Avoiding disappointment is a very strong motivator.
We are disappointed when reality doesn’t live up to our expectations or future dreams. We are disappointed when we are cast in a bad light and feel others may judge us poorly. We are disappointed when we feel we’ve been mistaken by sinking money, time or energy into a project that didn’t work.
The start of every project presents the opportunity to succeed and the chance to be disappointed. The key to moving forward is making the hope of success far more attractive than the fear of possible disappointment.
Adopt a positive outlook – CEO’s from the Association Innovation Research Study continually modeled a positive attitude. We would hear them make statements like, “sure this project could fail but what if it doesn’t?”
Eliminate blame – Staff members who try and fail may still be recognized for trying to solve a member problem.
Seek out and cultivate resiliency – We need to build cultures of resilience. We need to hire for resilience in our associations today.
Our fear of disappointment cleverly hides behind our list of potential risks so it might be hard to identify but the fear of disappointment could be what is getting us stuck.
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