GROWTH MINDSET

Aug

2020

Resilient Leadership

I spent many years working with athletes. Some of those athletes were what we would call “tough” while some were “soft.” Reflecting back this toughness we were examining is the same as the resilience every leader needs to continue leading at a high level.

What is resilience?

When I looked up the definition I found “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, toughness or the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape, elasticity”¹ This means that whether we are leading ourselves or others we need to have toughness and elasticity to lead effectively. How can we develop this resilience?

Have a Team

No matter what we do a team is essential. A little league coach is more effective and can handle the difficult players and parents when he or she has an assistant. This teamwork becomes even more important the bigger the vision. Coaching little league is one thing, but leading a multi-million dollar organization requires a much different and larger team in order to be effective and stay in the game.

To do something great you need resilience and a key to that resilience is your team. As leadership expert John Maxwell says in his book The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork:

“One is too small a number to achieve greatness.”

Adaptable Thinking

In his book The New Toughness Training for Sport author and sports psychologist Jim Loehr discusses how undisciplined thinking can “kick our emotional targets far out of range.”² What does this mean for leaders? Effective and resilient leaders must exercise what Loehr calls “tough thinking.”

By tough thinking I do not suggest we stubbornly hold to our ideas. When necessary this is true, but we must also be adaptable and willing to change our plans when necessary. On the other hand, when difficulties come tough thinking helps us stay focused. Loehr puts it this way:

“Tough thinking will keep you from panicking when things get crazy, calm your temper when you make the unthinkable mistake, and prevent you from surrendering when the battle appears lost.”

Resilient leaders adapt, are tough, and have the discernment to know in the situation which is needed.

Growth Minded

I won’t go into the details of defining a growth mindset in this blog, but you can read a little bit about it here. What I want to highlight is resilient leaders demonstrate agility in their thinking. They adapt and adjust as challenges come.

Imagine of a star running back. He sprints straight ahead one direction and quickly adjusts because of an obstacle in the path. This agility is rooted in a mindset that says “there is a way, I/we just have to find it.”

After reading these three aspects, which do you need to focus on to improve your resilience as a leader? Need help thinking into this? Contact me today for a no cost to you thinking partner session. Lead well.

https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/resilience retrieved 6/21/20
Loehr, James. The New Toughness Training for Sport. Plume Book. 1994

Sep

2018

Three Ways to Help Your Mindset as a Leader

“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.” James Allen

Self-leadership. We all have to do it. Whether you lead at the highest level, own your own business or participate in an organization in various roles without a formal position of leadership. Even when we are not at work we have to do this. How are you doing in this area?

Each morning I wake up, somedays before the alarm goes off, but often shocked into reality by music blaring out of my alarm. Then what . . . do I snooze? Do I hop out of bed excited by a new day of adventure? Do I lay there thinking of all I have to do that day? Do I start worrying about the million things out of my control?

It depends.

One thing is certain, my mind is going and the battle is raging. What will be my first thought? After that will I feed it so it grows or dismiss it?

It depends.

For years I fulfilled a role as a strength and conditioning coach. My job each day was to get athletes to do what they naturally did not want to do . . . work hard on something they may not have seen the benefit in so they could be better at what they enjoyed . . . their sport.

Mindset is key. Carol Dweck in her research on this topic wrote a book about this topic. She highlights two types of mindset: growth and fixed.

Fixed – this is how I will always be and I can never change . . . these are the cards dealt to me.

Growth – I can change and evolve into a different person than I am today.

Both are rooted in our thoughts which directly impact our outcomes. Anyone who has spent time selling anything whether that is an idea, a product, or a service knows this is true. Whether we have doubt or confidence in what we are selling others will sense it.

Let me suggest a few ideas on how to get our mind set in a direction for success each day.

Gratitude. When I wake up each day even though I would rather lay back down I try to think of at least one thing I am grateful for. That may be “thank you for this new day.” Starting the day with thanks and gratitude will help set our attitude in the right direction.
Set the Agenda Beforehand. I find that if I set my agenda for the day, week, etc. the night before I am not waking up anxious about that day. By writing it down the tasks and goals are out of my mind and I can reference them when work time begins.
Think Time. Each day as I eat breakfast I read and journal. These may not be habits that work for you, but this is a great way for me to dump yesterday’s garbage and some of today’s poor thinking. I read something that will inspire me to live for more than just myself. For me that is the Bible, but for you it may be something as simple as a quote of the day on a tear off calendar. Taking time to clear my mind of the garbage and fill it with truth is critical to helping me have the right mindset.

This only touches the surface of this issue and in later posts I will dig deeper because as the quote at the top says, our thinking determines our character which impacts our results. Which of the three ideas can you implement to help your self-leadership? Need someone to help you think into your results? Contact me. In the meantime, lead well at work and home.