High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 201: The Power of the Positive

Episode Date: August 16, 2018

“Don’t let negativity win. When you rise above the negative energy, you raise the positive energy for everyone.”  Jon Gordon  High performers develop positive teams. They realize that positivity makes a difference and they value it. They generate positivity on their team by working from their purpose. Knowing their vision. Working to get better each day. Having optimism and showing love and care. They show 1% more positive each day. Power Phrase:  "I choose positivity. I choose to bring positive energy each day and in each situation with my team."   Dr. Cindra Kamphoff is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant, Speaker and Author. She provide mental training for the Minnesota Vikings along with many other championships teams. She coaches athletes, CEOs and executives one-on-one to help them learn and apply the mental tools that lead to success. Cindra also speaks to and works with businesses and organizations on how to gain the high performance edge while providing practical tools that work. Her clients range from Verizon Wireless to Mayo Clinic Health System. Cindra's first book: Beyond Grit: Ten Powerful Practices to Gain the High Performance Edge was published in August. Her Ph.D. is in sport and performance psychology and she is a Professor in Performance Psychology at Minnesota State University. To book Cindra for your next speaking event or learn more about her one-on-one coaching, visit: cindrakamphoff.com For more information about Cindra's book, visit: beyondgrit.com

Welcome to High Performance Mindset with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Do you want to reach your full potential, live a life of passion, go after your dreams? Each week we bring you strategies and interviews to help you ignite your mindset. Let's bring on Sindra. Sindra joins us in studio this morning and on Monday mornings for a chance to get going in the right direction on a Monday with everything in our lives. Usually pretty helpful stuff. I shouldn't say usually, always really helpful stuff. It's just an opportunity for you to utilize the info you're given and make the best out of it. So welcome. Thank you so much for having me today. Welcome back. I think both of us are here from a little bit of a hiatus, aren't we? Yep. So today we're talking about the power

of the positive. I love it. It's a good one. We talk about it a lot, but not as in-depth as we will today. Let's start with our quote. So this is a quote by John Gordon. He said, don't let negativity win. When you rise above the negative energy, you raise the positive energy for everyone. That's pretty awesome. And it's also very, very true. So listen closely here.

We have a story to start with. Where are you going to go with this? So I'm going to start with last night. We were watching a family movie and it was a great movie we turned it off and the cubs were playing the nationals and we almost turned it off because the score was three to zero and the nationals were winning three to zero and cubs were didn't hadn't scored anything so we're watching that the final inning play out and my son was really into it and all of a sudden bases are loaded and david booty a rookie does a walk-off hits a walk-off grand slam nice and everyone goes crazy the team actually takes

off his jacket or his shirt his jersey when he wins you know and the everything everybody goes crazy and what i thought was really cool is i texted the sports psychologist who works with them joshua frac who, who I have on my podcast. And he said, hey, this is an example of always believing and that we never quit. That's pretty awesome. That's good stuff right there. How does this connect with the topic for today then? So today I've been reading a book called The Power of the Positive Team by John Gordon.

And I think this message applies to all of us because, you know, we can't create success alone. We're on many teams and we all need a team to be successful. And, you know, teams do a lot of things for us. They educate our children. They create new products like cars and phones and airplanes. They perform surgeries. They lead nonprofits. So really teams are essential in our society. And the way you can think about today is like it could be a team at work. It could be your team within your family, you know, like or within your marriage or it could be your sports team. I know today is the beginning of sports for high school sports, at least in Minnesota. Some tryouts and stuff going on here today.

So why does that matter? So this has real consequences, meaning positivity has real consequences. So here's just a snapshot of the research. What we know is that high performing teams have about an 85% positivity percentage. So that means like 85% of their actions and what they say to each other is positive. Even thriving marriages have about an 83. And when you thrive, you have 75. That's a lot of positivity.

Yeah, it is. Where the opposite is like, you know, low performing teams have 29. Divorced marriages have 41. And when you don't thrive, you got to have about 25. So we oftentimes joke and say, you know, fake it till you make it, which there is some reality to that in some sense. But this isn't the fake positivity we're talking about here. This is actually having some real purpose, a direction, something that you're going after, right?

Absolutely. Yeah. And it's not fake positivity. It's like real. And, you know, I think great teams really love being around each other. They like being around each other. They work towards like this common purpose and vision and have optimism. Sure. What other benefits do you see out of this? Well, I also see, you know, like when I work with a lot of teams, I do see that there's a competitive advantage. You know, when you're really positive and you're working together towards, you know, real purpose and vision,

you do have a competitive advantage, but it's also way more fun. Yeah. You know, it's more enjoyable and it's even fun while we watch, right? Yeah. I was thinking about the Ragnar Relay coming up this weekend.

You get one of your 12 people in a bad mood, and it kind of ruins things for everybody. It's like, look, man, you suck it up for a day and a half and keep things positive and enjoy yourself, because then everybody has a positive experience. I noticed that with my family, too. Let's say I come in, and I'm a little edgy, and then all of a sudden, you know, everybody's more edgy. So, absolutely. So, positive teams obviously have more fun. They perform better.

But what do you see positive teams not do? Well, you know, they don't become very legendary. They don't become very well known because they don't accomplish great things. Because they talk about problems and they create problems, they don't solve them, and they really blame. So I think one of the reasons that you want to create a more positive team is because you're more likely to not have those things, too, and those aren't enjoyable. All right. So you have four ways positive teams are different. Now, keep in mind, we're talking about teams.

Maybe it's your football team or your volleyball team or your lacrosse team, but maybe it's the team of people you're working with. Maybe it's the team of people you live with every day called your family, all of that stuff. So keep this in mind. There is a very broad perspective when you can scoop teams into where this qualifies. Four ways positive teams are different. What's the first? So these four come from John Gordon's book, The Power of the Positive Team. And so I've just kind of included my spin here and some examples.

So the number one thing that they do is they work together with optimism and belief. And I think the Cubs example is a great example of that. And I think, you know, at least what I see is a lot of teams start with the intention of being positive, but then, you know, it gets tough and maybe they experience challenges and they lose that positive energy. So great teams really are positive regardless of the challenges or setbacks. I mean, one example that John provides in his book is Clemson football. So he was on the sidelines when Clemson football was playing a national championship against Alabama and Alabama scores with two minutes to go to take the lead. And Deshaun Watson, I didn't know this,

the quarterback actually took the offense aside right after that. And he said, hey, let's become legendary. Let's become great. And then Clemson won the touchdown with four seconds left. Nothing better than beating Alabama with four seconds left other than beating them with three, two, or one second left. Isn't that crazy? Yes. So, you know, I think the point is that positive teams, they stay together regardless of adversity and setbacks,

and they believe the best is yet to come. So what's another way that positive teams are different? Well, they're committed to each other and they care for each other. And so they have this we before me mentality. And instead of being self-interested, that they really are there to serve each other instead of just serving themselves. And this week on the podcast, I interviewed Andrea Becker, who has a really cool job. She is an assistant coach for the Men's USA Volleyball team. And she's an assistant coach as their sports psychology coach.

So female coaching a men's team was super cool. She helped them win a gold medal in the last Olympics. And when I was asking her about how her team is different, she was really talking about being committed and caring. And she even said, you know, we show a lot of love and care and like vulnerability. Like we're really, we talk about what went wrong,

but from a caring and supportive place. So she said like the other coaches will come into their team and just feel how different they are, but in a really cool way. So what's the third way that positive teams are different then? So they have a really shared vision and purpose. So they know why they're going, you know, we're working together. So they know their why. So they have a really shared vision and purpose. So they know why they're going, you know, working together. So they know their why. So they have more power to do it. But they are also really, you know, they have the strong vision. They know exactly where they're going.

And John Gordon in his book, The Power of the Positive Team, talks about Alan Mully, who is the CEO of Ford. He became the CEO of Ford in 2006 when, I didn't know this, but Ford had a loss of $12 billion. So when he became CEO and really like the way he was able to turn it around is that he brought the shared vision and purpose. And so, yeah, it's really important regardless of what your team is. Well, so I like it, like TJ said, it applies to business too. Absolutely. So what's the last way? The last way is that positive teams, it applies to business too. Absolutely. So what's the last way? The last way is that positive teams have a desire to get better. So they're continually working to get better for themselves and for each other.

And they're really pursuing excellence so that they can improve and get better. And they want to do something great together. And I thought this was a really cool thing that John provides, which I think could be a really cool guideline for us and something I'm trying to use. So he described the 1% rule in his book. And he said, how about today, you just give 1% more energy, or time or effort or love to your team than you did yesterday. And let's say if you have 40 people on your team, you know, that means you're bringing 40% more positivity than you did yesterday. I like that. That's pretty cool. Then what should we do?

I think really what this is about is just bringing more positivity to your team, regardless of who your team is. This could be through actions or words. I think we could consider just bringing 1% more positivity today than Friday or yesterday.

We were in the car for hours and hours and hours, and we had, I don't know what it was, probably 90 minutes left in our drive yesterday. And we're like, 90 minutes, guys. We're so close. We've done so well. Talking to our kids in the backseat who were angels, by the way. I don't even know whose kids they were. But my son just out of nowhere goes, well, it's a good thing I have one more book. He cracks

open a book and starts reading. And I was like, there he is. He found the positivity in the situation. I got 90 minutes to go, but I found something positive about being stuck in the car for 90 more minutes. And that was great. After how many hours? Well, it was

eight, I think, yesterday. Like 14 or 15 the day before. Yeah, it was a lot of miles and a lot of hours in the car and they did great. And they definitely kept it positive. How could you summarize this for us today? So high performers develop positive teams. They realize that positivity makes a difference and they value it. They generate positivity on their team by working from their purpose, knowing their vision, working to get better each day, having optimism and showing

love and care and showing 1% more positivity each day. It's awesome. There's a wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings who I know rolls with quite a bit of positivity that he learned while going to school at Minnesota State University here in Mankato. And I can just tell in tweets and interviews that that stuff rubs off. You see like a Stefan Diggs also getting on board with that. And it's awesome to see. And it's definitely something that works. And we see it here even now that Adam is not with MSU anymore. That is a team.

When those guys aren't practicing football, you know what they do? Jump off the high dive at the pool together and swim. They're always hanging out, keeping it positive and keeping the team together, which is really nice. Football season coming up pretty soon. Can you tell I'm excited about it? What is the power phrase for this week

as we get into it? I choose positivity. I choose to bring positive energy each day in my life and on my team. Excellent. If we want more information on this and more on the other very positive things that you are doing, Sindra, how do we get in touch with you? You can head over to my website, drsindra.com. And if you'd love to listen to the podcast for this week, it was really awesome with Andrea Becker.

You can find High Performance Mindset like this one, this episode today on iHeartRadio, Stitcher Radio, and iTunes. Excellent. Wherever you find your podcasts, you can grab that one and listen all the time and Mondays here on The Country Club with Cintra. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me today. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. If you like today's podcast, make a comment, share it with a friend, and join the conversation on Twitter at Mentally Underscore Strong. For more inspiration and to receive Sindra's free weekly videos, check out DrSindra.com.