Transforming Meetings: Positivity's Power

Text Pete

What if your meetings could be a source of inspiration, creativity, and collaboration rather than a dreaded part of your workday? In this episode of the Business Owner Breakthrough Podcast, Pete Mohr reveals the key to transforming your meetings - and your business as a whole - with a strategy called "The Power of Positive Meetings." This concept is a result of years of personal experience and scientific research demonstrating the significant impact of positivity on the brain's receptiveness and flexibility.

Here are a few things Pete covers:

• The historical context of meetings and their evolving purpose.
• The psychological study underpinning the benefits of starting meetings with good news.
• How positivity in communication can create a nurturing culture for ideas to bloom.
• The ripple effect of positivity from meetings to overall job satisfaction and productivity.
• Concrete steps to integrate positivity in your meetings, including gratitude rounds, sharing personal good news, and highlighting achievements.

It’s time to take action:
Start integrating a good news agenda in your next meeting. Kick off with gratitude rounds, acknowledge achievements, and promote personal stories. Not only will these strategies shift the meeting's atmosphere, but they will also ripple into the day-to-day operations, transforming your company culture. Remember, change is a process, so persistence is key. To aid in this process, visit www.simplifyingentrepreneurship.com/goodnews to download your guide "5 Easy Ways to Implement a Good News Agenda in Your Workplace."

Are you looking to make some changes in your business and your life in 2024?  Head over to speaktopete.com and book a chat with me to see if we're the right fit!

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Book a no charge Freedom Call with Pete, to see if you’re a good fit for his business coaching or talk to Pete about speaking at your next event head over to http://speaktopete.com to find a time that works for you!

Pete's Websites:

Pete-Mohr.com
The Exit Ready Business
Kolbe Coach
Simplifying Entrepreneurship

LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/petemohr/
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Episode Transcript

Pete Mohr (00:03):
Are you ready to move from operator to owner? Well,
decisions in your organizationshould be made at the lowest
possible level of your business.
Every day, there is a frameworkthat can help and it's called
the five P's. Understanding yourpromise, aligning your product
process and people to it willgenerate the most amount of

(00:24):
profit. And that's when thefreedom comes. Freedom from the
day to day management andfreedom to start doing the
things that you want and deserveto do, inside and outside of
your business. No one ever saidit was easy, but it's time to
start the process on thebusiness owner breakthrough. If

(00:45):
you'd like to chat with me abouthelping you breakthrough in your
business, simply go to speak topete.com that speak to pete.com,
to book an appointment and tosee if we're a right fit. Ever
felt that subtle drop in yourspirit as soon as a meeting
begins? Have you wondered if itcould be any different? Well,

(01:07):
it's time to talk about how youcan incorporate the power of
positive meetings in yourbusiness to help you transform
from operator to owner in yourbusiness. You know, throughout
history, the purpose of meetingswas always simple to address
these pressing concerns andproblems were highlighted making

(01:27):
the atmosphere typically tense.
But what if we could addressthose concerns while lifting
spirits? You know, what would itmean for your productivity and
well being and that of yourteammates, and your
organization. I recently read apsychological study. And people

(01:49):
respond with higher creativityand collaboration when their
meetings begin with positiveaccomplishments. And general
good news. And this isn't justabout feel good moments, or it's
really backed around science andneurological studies show that
our brains are more receptiveand flexible when introduced to

(02:11):
positive stimuli. And for yearsnow, whether it be with my team
at utopia, or with my coachingclients, and all of the
different groups that I coachand work with, we always start
the meeting with good news. Thishas been a long time tradition
for us. After breaking throughthe idea around of do we really
need to do this for those peoplethat aren't used to starting

(02:32):
meetings with good news, thatkind of attitude of the first
couple of meetings, everyonewill start to come prepared to
share their good news, they'lllove hearing others wins. And
the meeting will start off,right. It's interesting that
many people have a really hardtime finding something to be
positive about. And they'lloften revert back to something

(02:55):
negative. And you as a leaderhave to take a stance and let
them know then in there thatthis is the segment of the
meeting, that is for good newsonly, and that they'll get their
chance to, you know, bring uptheir concerns later in the
meeting. But we need to stay ongood news. It's how the meeting
needs to start. So let's breakdown positive communication in

(03:17):
meeting structure. You know,beyond sharing pleasant news,
it's about setting the tone, aculture where every voice,
including yours matters. And ifyou picture a greenhouse where
ideas like plants are nurturedand allowed to bloom, that's
what positive communication cando. You know, think about it.

(03:39):
Two leaders, one always sees thechallenges, while the other
finds the opportunities admitsthose challenges. And who do you
think drives more innovation?
Optimism isn't just a trait.
It's a catalyst for businesstransformation. And that's what
we talk a lot about heretransforming from operator to
owner to, and if you want totransform, then you need to

(04:00):
start looking at starting all ofyour meetings, all of your
conversations with positivenews. You know, how do we make
this shift if it's just notnatural? Well, you start with
pairing problems with potentialsolutions, bring up a team
members innovative approach,even if it was a small project,
show that every positive step nomatter how minor has value, you

(04:24):
know, I love the various groupsthat I work with. And I've been
running bi weekly mastermindmeetings with a group of about
half dozen rebuilders now for afew years, and they're pretty
comfortable sharing with eachother by now we're on Zoom, and
we kick off each session andalways have with a quick round
of good news. Sometimes it'spersonal. Other times it's about

(04:44):
a win that they had at work, youknow, either way, each person on
the call gets to know a littlebit more about that person and
their business and becomes evenmore comfortable sharing some of
their concerns and their wins aswell. You know, often
The groups that I coach, they'repretty much competitors in their
marketplace, but they're willingto open up and share the things

(05:07):
that make a difference, so thateach of them can grow. And they
don't look at it from acompetitive aspect after that,
because you're down deep andsharing the wins, you're wanting
to see each other win. And it'sjust such a engaging
environment, right? The biggestthing around this is that change
can be intimidating, especiallyin established settings. And if

(05:30):
you've been running yourmeetings for such a long time,
without kind of starting withgood news, some of the
colleagues, some of your teammembers and people on those
meetings will probably resist,but it's all about persistence,
you know, persistence, such akey trait in being an operator
and being an owner, andshowcasing the benefits and

(05:51):
highlighting the successstories. And most importantly,
the biggest way is for you tolead by example and not let this
go down a path that is hard tocome back from positivity in
meetings, doesn't just stay atthe conference room or in the
boardroom or wherever you aresitting around the retail floor,

(06:11):
it spills over after theseconstructive meetings. That
feeling of accomplishment, thepride and the optimism radiates
through your day. Often we don'tcelebrate enough wins in our
business. And this is one way tosort of let's call it force push
a button in order to makepositivity happen, and to

(06:32):
celebrate wins. Think about howit affects your interactions,
your decision making and theoverall job satisfaction of your
team. Cultivating positivityshouldn't be just limited to
meetings. It's about creating anenvironment, a culture where
everyone from the top levelexecutives to the interns feels
recognized and valued. And whenthe company culture echoes this

(06:55):
positivity, you'll see fewersick days, you'll see higher
productivity and a noticeableincrease in employee retention.
It is a win win. It'sfascinating really to think that
the tone we set in our meetingscan have such a profound ripple
effect. But I'll tell you, frommy personal experience of having

(07:16):
done this for many, many years,it does. So all right, let's
roll up our sleeves. And let'ssee some steps that you can
integrate into your nextmeeting. Number one, you can do
a gratitude round. Well, what isa gratitude round, you can begin
every meeting with a quick roundof where each participant shares
something that they're gratefulfor. setting a tone of gratitude

(07:40):
really Prime's the brain forpositive thinking and cultivates
environment of appreciation inthe meeting. If you're not that
big on gratitude side of things,then at least get in the share
the personal good news. byallocating a short time for your
team members to share positivepersonal news or experiences be

(08:02):
at a hobby, maybe a milestonecould be a child's achievement,
or maybe just a memorable momentfrom their week or weekend. This
creates deeper connections amongteam members. It really just
humanizes the workplace andpromotes camaraderie amongst the
group, right? Number three wouldbe to highlight achievements.

(08:23):
When we dedicate a segment ofthe meeting to acknowledge and
celebrate the team or theindividual accomplishments, it
makes a difference recognizingachievements not only boosts
morale, but it also sets aproactive tone and encourages
more of the same positivebehavior down the road. You see
it happening, you know,throughout the day throughout

(08:45):
the week. Number four is tospotlight positive customer
feedback, not negative customerfeedback. We're here to
spotlight positive customerfeedback, we'll deal with the
negative customer feedback laterin the meeting. We're just
sharing those testimonials fromclients or customers. During
those meetings, what happened tohave come up since the last time

(09:05):
we got together, right? Positivefeedback provides just such
tangible evidence of the resultsof the team's hard work. And it
just underlines the value oftheir contributions so important
to share as a group, right. Andthe fifth one I want to share
with you today is encouragelearning moments throughout
right, and meetings by askingyour team members to share one

(09:27):
new thing they learned since thelast gathering. This could be
work related could be a newtool, maybe even a life lesson.
When we promote continuouslearning within our
organizations. You know, itreinforces a growth mindset and
celebrates new knowledge and theimportance of personal
development. People want to workwith you. They want to keep

(09:49):
growing, they want your businessto grow, but they want to grow
as well. You we need to beempowering leaders and allowing
our team members to grow withinthe organization, and to grow
personally within theorganization to right, remember
integrating a good news agendathat we're talking about here
today. It's a journey. It's notjust a checkbox, it's, it might

(10:14):
feel a little bit unfamiliar.
But if you do it withconsistency, it becomes second
nature. And the results speakfor themselves. I can speak
personally, I'm happy to sharewith you many examples of this
that we have gone through andI've gone through, whether it be
at our retail stores, or whetherit be with my coaching clients.
Just pick up the phone, andlet's have a chat about it.

(10:36):
Before we wrap up, I've got agift for you. And if you want to
dive deeper into buildingpositive work environment, it's
a little one page PDF, the fiveeasy ways to implement a good
news agenda in your workplace sothat you can take sort of
today's learnings, pop them inshare them with your team, all
you need to do is go tosimplifying entrepreneurship.com

(10:57):
forward slash good news freedownload, you'll just pop in
your email and we will send itover to you. So it's at
simplifying entrepreneurship.comforward slash good news. And you
can download your copy overthere so you have the power to
begin your meetings with goodnews now. And when you do and
you stick to it right? Withoutexception, you'll notice the

(11:21):
difference in your team'sdecision making and your
business's decision making as awhole. Your journey from being
the operator of the business tothe owner of the business begins
with that one positive step. Sountil next time, make it a great
day

Buzz Burbank (11:46):
and ironic media production, visit us at our
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