Can you believe that there’s a common denominator between what will get you bankrupt AND divorced? At a conference last week, I found out about this incredible research that suggests that what you’re saying while running your business or your marriage has a direct effect on your success in those things.
What’s Coming Out Of Your Mouth
It turns out that the ratio of your positive conversations in your business or marriage vs. the negative conversations you’re having is directly correlated to how much they will flourish.
Here’s the deal: 200 studies done on nearly 275 000 people found that a positivity rate of at least 3 to 6 negativity helps predict success in business, relationships, marriages and even health. This is called the Losada ratio, named after the researcher Marcial Losada.
What Conversations Are Involved?
With your clients, are you talking about their failures and how to fix them or are you focusing on their successes and how to replicate them? What the ratio of one to the other?
With your team, are you talking about what went right with the projects or what went wrong and need to be changed? What the ratio of one to the other?
With your suppliers, are you asking them to change what didn’t work or build on what did? What the ratio of one to the other?
High Performance Please
This is no joke people, the studies actually taped conversations around boardrooms, in the office and on the phone to get to this conclusion. The line between companies who are flourishing and who go bankrupt is very clear. Those businesses who track as having the 3 positive to 6 negative conversation ratio have been highly correlated with high performance.
So think carefully about what conversations you’re having and you might turn your business growth (and your marriage) around just based on the positivity ratio of what’s coming out of your mouth! In fact, why not just take the test and find out for yourself how you rate?
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