I attended the Global Leadership Summit this year again for perhaps the 5th year. Always extremely valuable. Here’s one golden nugget…

Reversing the Death Spiral of a Leader – Dr Henry Cloud

(From his book: “Boundaries for Leaders“)
Leaders don’t blame, they are instead good stewards and take ownership in leading people. A leader needs to be in charge of him or herself.
Attitude is everything.

The brain begins to change when things are out of control. It shuts down…
And in comes the three P’s:

1. The brain interprets disappointment personally.
2. It becomes persuasive. (It’s not just that one person hates me, everyone does.)
3. Disappointment becomes permanent. (It’ll always be this way, it’s not going to change.)

But there is a way out!
(I loved his comment… “Science and the Bible agrees and that’s reality. If they don’t agree, you’ve got wacky science or goofy Christians.”)

How to reverse the 3 Ps:
1. Log and Dispute the negative thoughts. Dispute it with God’s Word.
2. Get back into control. Make 2 columns. One of things you can control, one of things you can’t control. Worry about the things you can’t control – for 5 minutes, then move on to the list of things you CAN control. Like… smile, call someone, do personal leadership development, etc.
3. Connect. The answer to bad is never doing good. The opposite of bad is love. After the Fall, we tried doing good to feel better. Doesn’t work. Love… and you solve problems! One experiment he gave was that scientists had lights and noise outside a monkey and his cage. He went hysterical. Just by putting the monkey’s buddy in the cage, the stress levels of the monkey dropped by 50%.
I’ll find a way!! That’s the attitude a true leader needs. 🙂