Do you have the mindset of a leader?
I’ve been privileged to spend the last 4 days attending a wonderful leadership training. It was very educational and inspiring, with some fantastic speakers, and I’d love to pass on some of that wisdom.
You don’t have to have a leadership role in order to lead: we are all leaders. You can lead within a team, a business, a family or a group. Leadership begins by leading ourselves, by developing a leader’s mindset.
Image: courtesy of Markus Spiske
So what is a leader’s mindset? Tony Robbins developed a concept called the 3 Mandates of Leadership:
- See it as it is, not worse than it is
- See it better than it is
- Make it the way you see it.
The first mandate is to “see it as it is, not worse than it is”. The human brain is wired to pay more attention to negative events than positive ones, so that we will survive. When we were cavepeople and we went out foraging, if we got distracted by the yummy berries on the wild blueberry bush and ignored the fact that a saber-toothed tiger was right in front of us, we wouldn’t have lasted long and we would not have passed on our genes to our offspring. But this “negativity bias” can be harmful today, it may lead us to give events a meaning worse than it really is. This in turn leads to negative emotions such as fear, anger, guilt, jealousy and these affect our behavior. So it’s important to pay attention if you’re being overly negative in your assessment of a situation, while not being complacent, delusional or too “Polly-Anna-ish”.
The second mandate is to “see it better than it is”. What this means is that no matter what is going on, a leader is able to look beyond the problem and envision an empowering future. You may want to ask questions like: “what do I really want to change?”, “what can I do to make this better?” and “what needs do I need to met at a higher level?” Again all of this with a big dose of realism.
The third mandate is to “make it the way you see it”. Focus on how you will make this vision of the future happen. Ask questions like:
- Am I in an empowering, resourceful state for this challenge? If not… create one.
- Is the story that I am telling myself supporting me? This includes identity, purpose, mission, beliefs etc.
- What massive actions do I need to take?
- What resources do I need to access?
- Who will support me?
- When will I review my progress and adjust my plan?
- How committed am I?
- What are the potential barriers to change? What will I do to mitigate these barriers?
Please ask me if you want any further ideas on how to build your leadership muscles!
Best wishes
Leonaura Rhodes