The Leadership Mindset!

Leaders like to use their strengths to achieve quick, dramatic results; they like to believe they are as good as everyone says they are, and not take their weaknesses too seriously; they believe that some people are superior and some are inferior; they put their faith in talent; and they see themselves as "the smartest guys in the room".

Sound familiar?

Evidence from the Global Financial Crisis shows that when people work in an environment that esteems them for their innate talent, they have difficulty when their image is threatened; they won't admit they're wrong to peers and stakeholders, and they won't take remedial action. Ultimately a company that can't self-correct can't thrive. And the rest, as they say, is history!

What's the alternative?

The alternative is leaders with a 'growth mindset'. They believe in human development; they're not constantly trying to prove they're better than others; they don't highlight being at the top of the hierarchy; they don't claim credit for others' contributions; and they don't undermine others to feel powerful.

Instead they are constantly trying to improve. They surround themselves with the most capable people they can find, they honestly look at their own mistakes and deficiencies, and they question what skills they and the company will need in the future. And because of this, they lead their companies with confidence based in the facts, not built on fantasies about their own talent.

Leaders with a growth mindset think it's nice to have talent, but that's just the beginning of creating an environment in which people can thrive.

Here are 7 things you can do:
  1. Demonstrate more commitment to your team member's development; give more developmental coaching.
  2. Go out of your way to notice and acknowledge improvement in your team member's performance.
  3. Welcome critiques from your team members.
  4. Present skills as learnable.
  5. Convey ways in which the organisation values learning and perseverance, not just ready-made genius or talent.
  6. Give feedback in a way that promotes learning and future success.
  7. Create ways to foster a diversity of views and constructive criticism; assign people to play the devil's advocate so you can see the holes in your position.
This comes from the book by world-renowned Stanford University psychology professor, Carol Dweck: "Mindset: How You Can Fulfil Your Potential" (2012). If you've got time, check out her TED talk here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 6 Factors of System 3 Thinking for Making Wise Decisions!

Image
Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, Daniel Kahneman, won the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his work on system 1 and system 2 thinking in “Thinking, Fast and Slow” .  The idea that much of our thinking and decision-making is subconscious, and automatic (system 1), as opposed to rational and deliberate (system 2). But he missed the observation by Japanese theorists, Professor Emeritus Ikujiro Nonaka at the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University, and Professor Hirotaka Takeuchi, of the Management Practice in the Strategy Unit of Harvard Business School that there is a third system . We typically rely on system 1 thinking because it’s automatic, fast, and experience-based. We use our innate or gut feel to quickly arrive at a decision that “feels right”. System 2 thinking is logical, rational, and fact-based. We use system 2 when we need to slow down and analyse the i...
Read more

Patience, young grasshopper!

Image
"Patience, young grasshopper" is a quote from the 1970's Kung Fu TV series starring David Carradine as Kwai Chang Cain. His teacher, Master Po called him "grasshopper" as a child, emphasising patience as the ultimate martial arts skill. But we live in an era of high-speed, same-day, cutting-edge, first-to-market, fast-food, get-it-now, snap-judgement. If we're told we have to wait, we get irritated. If we can't come up with the right answer right away, we get upset. if someone or something gets in our way, we get angry. Why is patience considered one of the most powerful martial arts practices? Because patience is the antidote to anger, and anger represents the most terrible and destructive manifestation of self-driven desire. When we're angry with someone, we're estranged form them and from the true core of our being. We end up losing the very thing we believe we're fighting for. Patience is a discipline. It takes practice to over...
Read more

How to Lead Millenials!

Image
Herding cats is easy compared to keeping a bunch of smart millennials motivated for long enough to make a meaningful contribution. Yet, fast-growing, agile, entrepreneurial organisations need this kind of sustainable energy to do good things for clients and communities. What's the secret?  It turns out this is exactly the same problem faced by professional service firms - the McKinseys, Deloittes, and BCGs of the business world. They have to entice a group of disparate professionals to give up autonomy in return for a group share of the profits, while at the same time maintaining the bonds of a matrix-structured organization which threatens to fly apart at any moment under the centrifugal force of massive ego! Have they cracked the code?  Laura Empson, Professor in Management at the Cass Business School, London, and Ann Langley, Professor of Management at HEC Montreal think they have. Their model of the professional service firm (2015) is an elegant guide in how t...
Read more