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The Island of Negativity is where negative people go to thrive. And if not dealt with quickly and in a positive way, just one negative person can destroy an entire performance environment. Their attempts to expand their island’s territorial boundaries by recruiting negative converts to join them become successful and the islands population begins to grow exponentially. These negative individuals and their eventual island mates are the ones who are always sitting around, letting things happen to them. They are the victims. They have made making excuses, placing blame, and justifying failure a core competency.

Negativity is one of the great detractors to anyone or any organization's path to success, so we need to be prepared to respond when we begin to hear statements like "That will never work.", "It's not my fault." and "That's just the way it is." We do this first by keeping focused on making things happen, no matter what. Once we have our self-discipline we begin to respond to those negative statements with positive ones such as "How can I help?", "What can we do to make this situation better?" and "Let's figure out some options." By responding with statements like this we don't give the negative individual what they want most, a friend on their island.

This individual, through our positive actions, will eventually have to make a choice as the island begins to gets lonelier and lonelier. Either leave the island or go to another organization that allows for Negativity Island to grow. And this is the exact outcome we want. Either the individual will change their behaviors and become a positive force within our organization or they can go and be disruptive in another.

As an individual we always need to remember: We control what we can control, influence what we can influence and when we can't control or influence, we keep moving and making things happen.

Join us next week as we discover the cure for the dreaded annual review cycle - Performance Connections.

And for more detailed information about how to lead your own performance be sure to check out our Lead Where You Are book or online training! Both have greater insights and give you an actual plan to begin leading where you are.

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