Are you a radiator or a drain?

Oprah Winfrey, was asked what she wished she’d learned earlier in life said “I wish I’d known how to distinguish radiators from drains”.

Radiators are people who give out warmth, kindness, love, honesty, positivity, energy, enthusiasm and all the good things which people need and respond to. Drains are people who are negative, downbeat, suck the energy out of others and don’t like themselves.

So life’s too short to work with drains …………… unless of course you’re Dynorod.

So how does this work in practice? Sir Clive Woodward, coach of world cup winning England Rugby team in 2003 inherited a set of players. For a number of matches he was selecting on their match playing abilities — on their rugby skills. But a training camp with the Royal Marines made him change his mind about team selection. The Marine’s words were ringing in his ears “It’s not about skills. It’s about attitude and the effect on the team. One wrong team player can sap all the energy from the group.”

The ultimate test is going into battle, i.e. the Marines. You’re in the helicopter with 8 of your team going into a firefight. Looking around those 8 individuals you need to be very clear that they are the right people — energisers, not energy sappers. So with sport the results are very visible.

There is no place to hide. Win or lose.

So does this work in businesses? It is totally true but decisions that could and should have been made about staffing are fudged and avoided. There appears to be less at stake in business compared with sport.

So what are you…. And if you are a drain can you change? Here are 3 steps

1. Recognise if you are drain (or have drain-like moments)
2. Catch yourself once a day about to say something drain-like, turn it around and look for the bright side
3. Do this every day for 21 days and you will be staggered by the results