PositiveEnvirons

Funny how hard it is to foster and maintain a positive work environment.  

Negative environments seem to grow and prosper under their own steam.  It's almost like they have the ability to metastasize.  The negative serves as a constant “pull down” force, much like gravity. 

Positive ones, however, require our constant attention.  It is a never-ending job to make the positive offset the negative.  Polly Anna mentality doesn’t get the job done.  

Positive has to be defined, incentivized, praised, recognized, practiced.  And, since it seems not to be the natural disposition, the habit of positivity must be learned, trained, and reinforced.  This is the work of leadership.  

I liken the work of fostering positivity in the work environment to the practice of maintaining fitness for ourselves.  We never "get there."  It requires our constant, daily, disciplined attention to maintain wellness in our body, mind, and spirit.

Same goes for the places in which we choose to work.  And, regardless of the position we hold within an organization, we actually ARE daily engaging in practices that make that environment healthier, more positive, more fit....

or less so.  We get to choose.