Have you ever been to a circus and seen a large adult elephant tied to a small stake with a little chain? Perhaps it didn’t strike you to think of why the elephant does not free itself from the chain and wander off to enjoy the circus.

The answer is because of past conditioning. When the elephant was a small baby it was tied to a stake with a larger chain and could not free itself, so eventually it gave up. It became conditioned to think that every time it got chained to a stake there was no way to get free.

The same type of conditioning happens to everyone as we grow up. We receive messages over and over from our parents and other key influencers and these messages get lodged in our subconscious and dictates our perception of ourselves and our actions.

If these messages were more negative than positive it could have the effect of becoming fearful, having low self-esteem and confidence. If the messages were more positive than it would have promoted more risk taking and self-assurance.

Advertisers know this very well and use spaced repetition to convince us to love a brand or product, so it influences our decision when shopping. Think of Kleenex brand tissue. Rather than adding tissue paper to our grocery list we would probably use the word Kleenex as we identify the brand with the product.

The good news is that we can change our past negative conditioning to be more positive and self-assured. This is done through goal setting, affirmations and positive feedback.

Leaders can influence employees to change their outlook and be more creative and positive by having the employee set goals and then giving them recognition and positive feedback as they make progress towards the goals.

Teaching employees to set goals and take risk is something that every leader/coach should have as a personal leadership objective. It will build trust and better employee performance.

Learn more about goal setting in this article and video and download my goal planning worksheet.