LISTEN TO EPISODE 2 

SCOTT DOW: 

"If someone has a bad attitude, you have some gardening to do. Human thought is like a garden. It can grow useful thoughts or it can grow weeds. Bad attitudes are like weeds. You've got to deal with them fast or they choke out what you're trying to grow.

Here's how you do that; look for negative emotions because they're just like weeds, and underneath every weed is this nasty root. Underneath 'fear', 'anger', and 'frustration' is a negative thought.  Negative thought is a nasty root; you've got to pull the whole root out or that weed is going to pop back up.

Negative emotions are the first signs of troubling thoughts and you find the root by encouraging feedback and listening to your people. Give people a chance to share their thoughts. Don't be defensive. Make it easy for them to be honest with you. Why do they feel this way? This is how you dig for the root.

The only way to pull the whole root out is to replace the negative, counter-productive thought with a more rational and more productive thought. Now there are three common roots growing beneath negative emotions. First, one is misinformation, second one is misperception, third is a misunderstanding. Their seeds are planted by rumors and gossip, by inexperience and insecurity and by bad communication.

Now it's human to misperceive and misunderstand. It's human to jump to conclusions, assume the worst, or to worry needlessly. Find the emotion's root; the misinformation, misperception or misunderstanding, and replace it with a more reasoned, accurate, and productive way of thinking. That's how you weed your team's emotional garden and that's how you treat negative attitudes."