My husband wrote a great article today prompted by the quote:
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”
―Shunryu Suzuki,Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
This week @SteveBauer is challenging himself to stay out of the muddy waters of dogma. This will create some nerdy chatter at our dinner table. Yes, we are those people.
This quote is also a great way to kick off a conversation about how we think about mindset in the LeadWell program at BauerHouse.
In our Leadership Development program for new people leaders, we teach growth mindset using 3 tools:
1. “The Model”
The Model is a mindset tool based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It was created by The Life Coach School.
The model explains how our feelings are created by thoughts (judgements) that we hold about otherwise neutral circumstances in the world. Aka – it’s a terrible day (vs. the circumstance that it is raining).
We then take actions based on our emotions. Not our brains. This is usually not good folks.
These actions produce the results in our lives. Often, this is a viscous self-perpetuating cycle of negative thoughts and results.
2. Carol Dweck’s teachings in her book, Growth Mindset
Author Carol Dweck is known for her work on evaluating the affect a
Growth Mindset (vs. Fixed) has on human potential and wellbeing.
She studies the impact of thinking that intelligence or personality is something you can develop, as opposed to something that is a fixed, deep-seated trait.
Her research finds that our brains are highly “plastic” and that holding a positive belief about your potential (and the potential of others) has a significant impact on performance.
Hmmmmm.......are you currently underestimating someone on your team??
3. “The Work” by Byron Katie
Byron Katie urges us to challenge what our mind believes to be true. The mind will create stories to protect us. But this isn’t our highest evolution.
Whenever we feel pain or suffering because of a thought we have, she asks us to do the work of 4 questions to break up the negative thought loop.
· Is it true?
· Can you absolutely know that it's true?
· How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?
· Who would you be without the thought?
This exercise pairs well with “The Model” to explore our minds ability to intentionally create our emotions and results.
This ins't polyanna woo woo. 'Can you absolutely know that it's true' will rock you every time.
With these tools, our coachees come to understand the power of the mind on our lived experience.
Now, in our coaching sessions, we ask a few questions to bring the philosophy to life.
1. What is a recurring issues in the workplace that you believe is not within your control?
2. Why do you believe this?
3. When you believe this thought, what action do you take and what are the results?
4. Would you like to explore a new thought?
This exercise is the act of turning the belief around. When we do this the coachee learns how take accountability for their current lived experience at work. We identify a new intentional action that they can take over the next week.
At the next session, we explore what happened as a result of the new action and we add on. For the next 5 weeks we will revisit this experience. This closed loop feedback is the bedrock of new leadership behaviors.
At the end of our 8 weeks, leaders are equipped to teach this concept to the their teams, thereby influencing the culture of a growth mindset within the organization.
And that, has the power to create sustainable positive change through positive, holistic leadership at every level.
May you live and LeadWell,
E
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