Management Stories # 1 - Positive thinking

This month of February - it is going to be full of short Management Stories and lessons.

Here goes the first one on Positive thinking. You will perhaps have heard this very old story illustrating the difference between positive thinking and negative thinking.

Many years ago two salesmen were sent by a British shoe manufacturer to Africa to investigate and report back on market potential.

The first salesman reported back, "There is no potential here - nobody wears shoes."

The second salesman reported back, "There is massive potential here - nobody wears shoes."

This simple short story provides one of the best examples of how a single situation may be viewed in two quite different ways - negatively or positively.

We could explain this also in terms of seeing a situation's problems and disadvantages, instead of its opportunities and benefits.

Note that both the salesmen used exactly the same set of words ("nobody wears shoes") to prove their point. If these words are read in isolation, it can give a different meaning, as against reading them along with the prefix.

This also emphasises how important it is to clearly communicate your view, and not just stop with a word or two in an email.

Unwarranted lengthy mails are clearly not the requirement, but communicate with clarity and use enough phrases to get the meaning clear and uncomplicated.