Your Leadership Mindset

Your Leadership Mindset

If you find yourself (or others) saying ‘that’s just the way I am’ or ‘it’s just my personality and I can’t change it’ you(or those others) have what StanfordUniversity Psychologist Carol Dweck inher book Mindset calls aFIXED MINDSET.

Here’s what she says:

Your Leadership Mindset

‘A fixed mindset comes from the belief that your qualities are carved in stone – who you are is who you are, period.

Characteristics such as intelligence, personality, and creativity are fixed traits, rather than something that can be developed.’

‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ is an expression that springs to mind, here.

Or ‘I’ve never been any good at……..’ Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy!

Your Leadership Mindset

What inspiring leaders want to cultivate is what Dweck calls A ‘growth mindset’.

With this mindset you believe that youcan change things through effort,practice and experience.

Your Leadership Mindset

So, yes,

you can have leadership presence; you can influence your senior team; you can have a better work-life balance; you can run effective, engaging and purposeful

meetings; you can deliver great presentations. 

You can see where I’m going with this…..

Your Leadership Mindset

One of the reasons that traditional training courses don’t always result in the desired changes is because they completely ignore mindset.

You’ve probably attended a few courses where you learn new theories, models, and frameworks – all very interesting and useful in many ways.

But, be honest, you’ve not really applied them back at work.

Your Leadership Mindset

Or you’ve sent your team members on expensive leadership programmes which they enjoy but (frustratingly) their leadership capability doesn’t improve one iota.

Or you’ve sent team members on assertiveness training – they learn a few phrases, they learn about body language, they learn ‘I’m OK, you’re OK’ but they are no more assertive than they were before.

(Ask them about their beliefs, their drivers, their values, their

biggest fears and you’ll start to get to the mindset behind the

behaviour).

Your Leadership Mindset

My favorite example of Focusing on the Wrong Thing is Time Management training.

Nothing wrong with it, per se. 

But I know people who can spoutevery theory going about timemanagement but still choose to lettime manage them.  Why?

Your Leadership Mindset

Because sometimes it’s easier to spend time doing ‘safe’ things rather than those in the ‘difficult’ box!

(So reading emails is safer than having that difficultconversation).

I know enough now about mindset to know when I need to

Change mine, get off the fence and stop making excuses. 

Your Leadership Mindset

And it can be very challenging.

I might procrastinate for awhile. Because sometimes thefence can be a comfortableplace to be – but it’suncomfortable even painfulafter a while.

 

Your Leadership Mindset

So here’s how to start cultivating a growth mindset.

Look at one belief you hold about yourself that is not serving you well.  (often starts with I should/I must/I ought…..)

Ask yourself ‘what effort, practice and experience doI need to change that mindset?’

Because you can teach an old dog new tricks!

And new tricks means more rewards!

For more information on how to develop your Leadership Mindset please contact

pat@lynnscottcoaching.co.uk

www.lynnscottcoaching.co.uk