Why Negativity Is Contagious on the Jobsite

Glen Stevens, Jr. | Mental Fitness Guy

Dr. Kevin Rindal | Vimocity

We hear people talk about negative energy or a negative vibe. That energy, the emotion that they're putting off can basically infect the rest of the crew. How can they take a step back and then change that?

Yeah, that is a great question, and there's one thing that you can do that makes a world of difference, and that one thing is to...

Glenn Stephens Jr. is known as the Mental Fitness Guy, and created the safety mindset training for rural electric cooperatives. After more than 20 years in pastoral leadership, he became a certified PQ coach, and now works with safety directors, field leaders, and crews across the cooperative utility world.

So Glenn, take us into a real moment. A skilled worker sees someone on the crew rushing, missing details, or doing work below the standard. What starts happening inside that worker? Yeah. There's two things that are gonna be going on inside that person, and they're very natural. The first is I'm probably gonna be frustrated.

Like, I'm getting annoyed. I'm, I'm angry a bit. I'm like, "Ah," I'm bothered. That would be one thing. So I've got some negative emotion, and then I'm also saying things in my head to myself, um, usually negative things about the other person that I'm seeing. Our autopilot, when something alerts us to danger or something's wrong, we go down into our brain stem area, the amygdala, uh, it's called, and we feel...

That's where we feel those emotions, and they're great. They're a gift from God because they're alerting us to something needs attention here. The, the-- That's helpful for a second, and then you wanna move to, okay, I wanna use my whole brain, and now I wanna get on the solution side of this and on the positive side of it, and that is a whole different part of your brain So what you're saying, Glen, is that, like, that's almost a defense mechanism.

Like, we default- Yes ... to negative for protection and survival. Is that kind of what you're, you're saying? Yeah. Yep, the brain has two main jobs. One is keep this person alive, so survival. The second job is help this person thrive. So Glen, as we're talking about this scenario, someone's working on the job. I mean, these are highly skilled workers.

They're so good at their craft. But again, our brain oftentimes sees what's going on. It interprets it as this person is careless, they don't care, uh, and we start to get frustrat-frustrated. But then that comes out emotionally as- Mm-hmm ... like a certain body language. It might come out, uh, with a certain tone in terms of how we talk.

Yes. Yep. And then, then this whole cascade starts to happen where this communication starts to break down. People start to go into f-defensive mode. Yes. And that can derail a, an entire project. Can you walk us through a little bit more of, like, how some of these other emotions might come out in that situation?

Yeah, so a great question. I love that. And when, um, our brains also have something called mirror neurons, okay? So if I'm negative, if I showed up here negative, you wouldn't even try or think about it. Your mirror neurons would pick up on that, and it would pull your negativity out to meet mine. So, like, if I'm frustrated and angry and sort of let that out, the guys working with me, they s- their brains sense that and it, for protection, right?

Like, it pulls out their, ugh, negative too. And now, don't try to solve a problem when you're both in that place. Um, you're not gonna get very far very fast. I call it getting triggered or getting hijacked by your mental hazards. We all have mental hazards that we have to deal with. When we go down to that, we're like, "I just got hijacked.

I'm not gonna do my best work here. I'm not gonna have a good conversation here." Slow down. Recognize it, slow down, calm your brain down, and, and then go to, uh, go to the curious part of your brain where you can go like, "Okay, how do we solve this problem from a positive viewpoint?" It's one of those situations where a confrontation doesn't just affect the two people that are having that conversation.

Right. There's a crew of eight. Yeah. I mean, everyone there is gonna be, um, impacted by that interaction. So how can something like that impact the performance of an entire crew? Yeah. Well, they've all got mirror neurons, so they're all everybody's, uh, brains are, are coming up. And so, I mean- If I'm negative and I'm-- Like, they're going to have that same natural reaction.

They're frustrated with me now, and they're certain-- In their heads, they're saying like, "What's wrong with Glen?" Like, "Man, is-- He's-- What a grump," or, "That guy, I don't know if I can trust that guy." Um, and so, uh, it, it creates a, a mood for the whole team. And so if I can recognize that or if I, if I respond differently, if I come at it from, "Hey, hey, I see what's going on here, guys.

We all got hijacked by some negative thoughts. Let's stop and start over," that can really help. But pointing it out, like just being honest about what's happening, um, can change the mood. But yeah, I've been in meetings where, um, just w- everything's going great. One guy comes in in that negative mindset, and all-- everybody's mirror neurons pick up on it, and all of a sudden, what was going great just goes downhill really fast, and everybody's in each other's face, and they're saying things in their heads about each other that they wouldn't want to say out loud, and it's, it's not helpful.

So, um, that-- It spreads. It's almost like, you know, it gets contagious, and that negativity is contagious. But here's the beautiful thing, positivity is contagious as well. Those mirror neurons we have also pick up if I'm coming at this positively, if I'm taking ownership for my behavior. Um, everybody else, their mirror neurons do that, and it sort of pulls that positive part of them out too So yeah, oftentimes we hear people talk about, like, that person has negative energy or a- Yes

negative vibe or- Yeah ... or, or something like that. So that's essentially what you're talking about is- That's what I'm talking about ... it's, it's that e- that energy, the emotion that they're putting off, and then the mirror neurons are what can cause that to basically infect the rest of the crew. So let's flip the equation now and...

'cause we could probably do that same thing, like you said, from a positive perspective. So when somebody notices that the crew is mirroring that negative e- energy or the vibe, how can they take a step back and then change that mood? Yeah, that is a great question, and there's one thing that you can do that makes a world of difference.

And that one thing is to, before you open your mouth, before you say anything, stop and focus on one of your physical senses. Like when I'm out working with people and I'm in, you know, a public setting, there's two go-tos I go to. One would be rubbing my fingertips together, and I just pay such close attention to that sensation.

Like I'm putting my focus on that. Just 10 seconds, hook your brain up to a functional MRI machine, and you go... The part of your brain where all that negativity is calms down, and the part of your brain where you're a positive, proactive problem solver starts lighting up. And so I, I'll do this, and another one I like to use is just my breath.

And I, I breathe for... And I notice either the temperature of the air as it comes in, and it's a little different, a little warmer as it goes out for three breaths, or, um, the movement of my chest cavity up and down. Really subtle. I can do it anytime, any place, anywhere, and it-- I know my brain is designed so that that helps calm me down.

And now that I've gone slower, okay, now I'm gonna ask a question. I'm gonna get curious. Like, what's going on here? What-- Because when, when we go negative, there's two things underneath that. Uh, there's fear and lies. There's a fear of some sort. Like I, I, I'm being driven by fear, and then I start- You know, believing the lies in my head about like, "That guy's lazy."

No, he's not. He's not lazy. He's having a bad moment, yes. Um, he did what he did. Maybe he skipped a safety procedure. He w- he was-- he said something in a half-cocked way that wasn't right. That's not okay behavior, all right? It's, it's really good to say that's not all right. But that doesn't mean he's terrible.

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Um, Shirzad Chamine, who, um, where I got my training for PQ coaching. PQ is just positivity quotient. So you think of like positive intelligence. EQ is emotional quotient, and that's emotional intelligence. This is what I call mental fitness is just positive intelligence or PQ. And, you know, what we, what we wanna do is we want to be able to tap into the positive side of our brain.

So, um, we have this mental hazard, the top one everybody has. Um, Shirzad Chamine calls it your judge, always judging, always finding fault, always being negative. And in my circles, I like to call that your critical crew chief, okay? And your critical crew chief looks at people and sees negativity. And what I want people to understand is what-- The core belief, your mindset core belief is that part of your brain's gonna see people like, what do you see?

Do you see a pile of trash or do you see a gold mine? How you, what you're seeing is gonna completely change. So you wanna get in this mindset, like have this core belief that the guys I work with, they're a goldmine. They're not trash. And so I'm gonna treat them like a goldmine, and I'm gonna-- when the gold isn't apparent, I'm gonna go mining for it.

I'm gonna dig for it. I'm gonna pull-- I'm gonna go pull that gold out of them 'cause it's in there, and I believe that at my core. Glenn, have you found, going back to the mirror neuron conversation, you, when you start to see other people in that way, you start to see them as gold versus trash- Yes ... is there also that same infectious, uh, component that starts to change the entire mood and the- Yes

culture of that crew? Yes. Over time. So, like, this isn't like, uh, a magic, uh, word you drop and everything changes, right? This is, um, slowly over time. And now somebody, if they're hijacked, and they're really in a negative spot, let's say like from a scale of zero to negative 10, if they're like negative eight or nine, if I can be a three or a four in positivity in that moment, I will pull them...

I probably can't pull them to three or four positive, but I can move them from eight, nine negative to maybe, like, five negative. That's better. Um, and it helps everybody else around too. Um, and over time, it-- I, I think we train our brains like we can train our bodies. We can train our brains to react that way more quickly.

Resilience for me is just your ability to bounce back from, uh, any kind of adversity, and the faster you can bounce back, that you're just going from that negative to positive mindset, is, uh, like mental fitness. Here's the definition of mental fitness, is your capacity to respond to challenges with a positive mindset rather than a negative mindset.

And so the more resilient I am is dependent on how quickly I can move from negative mindset to positive mindset. And you can train your brain to do that more and more quickly, but it's like a one percent better every day, not-- you can't go from zero to ten and ten to twenty and twenty to thirty in, in three hours, two days, this podcast.

You have to develop the habit of catching the negativity, calling it out. And so when you call it out, even just in your own head, it's called metacognition. When I think about what I'm thinking, if I stop, like I'm frustrated, and I go, "Oh, Glenn, you're frustrated right now Feeling frustrated is happening in the brainstem where all the mental hazards are and all the negativity is.

I can't think positively there, but when I say stop and go, "Oh, I see what's happening here. I like-- I went... I just got hijacked. I just went negative." When I say that, the only place I can say that is up here in my middle prefrontal cortex. This is a part of the brain where I'm now positive and proactive.

And so just saying it to yourself will trip the trigger. So s- get good at catching your negativity and calling it out just to yourself, and then when you get good at that, start, start taking accountability and saying it out loud to everybody else, and now you're giving them permission to do the same thing As we're having this conversation, I'm just going back to, like, my background is more in fitness.

And- Yes ... if we don't work on fitness on a daily basis, like, our default is to get flabby and- Yeah ... and not to stay in shape. You know what I mean? Let's say you got mental muscles, right? So there's three main mental muscles. One is that ability to catch when you've gone negative. That's a, um, Shirzad calls it your saboteur interceptor.

So what he calls-- He, m- what I call mental hazards, he calls saboteurs. Like, you catch it, and when you catch it, again, you've gone from brain, being the brain stem up to here to naming what's going on. So you've intercepted the negativity. You can get that muscle. Like, that's a muscle you can build for your brain, and you just get good at catching it.

And then the next thing you do is learn how to calm down. And so that's where you focus on one of your senses, and just 10 seconds can make a difference. Um, but if you have two minutes, that's even better, um, 'cause... So focusing and, um, and doing that, but, like, even on, in a busy work site, things are going on, just 10 seconds.

Slow down that much, um, and you can get... You can practice that. You can pract- Like, I recognize I just, I got frustrated. Stop, name it, and then, uh, rub your fingertips together. Focus on your breath. Focus on the farthest away sound you can hear right now. Three breaths is 10 seconds, so just take three breaths and focus on that.

Take a look at something, maybe the tool you're holding or, you know, the, the guy you're working with, and really focus on something you notice there visually. Um, those are all great tools. That's the second muscle. And then your third muscle is, um, the, the getting to the part of your brain where you do your best work.

Again, you care about the work and the people. You are curious, and you're a problem solver. You are creative and innovative and able to think outside the box if you're in a box. You're purpose-driven instead of fear-driven, and you, um, you are able to be clear and focused in the moment. So ask the question, um, "I wonder what it's like to be in his boots right now?"

I stop and get, uh, I'm asking, like, I'm trying to think of him, where he's at, where his head space. Um, or maybe I wanna get curious about information. Like, I wonder, I wonder what I don't know right now that would help fill in the gaps that... Like, I, I want to... My knee-jerk reaction is to go, "Oh, this is what's going on, and that's what's wrong with that person."

But you know what? My initial reaction is almost always incomplete and often wrong. So slow down and ask, um, "I wonder what else is going on here that I just don't know right now." And, uh, that takes you to that part of the brain. I don't... I've been talking a long time, so I wanna cut it off, but those are two great questions right there.

As we're having this conversation, like, I'm feeling conviction as well 'cause I have two teeny, teenage boys. And I, I remember maybe, like, a year ago, we were working on painting our house, and, you know, they don't have much experience painting and- Right ... they're missing, like, huge spots, and the brush strokes are going in different directions.

And I remember just thinking, "I know how I want it done. Maybe I'm gonna just finish this project on my own." And, you know, I was talking to my neighbor, he's an awesome guy. We have kids about the same age. And he, he goes, "Oh yeah, I'm doing my, uh, my own painting project right now, and I'm having my kids help me."

And I'm like, "Yeah, how, how did, how did they do with the, with the painting?" He's like, "Oh, they're terrible." But he's like, "You know what, Kevin? I'm raising men. I'm not painting a shed right now." Mm-hmm. And, and so his whole reframe was that in that process, it's not about getting frustrated or having the job done perfectly.

They don't have the life experience and to know how to paint well. Right. But through that process, he's teaching them how to pay attention to details, how to, how to do it properly, and he's just such a calm person. And- Yes ... and so he just saw the bigger picture. And for me, that really step stood out to me, and it, it's really changed when I'm working with my boys and I'm teaching them how to do work.

And I get frustrated 'cause they don't have the skills that... or they maybe aren't doing up to my expectations, to not see that as a shortfall but as a learning opportunity. How can we apply some of those same concepts to the work environment? Yeah. Um, I think of a couple things right away. So the main question, like, so that dad saw the gold, right?

He saw the opportunity to learn, and he saw the gold in his boys, which is Good, healthy, uh, productive men. And so he's like, "Okay, this is an opportunity to pull that gold out of them." Let's pull on this thread a little bit more, Glen, 'cause when I go around and do crew visits, one of the things that I oftentimes t- hear from the people who are 30 years on the crew is apprentices these days, or these kids don't wanna work.

Uh, you know, back in my day, we used to work 18 hours a day- Yes ... you know, seven days a week, and these kids just show up and are on their phones all day. So how can people who have more experience look to this next generation coming into the workforce through that positive lens? Because, you know, at the same time, some of these younger people coming into the trades have tremendous skills- Yes

that are bringing us into this new era of, like, technology and, and all the innovation that's out there. And so they may have some really unique skills to bring to the table, but sometimes, you know, it gets overlooked by the way we've always done it. So in that situation, what advice would you give to someone who is the more experienced, um, person in that situation?

If I'm more experienced, and I see, you know, this younger generation, and I'm, I'm just not liking how they're showing up, I think, A, I need to recognize I just got hijacked by my critical crew chief, and I don't want them to think like that about me. Like, I'm not the old guy who's, uh, stuck in the mud, bad person because of how I was raised and brought up.

Like, they had completely different experiences. You didn't have a phone when you were, uh, a kid getting brought up. You didn't have the same experiences they've had, the same cultural things that affected you. So give them some grace, and then look for, um, I call it the 10% rule. What's the 10% I can find and start with the 10% I agree with or I can affirm, and then build on that.

So start with the positive, and then point out The next step of, of continuous improvement for that person, and call them up to the higher standard. Believe in them that they've got it in them, and call it out of them out of a place of positive love for that kid, um, appreciation for what he is and what he can be, and take the long-term view.

Short-term view is just, "Ah, I'm frustrated and upset, and I'm gonna make him pay for not being like me." Um, the long-term view says, "I see gold, and I'm gonna go mine for it and pull it out." So Glenn, I'm gonna paint a picture f- uh, of a scenario here. So we're working on a complicated job, and we're already behind schedule.

I can see one of my teammates is rushing through the, the process, missing some critical details, and I feel myself getting angry that, you know, my blood's boiling. I know that I need to stop the job. Uh, but before I hit stop and reset, uh, I remember that Glenn Stevens taught me this framework called the ICAN framework.

So walk us through th- uh, the foreman in that situation, how he or she can go through the ICAN framework to reset and make that something that is a great learning for everyone and gets the job back on track. Yeah. Thanks. Great question. So here's the ICAN system. This is the format I use. It's the operating system for your brain, and, um, real quickly, I'll just give...

The I means identify your mental hazards. The C is calm down. The A is ask powerful questions, and the N is navigate to the one needed action. So that's the, the framework. And if you do that over and over and over again, you are rewiring your brain for better work. So first, okay We're rushing, somebody skipped, um, I, I need to call something out.

So first thing I wanna do is I wanna go: am I, am I right now frustrated and negative? Or am I in a good head space and I'm, I'm in a positive head space and I just care about the work and I care about this person? So first I need to go, "Hey, if I've been triggered by that, uh, a mental hazard where I've gone negative, I need to identify that and say it out loud to myself or even internally to myself."

So I name that and catch it. Then I, um... And so before I say anything, before I open my mouth, I'm gonna do that, and then I'm going to go like, "Okay, I need to wake up the part of my brain where I'm gonna be more proactive 'cause I'm in the negative part." So I, I rub my fingertips together and just for three breaths, uh, and then maybe three more breaths, I focus on my breath, and then I go, "Okay, what's really most important here?"

Um, what's important here is to point out what happened without judgment, okay? So observation, um, followed by, you know, information. A-and, and so if I'm just observing, pointing out, "Hey, I saw this. I saw you skip a step, Kevin. You're-- Like you're doing great, and this isn't like you. Um, now I'm gonna get curious.

What, what's going on? Like that's not like you, Kevin. I, I know. I've seen you do this a hundred times. What's going on today that you didn't do that?" But I, I made an observation. I, I'm not gonna sweep this under the rug. Like this matters. You're rushing here. That's not safe. I'm going to say, "Here's what I see."

And then I'm gonna, I'm gonna get curious and go, "Hey, what's going on? Are you... Like, are you okay? Do you need a break? What's happening? You don't usually do that." So that's the I and the C, and that's the A is ask a powerful question. I didn't assume I knew exactly where Kevin's headspace was and that he's a lazy person who doesn't care about his work, and so I'm gonna chew him out.

I assume I see gold in Kevin, and I'm assuming something must be going on 'cause that's not like Kevin. So I'm gonna stop and care about him. Like: "Hey, you all right? Um, that's not like you. What's going on here? I saw, I saw you did this, and I know you know that's not the way we do it. Um, w- w- w- give me... Help...

Give me... Help me underneath that." Um, and then usually, I don't know, you might say something like you can respond well to that or you can respond poorly to that. Um, I might need to stay curious for a while and, and try to figure out like what's going on with Kevin before I then go like, "What's the one thing we need to do now next to get back on track?"

And that's the navigate is asking, what's the one thing that will move us forward? And not try to solve the whole problem all in one step, because that often is overwhelming and it's impossible, and sometimes we just don't even go there because it's so big. And, and if we just take one step towards solving the problem, like with the one thing I need to do next, maybe what I need to do is just put my hand on his shoulder and say, "Hey, uh, so Kevin, I, I respect you, and I want, uh, I, I wanna know what's going on."

So like that's the one thing I want you to know I really care, and then we can go from there. But I, I've tried to take that one positive step. I've navigated N, navigated toward getting to a better place. As we're going through this framework, the A, the ask, I think is an opportunity where that's your first communication with that person- Yes

or your first opportunity to, to interact- Yeah ... with them, 'cause you've identified it, you've, you know, calmed yourself down. Yes. And so now, now it's that moment where it's kinda critical, 'cause you could either- Yes ... you know, approach it from a negative perspective. You might even ask questions w- that are leading, and it have some assumption behind it of like, "Oh, you're, you're careless."

Yes. Can you walk us through, uh, open-ended questions in the art of ask? Because I think that that's a critical piece of this whole equation. It is huge. Like, it's the difference between being a coach or a teller. A teller do- they like Um, don't-- An open-ended question, let's start there. An open-ended question is it starts with who, what, how, or when.

So, um, get good at like starting your questions with those words. What-- So I asked you, the question I asked you if I saw you like skipping a step is, "Hey, what's going on?" So I, I first, I pointed out the fact of the matter, you skipped a step. You did. But I didn't get angry at you, and I didn't... Whatever. What I did is I got curious, and the way I did that is I asked a powerful...

Powerful questions are short and open-ended, and it's like, "Hey, what's going on?" I started with a what. Um, or, "When you did that, walk me through where, where your head was." Um, or how, how could you do that? Like this would be maybe a follow-up. Like, how could you, how could you do it differently, um, n-now that I pointed it out?

How could you do it differently? Um, but when you-- I don't like to use the word why. Like, "Why did you do that?" 'Cause that feels accusatory, right? That, that puts me on the defensive if I'm on the receiving end of why. Um, um, I wanna get to the why underneath, but if I lead with the why, I put the person on the defensive.

So I'll gotta start with what or how usually. Um, and, and if I can keep the question short, it's usually better. So sh-shoot, you know, for, uh, five words, you know, how or what, um, in a real short s-sentence. I think the other key thing too is a closed-ended question is a yes or no response. That's right. And so you're never gonna, you know, understand where that person's coming from if you're- That's right

just asking yes or no questions. That's right. And that's, that's the art of question asking is- It is ... that I found is, is being able to do that discovery, and again, coming from a position of you see the best in that person, and you wanna- Yeah ... understand, um- Yeah ... what's going on in their head, and then that leaves you to navigate.

And as you're asking those questions, you're also helping to guide them through- Yeah ... what the solution is gonna be. Because if they come up with a solution on their own rather than me- Yeah ... just telling them what I- Yes ... want them to do, man, they're gonna have that buy-in, and it's gonna be a completely different outcome.

So can you walk us through how you can maybe bridge the ask with the navigate so that you can go from open-ended question to them having that self-discovery? Because that's gonna s- teach an entire crew how they can problem solve, how they can think through complex items, and then you're essentially modeling that ICAN framework for them- Right

so that they can teach other people on the crew. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and the way I use the navigate is, is trying to just boil it down to what's the one thing we need to do next? What's the one next step that's gonna move us forward? Um, and I use that, the one thing, because often people get stuck all of a sudden, like, and the, the project feels too big, or I just, I feel I'm stuck right now.

If I just take one step forward, I've created positive momentum, and now I can roll with that and keep going. So I use navigate to zero in on the one next action that's gonna get things going the right direction. So the ICAN framework is awesome. I love that. It-- But at the same time, it has to be done artfully and in a way that doesn't shame or embarrass somebody.

So what tips would you provide for someone who's leading a crew to go through that process with someone on the crew in a way that is also, you know, gonna build them up rather than, again, make them embarrassed or feel like they're being, you know, called out in front of their peers? That's right. Um, that's a really good question.

One would be to... You're not gonna be perfect. If, if you're gonna try to put th-this framework on for size, it's not gonna fit perfectly right away. So give yourself some grace and allow yourself not to be perfect. And then I think if you can tell, like if you're a foreman, let's say, or someone who, who is expected to provide that kind of framework, say, "Hey, guys, this is how I'm gonna try to handle things, okay?

And it's a new skill. I'm developing it, but I think it's really effective and really powerful if we-- If I can get really good at this, I'm gonna be a better leader for you." And then three, on the back end of it, ask for advice or feedback on how you did so you can get better So Glen, let's switch roles. I have a foreman who probably is not listening to this podcast and this conversation.

And so they don't have the ICAN framework. Yeah. And they're calling me out, and they're just, you know, I made a mistake, and they're just, you know, reefing on me in front of the, the crew. But I have some of this knowledge. In that situation, how can I apply some of these same principles to, you know, identify what's going on, not get triggered, stay calm, uh, respond in a way that's gonna deescalate rather than, you know, just amplify everything that's going on so that there's a, a good outcome?

When, when you got a guy like that in your life, you can flip it and turn them into your, uh, mental fitness training ninja. Like, they are going to help you. Like, you need a lot of mental fitness to deal with that guy. So instead of viewing them as a problem, go, "Oh, they're gonna help me get mentally stronger."

So I like to use a, a framework of the three A's of how to deal with adversity. There's only three responses we all can have. One is I can get annoyed. That's frustrated, angry, whatever. I choose that. Once the initial comes, I can choose to stay there, but you don't have to. I can-- The second A is to accept it for what it is and say, "I'm not gonna let this bother..."

Like, he obviously was taught leadership or something's going on in his life. Like, he's in a bad head space, and it's coming out at me right now, but I'm not gonna take that personally. Like, he's that way with, with everybody. I didn't do anything wrong, and I'm probably not-- he's not gonna change. So I'm just gonna accept it and deal with it, or I can use it to ascend and advance.

Um, so I don't know which of those two words I should use, ascend or advance, but I like ascend, I guess, a little more like, "I'm going to get better. I'm gonna take this negative and let that be the thing that shows me how to get stronger mentally or be a different kind of-- I'm gonna learn how to be a different kind of leader than that when I get my chance, or I'm going to just become a person who can treat someone the way I would want them to treat me, um, and live out that golden rule rather than responding in kind the way they're treating me and going right back at them."

See them as your trainer, uh, rather than your problem. Glenn, you gave us some incredible frameworks to think through adversity. And so before we wrap stuff up, what are the three things that you hope people take away from this conversation? Three things I'd hope, uh, you'll take away is, one is you are, um, a-- you are a gold mine.

Like, you are. You do important work, and you have greatness in you. And then the second thing would be, so is everybody else. So I'm going to not only see myself that way, I'm gonna choose to look for the gold in other people because they too were made like me with worth and value and dignity and deserve to be treated with respect.

And then three is if I can use that I can model and just practice getting good at that, I can actually rewire my brain. If I get one percent better every single day, over the course of a whole year, cumulatively I've got thirty-seven hundred percent better. So stack days, try it on for size, get better at it, and just get one percent. How do I get one percent better today?

Where can people find you or learn more about your work?

I am at mentalfitnessguy.com, and that's the easiest and best place to find me is mentalfitnessguy.com. That's my website. I'm also on LinkedIn, Glenn Stevens Jr. and you can find me there too.

So many, uh, good takeaways from this episode. We really appreciate your time. And so for those of you who have not yet subscribed to the WorkReady Podcast, I would encourage you to do so. We drop a new episode every Tuesday. You can go to YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hit that subscribe button, and it just ensures that you're gonna get these new episodes every single week. And until next time, take care of yourself, take care of your people, and stay at WorkReady. Thanks so much.