Page 31 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

THE WHY OF WORK

than about the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
Deficit thinking can abound even in the midst of plenty.

The Prevalence of Deficit Thinking

Have you ever been robbed? Our friend Rena’s home was bro-
ken into. A small home safe containing her family heirlooms
and personal papers was taken, along with some money, a
computer, and jewelry. Rena is not a wealthy person. What
was taken had relatively little economic value, but it included
much that brought to her life a sense of meaning, identity,
and connection with her past—a letter for her adopted son
from his birth mother, Rena’s father’s World War II medals,
a personal journal, a stack of prized letters from her mother,
her grandmother’s antique music box, the ring of a deceased
friend. Rena lost her sense that she lived in a safe commu-
nity, that her home was a haven, that a benevolent presence
was protecting her family. As we can easily imagine, Rena
became more skittish and vigilant, more protective of her
children, more interested in home security ads on TV. Doors
were locked more consistently. Sleep was interrupted by
nightmares. Rena wished she could create an impenetrable
wall to lock up her home, her family, her heart.
Like Rena, when employees lose what they have come to
count on and expect—be it a person, an income, a position,
or less concrete notions like security, identity, or direction—
they are inclined to deficit thinking, a common problem
when people stand to lose not only their personal treasures
but also their retirement, their colleagues, their jobs. Deficit
thinking is probably inevitable, perhaps even helpful, in
some situations, but when leaders’ thinking is dominated by

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