Fixing Your Fixed Leadership Mindset

by Lynn Scott, Featured Contributor

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 Stanford University Psychologist Carol Dweck in her book Mindset calls a FIXED MINDSET.  Here’s what she says:

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!

What inspiring leaders want to cultivate is what Dweck calls A ‘growth mindset’. With this mindset you believe that you can change things through effort, practice and experience.  So, yes, you can have leadership presence; yes, you can influence your senior team; yes, you can have a better work-life balance; yes, you can run effective, engaging and purposeful meetings; yes, you can deliver great presentations.   You can see where I’m going with this…..

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.

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).

My favourite example of Focusing on the Wrong Thing is Time Management training. Nothing wrong with it, per se. But I know people who can spout every theory going about time management but still choose to let time manage them.  Why?

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 difficult conversation).

I know enough now about mindset to know when I need to change mine, get off the fence and stop making excuses. And it can be very challenging. I might procrastinate for a while. Because sometimes the fence can be a comfortable place to be – but it’s uncomfortable even painful after a while.

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 do I need to change that mindset?’
• Because you can teach an old dog new tricks! And new tricks means more rewards!