How to Manage a Negative Mindset In The Workplace

Chipangano Malowa is a seasoned Human Resource practitioner for more than 12 years specifically focusing on consultancy in relation to HR and Management. He is the Director/Consultant Synergia Human Resource Consult LTD.

Co-Founders and Directors

The Co-founder/Director initiative is not a common thing in Zambia though it does exist. The Idea behind this is that two or more people come together, put resources together as well as time to ensure that they come up with a business and run it together as partners. This has seemed to work well in other countries particularly those in the west though.

In Zambia though for most that go into this form of partnerships often find that the people they go in to business are not willing to put in as much as they should to ensure the growth of the business, they are more interested in making the money and spending it rather than reinvesting.

Finding Like-Minded Partners

Unfortunately there no easy and fast routes to finding partners that are like minded, one will have to go through the motions of getting one person after the other until someone suitable is found. It does help to have a business plan in place as it describes what the business is about and give a picture of the type of candidate you need to have for that business to grow.

Challenge of Finding Like-Minded Partners

One major reason behind the failure to find like-minded partners is, people are more programed to find employment rather than venturing in to partnerships and starting a business for survival. Survival for most individuals depends on getting a job, getting a salary and spending it.

Improving Partnership Relations

For this to be achieved there has to be a lot of training involved, this is because people are not exposed to the idea of such partnerships. You will need to find people that are will to go through a reprograming phase, have their mindsets and attitudes changed and this can only be facilitated by training.

Negative Mindset from Employees

To help break down that negative mindset in employee, one will need to ensure that there is mind set training, there people that are specialized in training people in such. These people are called human resource personnel, it is not correct to say that because you are a small business you cannot afford to hire one. You can bring in a human resource personnel to help coach even a staff of two.

Key Insight:

• Don’t consider yourself a small business that you can’t afford to hire a trained professional to help change the mindset of your employees.
• Training is important to help change the mindsets and attitudes of the people in the work place.
• There no easy routes to finding like-minded partners business.
• Always have a business plan written down to help convey your vision and give you a guide.

“Most people are programmed to find employment and are not programmed to start a business or go into partnerships.”