“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
Leadership is about growth and moving to greater potential. However, growth is not without pain. In sports, your body will feel pain as you push it to gain greater strength. A woman will feel pain as her baby grows through pregnancy. An organization will feel pain as it adopts a new change. In all these circumstances it is a growth for good; however, pain is still a part of the process.
In leadership, we need to be able to see problems and pain not as something bad, but as a sign of potential. If we label problems as bad, then we move forward in anxiety which increases stress and decreases clarity. As a leader, you model the way for the organization. How you view and approach problems will impact the entire organization. Do you see a problem to fear and just fix or a challenge with an opportunity?
Here are some steps to effectively approach growth and have a possibility mindset:
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Recognize the Challenge
First, you need to slow down and identify the stimulus or circumstance. You may just feel a tension and run to fix. Instead, stop and ask questions. What is the issue? Who and what are involved? Is there a deeper issue?
A leader, named Angela, was struggling with her board. At meetings they were struggling to get clarity on an issue. She was anxious that she would lose board engagement and involvement might drop. As she took time to reflect on the issues involved, she could see that one board member was coming to meetings with his own agenda and self-interest.
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Recognize Your Reaction
This second step requires discipline and focus. As a root issue is identified, you must be self-aware as a leader with how you want to react. You may want to conqueror with aggression, fix with a band-aid response out of fear, ignore and lose hope, etc. What is your typical response? Instead we need to see where the possibilities are for growth.
When the leader I mentioned before, Angela, identified the problem with her board member, she felt anger and exhaustion. She had been working so hard to move the organization forward into a new vision. She had so many things already on her plate. Now, one of her board members who should be her greatest ally seemed like the biggest obstacle. She wanted to yell at him and at the same time wanted to just give up and hope that problem would go away.
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Reframe Your Mindset
The next step requires a change within us. We can choose our mindset. We can be optimistic while being realistic. We can choose to see the possibilities. How can this challenge be an opportunity to bring about greater growth towards your vision? Maybe you need to take a deep breath and slow your brain down. You might need to give yourself space to reflect. Maybe you need to get input from others?
Angela took time to reflect on the issue with her board member and chose not to ignore it. She talked with a trusted person about the issue. She realized that she did need to confront this board member about their conflict of interest. However, she reset her mindset about it which made a big difference in how she approached this issue. Engaging with her board was a top priority for her. She knew that building those relationships as a foundation for collaboration was key to reaching her vision. Having a conversation with this board member about their conflict of interest was not a problem, but an opportunity to build relationship, listen and share vision. She didn’t see the board member as an obstacle now but as an opportunity to create shared understanding of success and a closer bond.
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Proceed with Hope
When our mindset is focused on possibilities, potential and growth, our very presence is filled with hope. Others sense this and respond accordingly. This then leads to a culture of optimism and innovation.
What challenge are you facing right now? Are you seeing problems or possibilities?