by Deborah Leverett | Aug 23, 2019 | Uncategorized
What used to be thought of as ‘flaky’, neuroscience has proved how important our mindsets are – that power of thoughts controls the direction and decisions of our life. Elite athletes and military teams understand that if you build your mental resilience in the pursuit of goals, the better you can be, and the better decisions you can make under pressure: the more goals you will achieve. The more goals you achieve the more confidence you will gain in life and business. American organizational practices have only focused on the left-brain: controlled, technical, administrative and analytical. But, what we need is more intuitive ,conceptual and artistic ways of thinking. Mindsets can fuel imagination and creativity or become limiting factors due to personal experiences or even influenced by the thinking past management. I want to highlight 2 different mindsets in this post : Long-term vs short-term and dynamic vs static Long-Term Thinking vs. Short-Term Thinking Long-Term Thinking is the rarest form of thinking in the workplace. This is dangerous because it is the only kind of thinking that invites creativity and innovation. We set strategy for 3, 5 or 10 years, but that is not the same as thinking longterm. Long-term, transformative thinking requires practice and a certain approach because it is so different than short-term thinking. Sample questions of long-term thinking: “How will this idea effect the next generation of customers? “ “By changing this policy, what will be different 15, 20 years from now?”“What will be the end result if we take this step? “ Short-term thinking limits possibilities – It also makes us hyper-reactionary – we become...
by Deborah Leverett | Jun 19, 2019 | Uncategorized
Growth Under Pressure Poor decisions are not made because of a lack of skill, confidence or will. Poor decisions are made due to inability to handle pressure. Resilience is built when a person views adversity as 1) temporary 2) as a path to be better and do better. Sports team understand that players learn how to handle weights, pressures and problems by practicing under pressure. That’s where the championships are won. But, there is no practice time in business. You are expected and rewarded when you make the right decisions under the greatest pressure. And you’re expected to do this without training? How can you help your team perform under pressure and grow in the face of great challenges? First thing is to have conversations around this. Discuss:~ how the best growth opportunities come in the middle of a crisis or difficulty. ~resilience, values, and non-negotiables. ~role models who make good decisions under pressure. Discuss how your individual team members handle current responsibilities and challenges. Do they avoid, procrastinate, compromise, make rash decisions? These conversations are so very important because there are still too many people who think what got them to their current level will keep them. And, that is a death knell for high performance: individual and team performance. The state of being frustrated, overwhelmed and anxious is dangerous because it narrows one’s ability to problem solve and innovate. Unless it is arrested, it will create more tension. This can lead to aggression, panic or just shutting down. And, we know it creates havoc on a person’s health. Staying in mental clarity first takes a decision to...
by Deborah Leverett | Feb 14, 2018 | Uncategorized
Quick recap: the ego – we all have one. The key is to foster a healthy ego. In part I, we looked at how egotistical individuals have an overblown idea of their abilities which leads to selfish behavior and a sense of entitlement. In the workplace it plays out like this: an individual has great ideas, a healthy ego and a strong work ethic which leads to success. When the person begins to believe that it is only because of their individual contributions that success has been achieved do we see a healthy ego develop into arrogance and pride. That is why humility must be preached. The other side of the coin is someone who has no confidence in their abilities, ideas or creativity. The are dependent on others for approval and tend to blame everyone else when things don’t work out – the classic victim mindset. So how can we live a disciplined, balanced life? We need both a healthy dose of pride (e.g. self-regard) with a bucketful of humility (thinking less of yourself and more of others). Things to think about: Remind yourself that every one of us is subject to an ego out of control – especially when experiencing great success. Surround yourself with people who love you and allow them to speak into your life. (Your family often are the best truth-tellers). Be mindful who your close friends/confidants are: Behaviors and attitudes are contagious. Especially in times of success, remind yourself everyone who has helped you get the success you...
by Deborah Leverett | Feb 8, 2018 | Uncategorized
With all of the recent, painful stories of abuse in the workplace, it makes one wonder how do people get to the place where they think they have a right to such abominable behavior? We only need to look at history to remind us that the source is always pride: en ego gone wild. When unleashed, pride develops a sense of entitlement and then the individual expects to get away with the behavior. It’s easy to point fingers at those in extreme egotistical meltdown on their way to destruction. But, we all have an ego, and we need to know when our attitudes and behavior is sending out red flags that we are getting off kilter. Pride will destroy. Our habit should be looking balance between pride and humility. Check for these signs of your ego losing balance: 1. Being defensive of behaviors and decisions 2. Always comparing ourselves to others 3. Living life as a people-pleaser and always looking for acceptance from others 4. Constantly talking and bragging about one’s own accomplishments In the workplace, if you find yourself with any of these attitudes, you will want to take actions to adjust: Seeing a co-worker as a rival and you try o figure out a way to beat them Disagreeing with someone just because you don’t like them Criticizing a person’s idea just because you don’t like them Taking it personally when someone disagrees with you Feeling worse about yourself when someone else succeeds In the next post, we’ll look at some ways to live your life governed by humility....
by Deborah Leverett | Oct 17, 2017 | Blog
My previous post You Can’t Make People Feel Stupid dealt with ways leaders can effectively deal with accountability. This piece is how you hold yourself accountable. I never did like getting in trouble. One, because I didn’t want people upset with me; and two, because I pretty much was a perfectionist from the beginning. That is a very dangerous road on which to travel because you always feel you have to give the appearance of getting it right: a pretty big burden to carry which leads to an insane amount of stress. Most of my early bosses either ignored me when I made mistakes or were brutal in addressing any inadequacies I had; both strategies made me feel either unimportant, small or ashamed. The game-changer for me happened when I was in the corporate world as a newly hired learning and development manager. The industry was new to me, and I had a huge learning curve. As can happen in the pressure cooker of a corporate environment, I dropped the ball on a major component of my job. It should have cost me my job because it cost the company thousands of dollars in penalties and my boss’s boss had to spend time in court. This is how it played out. I got a call on a Sunday morning (highly unusual) from my boss who told me there was a serious situation, and I needed to meet him in his office that afternoon. I knew something was terribly wrong and I immediately went to cya mode even though I didn’t know what I did. We met, and he told...
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