“I wish I didn’t have this problem!”

Have you ever heard someone say this in your office? I’ve heard it many times, and not just in the office. I’ve heard it at home. I’ve heard it in my social groups. And yes, I’ve even said it myself more times than I care to admit.

In fact, I said this to one of my mentors a few years ago and he zinged me with the following comeback:

 “Be careful what you wish for. If it weren’t for problems, you probably wouldn’t have a job. Most things in business could be completely automated if it weren’t for problems (usually involving humans) continually popping up. It’s the business leader’s job to solve problems and keep things moving. Without problems, we wouldn’t need you.”

Unknowingly, my mentor was tapping into a profound truth that researchers have recently started to discover and document.

Our perspective on problems has a profound effect on our success and subjective well-being.

This research, conducted at Harvard University by Shawn Achor, was recently highlighted in Eric Barker’s popular blog. Here is an excerpt from Eric’s commentary:

Achor did a study of bankers right after the huge banking crisis hit. Most of them were incredibly stressed. But a few were happy and resilient.

What did those guys have in common? Achor found:

‘What these positive outliers do is see changes that occur in the economic landscape or the political landscape or at an educational institution, not as threats, but as challenges.’

So those people are just wired differently and our duty is to envy them, right? Nope.

Achor did a [follow-on] experiment that proved this attitude could be learned…

[Achor’s second experiment found that people who learned to] view stress as enhancing, a challenge instead of as a threat, saw a 23% drop in their stress related symptoms. It produced a significant increase not only in levels of happiness, but a dramatic improvement in their levels of engagement at work as well.

Coach Your Agents to See Problems as a Pathway to Success

Achor’s second experiment was based on something surprisingly simple. The stressed-out bankers were shown a training video on how to see problems as challenges rather than stress producers.

Was there something magical about the video? I don’t think so. Not sure about you, but I’ve never seen a magical corporate training video. They usually put me to sleep!

So, the magic must be the principle itself.

Achor came to the same conclusion. He also concluded the principle is not hard to teach. If a video produced a 23% improvement, think of the improvement one-on-one coaching would have produced.

Try integrating this principle into your upcoming coaching sessions. Problems are challenges. A resilient person who focuses his attention and effort on the challenge with a positive attitude experiences less stress and performs at a higher level.  Let me help you see your problem through a new lens.

More resources:

1. Pick up one of Shawn Achor’s best selling books.

2. Read a few of Eric Barker’s blogs on this topic (scroll to the bottom of the page and put “achor” in the search engine—you’ll get over 20 articles)

3. Take a look at Shawn Achor’s TED talk. With over 8 million views, it is one of the most popular TED talks ever recorded.

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