Walk Like a Giant, Sell Like a Madman

14.4. Surround Yourself with Positive People

Both positive and negative attitudes are contagious. Negative attitudes can drag down an entire sales team, making everyone believe that overcoming the current challenge is impossible. Positive attitudes can lift your spirits and those around you and motivate you to clear every hurdle that life puts in your path.

Avoid people in your office who poke fun at goal setting, achievement, and rewards and gravitate toward those who have a positive, can-do attitude. People with positive attitudes will encourage and challenge you to do your best and have fun doing it. The others will simply sap your energy.

My office manager says that some of our staff always take the chicken little approach, "The sky is falling." This creates an emergency mentality about every little thing. It creates a staff that runs around what-if'ing all day long. It's exhausting and it tends to snowball: More and more people contribute to the miscommunication and erratic behavior.

Be the leader who rises above the chaos. Be the calm voice above the panic, and soon your staff, clients, and customers will come to you because you are seen as a problem solver.