How Gratitude Restores Confidence During Negative Preparation for Your Leadership Strategy

How Gratitude Restores Confidence During Negative Preparation for Your Leadership Strategy

What’s your reaction when you hit a rough patch in your leadership performance? Do you handle your challenges with confidence, or do you feel completely knocked down?

I’m sure you’ve experienced difficult seasons in leadership. I know I have—more than once! These are times when obstacles seem endless. It feels like a direct blow to your confidence. Your sense of identity and how you see yourself may feel shaken. Even your life vision, mission, and values can waver.

I call this phase a “winter season.” When I go through a leadership winter, I see no silver lining, and I find it difficult to be grateful for anything. It’s a cold, chaotic period.

Well, that was before I heard about a concept called “Negative Preparation.”  Leadership expert, Dr. Robert Clinton, takes a different view. He believes difficult times are a catalyst for growth. These challenges inspire you to emerge stronger and more confident. In his book The Making of a Leader, he calls this process “Negative Preparation.”

Now, how do you call a leadership strategy “Negative Preparation?” It almost sounds like an oxymoron.

It reminds me of the approach I take in The Gratitude Series. I explore gratitude as a powerful leadership development tool. I encourage leaders to embrace gratitude—even in the hardest moments. (You can read more about that in the other articles from this series, here.)

Yet, it can be hard to feel grateful when you’re in a leadership winter. Everything looks bleak, and you feel powerless.

So, how can a grateful mindset make a difference when you’re going through tough times?

Weather Alert! Be Aware of Potential Leadership Winter Triggers

A variety of circumstances can trigger a leadership winter. Unlike the weather, there’s rarely a warning.

Here are some unexpected winter storms that can hit without notice:

• Your most trusted confidant betrays you and turns others against you.
• You lose your life savings and investments.
• A social media rumor damages your reputation.
• The company you’ve poured your heart and soul into says, “We’ve restructured. You’re no longer needed.”
• Your largest client walks away.

These kinds of triggers don’t only happen on a professional level—they can hit your personal life as well. It’s like a blizzard sweeping in when you least expect it.

What storms have shaken your world during your leadership journey?

The Seduction of Success – Identify the Lies that Keep You Stuck

 Your confidence can take a serious hit during a leadership winter. It’s hard to stay positive, and grateful when you feel stuck. You may even be seduced into believing that what you “do” and achieve is more important than “who you are.” And when you feel like you’re not productive, your confidence takes a nosedive.

That’s when the lies creep in.

These lies not only undermine your leadership influence—they steal your brilliance. The most shocking part? The lies don’t always come from others; you tell them to yourself. Then, through negative self-talk, you find “evidence” to reinforce the lies.

What do these lies sound like? How do they impact your confidence and leadership journey?

Here are a few examples…

If you believe these lies—these unsupportive thoughts—what happens? It keeps you stuck in the “negative” part of the oxymoron!

In Millennials Matter, I discuss the toxic impact of holding onto these thoughts:

“Unsupportive thoughts hide in our subconscious minds. They wield power over our everyday lives.” ~ Danita Bye, Millennials Matter, Break the Chains of Negative Thinking (Chapter 10)

How many of these lies have held you back in your leadership journey?

Brainstorming Leadership Strategies with ChatGPT about Negative Preparation

Clinton’s stance on difficult times in your leadership journey is transformational. Negative Preparation will shift how you view your “winter season” as a leader. He says that challenges prepare you for the next level of leadership. This is a level where your leadership influence grows by leaps and bounds. During these times, it may feel like your confidence is flatlining. In reality, you’re building capacity, resilience, and strength. This shift restores your ability to feel grateful.

I know that sounds confusing. That’s why I decided to brainstorm with ChatGPT. I wanted a simple explanation of Negative Preparation. Here’s what we came up with.

My question… “How might I explain Robert Clinton’s Negative Preparation concept in everyday language?”

This is ChatGPT’s reply:

 “Negative Preparation is all about how leaders deal with tough times. Leaders who face problems and failures don’t shy away from them. They grab the opportunity to learn from them and become stronger.

Clinton says good leaders don’t always succeed. They face setbacks and learn from them. Negative Preparation is about being ready for unexpected challenges. This helps leaders build important skills. Some of these include perseverance and being able to handle their emotions well. When facing the harsh winters of challenges, Negative Preparation can build. It does not have to break one’s confidence.”

I like these insights from ChatGPT. It confirms that Negative Preparation is a vital part of leadership development. In fact, without Negative Preparation, we often don’t grow our leadership capacity. We stall out. We don’t reach the next level of leadership influence. The result?  Our leadership and our business results suffer!

How might you use Negative Preparation to take the sting out of a winter season?

Use a Grateful Mindset to Prepare for Leadership Growth in your Spring Season!

A winter season in your leadership journey can feel like the end of the world!  You hit that rough patch and feel completely knocked down.

Yet, this challenging time doesn’t have to destroy your confidence. Stay tuned as we prepare you for a spring season filled with growth and leadership development.

I explored Clinton’s concept in Millennials Matter (Chapter 11, Deal with Your Dark Side, Page 87). Here’s an extract:

 “One of the classes I took in Transformational Leadership at Bethel University involved analyzing our leadership and spiritual development. It was based on The Making of a Leader: Recognizing the Lessons and Stages of Leadership Development by Dr. Robert J. Clinton.

 I mapped and scrutinized the patterns in my own life. I began to see how my countless “negative” experiences—filled with hurt, pain, frustration, and anger—were actually strengthening moments since I was forced to focus my attention in new directions.

Clinton calls these tough times “negative preparation.”  So, when I looked at those “negatives” in light of my leadership and spiritual development, I was able to reframe and redeem those experiences. Emotional healing happened for me as I brought those difficult times, one by one, into the light with a trusted mentor.”

~ Danita Bye, Millennials Matter

By embracing a grateful mindset, you too, can grow during a leadership winter.

In the next article, I’ll share practical, easy-to-follow action steps. They will help you prepare for your spring season of growth. Together, we’ll discover how Clinton’s concept of Negative Preparation can save the day… and your leadership sanity!

Gratitude Leadership Lesson: Use a grateful mindset to shift how you view a winter season.

Gratitude Leadership Question: How might a grateful mindset help you build confidence during your leadership winter?

Want to read the Gratitude Revolution Series from the beginning? Here is a list of the articles so far:

Gratitude Revolution: Unleashing Leadership Influence in a Rapidly Changing World (Introduction to the Gratitude Series)

The Gratitude Revolution – Transforming Leadership Strategy with a Can-Do Mindset

Blue Zone Leadership: Expanding Leadership Influence with Gratitude

How Gratitude Restores Confidence During Negative Preparation for Your Leadership Strategy