OKLAHOMA CITY – Clint Swindall emphasized the power of mindset and positivity in driving engagement and success with a keynote at the National Association for Pupil Transportation’s Annual Conference and Trade Show.
Swindall is president and CEO of Verbalocity, Inc., a personal development company with a focus on leadership enhancement, and a certified speaking professional by National Speaker’s Association. He began his keynote, “Mindset Matters,” on Sunday by acknowledging the audience as heroes for choosing careers that benefit children. “I believe that anyone who has chosen in any way whatsoever, in their professional lives, to somehow benefit a child, I believe that makes you a hero,” said the nationally certified speaker.
However, Swindall noted that even heroes can struggle with disengagement, citing Gallup research showing that only 30 percent of employees are truly engaged, people he calls the “Oh, yeah’s.” Meanwhile, 53 percent are disengaged but show up every day and do their job. But they won’t go above and beyond. He calls this group the “Okay’s.” The remaining 17 percent are actively disengaged, the “Oh, no” employee.
“Research shows that when we don’t understand how what we do every day, how that ties into something more meaningful than just a job, it breeds mediocrity and it breeds disengagement,” he explained.
A given person could bounce back and forth between being an “Oh yeah, “Okay” and “Oh no” multiple times in the same day depending on their mood, he added.
The key to overcoming disengagement, according to Swindoll, lies in cultivating a positive mindset. He emphasized that “everything that happens in our life starts with mindset” and that inner dialogue determines a person’s efforts and, ultimately, successes. And this translates to one’s personal life as much as their work life, because everyone who is married or has children no matter their job title are leaders. They are actively trying to influence their spouse’s and childrens’ behaviors. They do the same thing at work.
“If I raced out of this room right now and I got to the person who knows you best in this world, and I asked them, when life happens to you, where is your focus? Do you go through a dreadful day and then just go down the laundry list of all the things that didn’t work when you walk in the door at the end of the day and you focus on all of that?”
Swindall shared personal anecdotes to illustrate his points. He recounted a story about a former employee who always focused on the negative or “bad stuff” that happened to her, or BS.
“What were you thinking that meant?” Swindall ribbed the audience.
Adding BS to constant complaining, or CC, plus excessive pessimism, or EP, equals N for negativity.
Each of us thinks about 48,000 negative thoughts a day, or 95 percent of the 60,000 total thoughts within the average human brain, he noted. That’s the negativity bias fostered by our environment growing up that affects all humans.
The centerpiece of Swindall’s message was the concept of “tell me something good,” which is also the name of one of his books. Instead of exchanging the common greeting of “How are you,” he instead asks people he encounters to tell him a good thing that happened to them recently. This forces the person to not focus on the negative but the positive. He described this as a culture-changing concept. By shifting conversations and organizational culture to focus on the positive, Swindoll believes leaders can foster greater engagement and success.
“If you want to be a better person that gets past some of the negativity in the world. Get past this need to be right all the time,” Swindall advised. “If you want to be a better leader of helping people become more engaged, to help them get past the negativity in their lives, challenge them with tell me something good. Make it a part of your culture.”
Swindall said he has trained himself, his employees and thousands of conference attendees worldwide to actively seek out the positive things happening and to celebrate wins. He has gone as far as stocking up on champagne at his company so that he and his employees can celebrate weekly.
“I live a life that assumes there’s going to be something worthy of celebration, and I want to be ready for it,” he said.
He also emphasized the importance of avoiding the need to always be right. “Every time you have to be right, there’s a good chance someone else has to be wrong.” He encouraged the audience to let go of this tendency, as it can breed negativity and make others feel like “losers.”
Swindall followed up on his message with a breakout session on Tuesday.
NAPT ACTS began on Friday with Professional Development Series courses for members and was followed Saturday by an opening keynote address from Kamin Samuel, a trailblazing former naval officer and acclaimed author. She encouraged the attendees to embrace their inner superpowers.
Drawing from her extensive background in positive psychology and personal experiences, which included being the first female African American U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, Samuel emphasized the importance of recognizing and leveraging individual strengths. The definition of a superhero, she said, is a benevolent fictional character with superhuman powers
“You are already superheroes,” she told the audience, foreshadowing Swindall’s greeting the following afternoon. “The fact that you dedicate your life to children and transportation of children and the safety of children is extraordinary.”
Samuel introduced the free VIA Character Strengths assessment, with scores relating to 24 different traits that she has used in her own life and for her upcoming documentary film “Courage to Thrive.” She explained how understanding one’s top strengths, such as her leading traits of honesty, gratitude and love of learning, can help individuals navigate challenges and find fulfillment.
“When we embrace those strengths as our unique superpowers, it’s important for us to realize that they’re already part of our innate nature and created nature,” Samuel said, noting that humans are not pervasively one trait over another but can pull from them as needed. “We’re already good at those things. We enjoy doing them.”
She shared personal anecdotes from her own life—her mother was a principal—and how she used her strengths to cope with her father’s passing, emphasizing the power of “strengths bundling” to regulate emotions and stay effective. She encouraged the audience to consciously apply their strengths throughout the conference and beyond.
The trade show portion of NAPT was held Sunday night and continued Monday morning. The conference concludes on Tuesday.
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