🔒How winners think differently to create a competitive edge

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“Elite Minds — How Winners Think Differently to Create a Competitive Advantage and Maximize Success” by Stan Beecham (McGraw Hill Education, $25).

We constantly get software updates from Microsoft, Apple and smartphone apps. Some are major; some routine; others fix glitches. Think of your brain as software (i.e. the operating system,) your body as hardware and stress as malware. The brain tells the body what to do. The body complies — unless it's influenced by the conscious or subconscious mind. Example: Conscious — You hurt your elbow and are unable to swing a golf club properly. Subconscious — You hit golf balls great on the driving range, but your game falls apart on the golf course and you don't know why.

The “why” involves your beliefs (i.e. your opinions about what you can or cannot do). The golf course presents challenges (e.g. bunkers, woods, water, etc.), which trigger subconscious messages about your ability to do something well. When those messages say you're not good at golf, the results bear this out.

Winners find ways to overcome these glass-half-empty messages. How? By reframing their beliefs from “I can't do this very well” to “I think I can do this if I change … ”). When you identify ways to change and execute, the brain sends a positive subconscious messages. Guess what? Your game improves.

At the end of a day winners ask “Was that the best I could do?” They acknowledge having off days, but they don't dwell on them. They look forward to the next day. Beecham suggests a simple solution to monitoring your progress: “On the days you improved, give yourself a W for a win. Days that you fail to advance, give yourself an L for a loss.” When you begin stringing together Ws, you're well on your way to minimizing negative subconscious messages.

Key takeaway: You're not competing against others; you're competing against yourself.

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“People Tools for Business: 50 Strategies for Building Success, Creating Wealth and Finding Happiness” by Alan C. Fox (SelectBooks, $16.95).

Fox shows that the more you learn, the more you realize there's still more to learn. He's always adding tools to his toolkit. Here are some highlights:

9. “You are not in the business of making telephone calls or writing emails.” How much time do you spend each day on the phone and with email? How much of that time helps you “make things happen” with your job? When it comes to evaluating performance, results count; “busyness” doesn't. Don't get caught in the thick of thin things.

12. “Wait three days.” There's an emotional impulse to react quickly to bad news. Invariably, a shoot-from-the-lip response results in shooting yourself in the foot. Take some time to think about not only what happened but why it happened. Once you identify the why(s) you can't begin identifying fixes. Communicating “Let's solve this problem” rather than dwelling on 'the bell that can't be unrung' keeps people engaged.

18. “Give it away.” Forget micromanagement. Delegate. Let people do what you hired them to do. Leverage their skills. The more they do, the more they learn — and the more productive the department, division, etc. becomes. When mistakes are made, remember that you make mistakes, too.

26. “Ready, Set, Improvise.” Things rarely go as planned — especially in conversations and negotiations. You don't know how the other party will react. Improv comedy teaches the art of saying “Yes, and” to build the scene. The “Yes” shows agreement; the “and” addresses their concern.

In a nutshell: “You are the sole proprietor of your life.” The more tools you can use to build it, the greater your chances of success at home and work.

Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer.