Whether you work in a large corporate dealing with complexity, a not for profit striving to fulfil its mission, or a smaller business serving clients, your people are your greatest asset. But are you focusing on the right things?
In challenging times, often the default response is to focus mainly on performance – what the organisation does to deliver on its purpose, and what your people are doing or have done. This is measured in financial and operational terms.
This default performance is typical for those organisations playing what Simon Sinek calls the finite game – “arbitrary metrics over arbitrary time”. When performance is paramount, people are reduced to the sum of their parts. You can achieve some stuff, but you’ll never break through to a new level of excellence. This is because you need to empower people. Train them. Support them. Grow them.
To do this you need to elevate mindsets.
Focusing on mindsets – what people are saying, doing and believing is critical to organisational success, longevity, and responsiveness. As Sinek calls it, an “infinite-minded leader works to ensure that their employees, customers and shareholders remain inspired to continue contributing… they want to leave their organizations in better shape than they found them.”
As McKinsey authors Scott Keller and Bill Schaninger’s research shows – mindset is what underpins thriving teams and high performance. Mindset “is in fact, most important if you want to lead successful and sustainable change at scale.”
This is because humans are at the heart of every change process. Simply put, organisations don’t change. People do.
So where do mindsets sit in your leadership framework? Are you aware how powerful they are – as enhancers and as blockers?
Do you have the skill and ability to catch your own limiting mindsets and change them? Would you like to do this with your team as well?
Working with mindsets is one of the most powerful tools we have to lead effectively. They show up everywhere. The greatest threat to your organisation is not the external environment. It’s the belief your people hold that they are not capable enough, experienced enough, welcomed enough to rise to the challenge and succeed.
I can assure you they are. With the right support and tools.
Let me help you and your people develop mindsets that ignite, activate and illuminate themselves and others.
