What Is a Mindset?
Mindset is a set of beliefs that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself. It influences how you think, feel, behave and act in any given situation.
In decision theory and general systems theory, a mindset is a set of assumptions, methods, or notions held by one or more people or groups of people
What Are The Types of Mindset?
After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In her book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. She categorized mindset into 2:
1. People with a fixed mindset are those who believe that abilities are fixed and are less likely to flourish
2. Those with a growth mindset believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment.
With the right mindset, you can motivate those you lead, teach, and love to transform their lives and your own.
Why Mindset Matters?
Your mindset plays a critical role in how you act, cope with both changes and challenges in your life.
When you have a growth mindset, you tend to get motivated to learn more, persevere, and handle challenges better.
As a leader, good self-leadership through personal mastery and good self-awareness is key. This will help leaders like you to engage well with others, motivate people, manage conflict or issues well to make great decisions.
How Can You Improve Your Mindset?
Fortunately, there are many ways to improve your mindset, some that I would personally recommend:
Gaining awareness of your thoughts, emotions and behaviours
Being able to remain positive by living in the now
Having a grateful heart which helps you to see more of the good things in your life
Having a coach, mentor or accountability partner to help you see your blindspot
Working on yourself through continuous learning and improvement
In a previous article written by Chris Chew, he shared 3 critical elements to focus on to shift your mindset. In the video below, we excerpt some parts from invite and panel discussion on mindset as part of our previous summit Transforming & Thriving Together.
Chris Chew is an experienced learning & organization development practitioner who helps individuals and organizations achieve sustainable performance by focusing on mindset mastery and change. He is a certified neuro-axiologist and leadership coach with over 20 years of experience working with multinational companies like Shell.
In our upcoming free masterclass he will share the following:
✅ Discover personal biases/disempowering frames of mind
😊 Recognize the critical role of mindset in leadership effectiveness
❤️ Identify strategies and techniques to shift mindsets and behaviours
What approach should we take?
When we develop ourselves, we are making a CHANGE. We are embarking on a journey of SELF LEADERSHIP.
A mechanic attempts to make a change to fix a faulty machine by understanding the parts of the machine and while it is complicated, it is predictable. The change is made in a clearly specified manner with a clear goal in mind.
A gardener builds a garden by focusing on creating the right conditions for the plants to grow. The plants are subjected to unpredictable conditions like weather or pests and he responds flexibly to the changing environment, e.g. by enriching the soil, or planting some bulbs.
When we're making a change in ourselves, sometimes we can be a mechanic when the situation is broadly predictable and we have control over what to change and we know what goal to achieve.
But sometimes we should be a gardener, when the situation is unpredictable, for example when we don't know how others will respond. We can prepare the ground and let ourselves change without having detailed moment by moment control. This means being flexible and trying out different approaches as experiments and see which works out best.
What thoughts does this open up for you?
In his recent post on LinkedIn, this is the thoughts I have shared in terms of my approach - "Gardener so we can be faithful & hopeful. Do whatever we can control and be amazed what comes out of it in due time. Mindset is everything to be able to manage self, others and be agile enough in any situation."
Join us on 21 May 2021, Friday at 2PM if you would like to improve your mindset in order to lead effectively and succeed in life - https://www.ctsolutionsglobal.com/leadership-mindset