of self talk if you were already an accomplished presenter, but if you were coming off a low base then this type of self talk will be ‘fake’ and actually won’t help you (because you won’t really believe it!).

A more effective form of self talk is something like, “I’ll be the best presenter that I can be today. Period.” This type of self talk is believable and gives you the opportunity to see yourself as a ‘learner‘ rather than an expert. When you see yourself as a learner and you make a mistake it is far easier to recover than if you have used ‘fake‘ self talk.

However, self talk is not enough. It must be balanced with doing the right work and focus. The right work in this example relates to learning how to do an effective presentation and putting what you learn in to practice before you do your presentation to the senior management team. Focus refers to the skills and structure that support the action that you are taking. In this example your focus would relate to the core message that you want to convey, the key supporting arguments that you have for your message and the call to action that you want the senior management team to adopt.

These self talk principles can be applied to any situation.

If you aren’t doing the right work and don’t have focus, then all the positive self talk in the world will amount to nought.

How do you manage your self talk?

Gary Ryan enables talented professionals, their teams and organisations to move Beyond Being Good.

Report Indicates That Gen Y Now More Loyal

A recent report published on the CIO website indicated the Gen Y are now more loyal to their employer than they have ever been. For a number of years I have been arguing that Gen Y are not as different as the older generations like to claim that they are. I’m not suggesting that as a generation they aren’t different, what I am suggesting is that the degree of difference is not as high as some have been arguing.

For many years I was laughed at for suggesting that the apparent ‘lack of loyalty’ by Gen Y was more driven by a booming economy than anything else. Gen Y when new in the workforce are able to exercise their right to change employers if the employer’s promises didn’t match the reality of organisational life. Many of the rest of us would love to have had that freedom of mind to take the same action. The reality is that for many of the older generations, they choose to put up with poor cultures and organisations because of their life stage – many married with children and large mortgages. (I, for one took the “I’m creating my own path” choice and with my business partner Andrew I am loving that choice!)

It is little wonder, therefore that when the economy has changed Gen Y, when asked if they plan to stay or go have responded with a resounding increase in, “I plan to stay!” Gen Y aren’t stupid. There’s no point being ‘mobile’ in your career if there isn’t anywhere to go!

My hope is that Gen Y don’t lose their intolerance for organisations not matching what they say. I have experienced too many people in the older generations who wish that their organisation’s culture was better than it is. But many of these people stay in those organisations for fear of not getting another opportunity elsewhere. Unfortunately this means that the organisations don’t change like they should.

Gen Y may have a serious impact on organisational cultures over time because they may make them more accountable. While there is good reason to celebrate the reported increase in Gen Y ‘loyalty’ my hope and belief is that they are just plain smart and they’ll be loyal while they are shown loyalty themselves. I also believe that they will continue to take responsibility for themselves and their career development far more than previous generations. Such action comes with being ’employably mobile’.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com