Creating a Plan for Positive Influence
Sandra Frieze
University of Phoenix

Creating a Plan for Positive Influence The effect of a positive influence plan in a business can transform a working environment, especially when a team needs to work together for a period of one year before the project is complete. Productivity increases, customers are more satisfied and new clients are attracted to the company. A manager must take time to fully develop and implement a plan based on positive influence. This is accomplished through self-analysis, daily efforts in role modeling and instilling positive behaviors in workers. These types of initiatives create a motivated and dedicated team.
Positive Behaviors Assess yourself critically in terms of your own positive behavior. As the manager, you are the role model for your employees so you need to correct and address issues, such as pessimistic language, in a timely manner. If a negative issue comes up, it is important to address and resolve the issue in as much of a positive way as possible. Establishing and keeping a positive atmosphere and environment can take some effort. Encourage your employees to become more positive in little ways like smiling more, speaking in an upbeat tone and thanking co-workers more often for their contributions. Beyond being positive, work to keep your team enthusiastic about the project. The assigned project’s timeline is long and employees can get distracted and discouraged when the project does not seem to be making progress. Keeping the enthusiasm up can be just as challenging. Team building events can help to relieve the stresses of a long-term project.
Addressing Weaknesses One of the first steps to take when addressing a team’s weaknesses is to write down all the perceived weaknesses regarding the business, the project, and the team, in particular. Take each item on the list and brainstorm ways to improve these problems in a positive manner. For example, if you pinpoint an issue with and employee consistently not meeting his or her deadlines, make an agenda item at a weekly meeting to do a check in with all team members on progress of their action items. Be sure to discuss any issues and create a supportive environment for each employee to feel they can lean on each other to help get all tasks done on time. Delays and missed deadlines can cause stress for the entire team. Stress, in turn, can cause a negative feeling among the team members. At the end of the meeting, tell them how excited you are to start your work and they will follow suit.
Encouragement
Encourage your employees to demonstrate behaviors that allow them to work together, rather than against one another. A manager should strive to avoid office politics and set a zero tolerance policy for office gossip. Model this yourself by never engaging in these behaviors yourself and by talking about exciting ideas rather than shortcomings of others and personal scandals. Additionally, meeting deadlines should be applauded and small celebrations coordinated for meeting these milestones. Without meeting the small milestones, the project as a whole will not be completed on time and the team will not succeed. Celebrating small successes along the way will provide a positive and encouraging environment where employees are engaged and want to work hard to keep moving toward the end goal.
Negative Actions Address negative actions when they are committed by an employee as these infractions will influence your team’s culture. Hold a closed door conference with the offender to discuss ways to positively change attitude and behaviors. Hopefully, the employee is not in the habit of behaving negatively, but you must be firm with the need to change if this appears to be a normal part of his or her personality. If the employee is not willing to work with you to invoke a positive change, removal from the project might be the only answer. Taking immediate steps to try and rectify a problem will show the other team members that negative behavior is not acceptable and the hope would be that they will support and encourage each other to make those small successes happen. “The way conflicts are resolved can also make the difference between effective and ineffective teams” (Robbins, S. AP., & Judge, T. A., 2011).
Conclusion
Whether the project or assignment is small or large, short-term or long-term, or complex or simple, a manager’s position is to encourage and create a positive environment for the team members. Ensuring there is a positive influence for a team will guarantee the team remains motivated, satisfied, and highly performing.

References

Robbins, S. AP., & Judge, T. A. (2011). Organizational Behavior (14th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.