I’ve consulted and coached leaders for 14 years. I’ve consistently been in some kind of leadership or supervisory role for over 25 years. This has included business start-ups, non-profits, and boards.

Over those decades, I’ve had many opportunities to discover my limits. My personal ceilings for my own growth, achievement or success.

I’ve also had the opportunity to observe when others hit their limits. All leaders eventually encounter their limits.

There is absolutely no question that some people are born into privilege. Others find their way into relationships and social circles which open unique opportunities. Some just seem blessed as “natural leaders.”

However, despite apparent advantages, they experience limits too.

In fact, there exists a consistent and pervasive reality: The majority of our limits, or the height of our ceilings, is determined more by our own mindsets than anything else.

When studying leaders, you quickly start to discover that adversity is a common path to leadership.

You also start to discover why nearly all successful entrepreneurs will talk about the need for courage and perseverance.

Mindset makes the difference.

Fortunately, mindsets can change. They can grow. They can be expanded and strengthened.

Mindsets aren’t binary. You aren’t one way or the other. We tend to sit on a spectrum. We may even slide around on the spectrum—depending on the situations or circumstances that we face.

The following, three mindset areas have the greatest impact on your (and my) future potential and growth:

Ownership Mindset vs Unaccountability Mindset

Leaders who own the consequences of their choices and behaviors empower themselves. Even when this means owning mistakes or failures. The ability to take ownership means you own the ability to grow, to adjust and to change.

These leaders make their attitudes a choice. The success of their teams is also a choice. One that they own.

Leaders who minimize, rationalize, blame, deflect or otherwise makes excuses disempower themselves. This might come from a fatalistic perspective, or a weak self-image or just an unwillingness to take responsibility.

These leaders want choice and may demand that they are given choices. But refuse to consistently own their choices or the consequences thereof.

Leaders who own their own choices & behaviors and resulting consequences experience distinct benefits. They are:

• More able to grow as leaders. These leaders see cause and effect. They see their leadership as a causal force. Since they own the effects of their choices, they are better equipped to adapt their behaviors and choices. This allows them to achieve better consequences, more consistently.
• More able to quickly adapt. Having ownership doesn’t mean that there aren’t other forces at work that support or frustrate success. Ownership allows you to see yourself as an actor with these forces, not a victim. These leaders are able to reposition to take advantage of (or create) opportunities. They are able to adjust and avoid threats.
• More effective at empowering and building their team. These leaders believe in growth. They believe that the individuals they lead can grow. They are more able to lead, mentor and coach in a way that assumes that growth is not only possible but is part of the process of any team.

How to Grow. Here is a simple but powerful way to help you begin to grow an Ownership Mindset:

Strictly Monitor Your Language: This is your Yoda moment. Talk about what you did or did not do. Don’t talk about trying (unless you are diagnosing what you could do better next time.) Completely rid yourself of statements like, “I intended to/meant to/planned to/thought about….”

Maybe when giving gifts to family members, “It’s the thought that matters.” But that isn’t even remotely true in leadership. What matters, as a leader is what you did and the results of that action.

Talking in those terms is an act of ownership and will help you begin to see yourself as a causal force.

Growth Mindset Vs Fixed Mindset

This mindset has many similarities to the Ownership vs Unaccountability dynamic above. In fact, having a Growth Mindset is a precursor to having an Ownership Mindset.

A Fixed Mindset forms the belief that my intelligence, skills, abilities, and opportunities in life are Fixed. They are set at birth. Or by status.  Or whatever.

A Growth Mindset forms the belief that my intelligence, skills, abilities, and opportunities can be grown or changed. Birth or status provides a starting point. But it doesn’t indicate an endpoint.

I’ve often encountered a Fixed Mindset in leaders who don’t believe in planning or setting a direction for their future. They will say, “We can’t know what will happen anyways.”

This betrays a belief that they see planning as an attempt to guess at or prophecy a set future – as opposed to being willing to set a course for the desired future. A Fixed Mindset.

This is a very well-studied phenomenon with students that demonstrates the difference between these mindsets

Students who are told, “You’re smart at math,” do well until they run into a problem which is difficult. Being smart/not smart is a fixed perception. Since they struggle with the challenge, they believe they aren’t smart at this particular task. So, they tend to quit.

Students who are told, “Wow, you really worked hard at that!” can take on progressively more difficult challenges. This is a growth perspective. They believe that their effort is what allows them to overcome. As a result, they tend to overcome.

Leaders with a growth mindset are more likely to find solutions, push through challenges, discover resources and opportunities than their fixed-mindset counterparts.

They experience more success because they believe they can create it.

How to Grow: Here are three tips that will help you develop a growth mindset.

1. Relationships: Surround yourself with people who are growing and bettering themselves. Limit the time around people who think from a fixed perspective. The mindset that you “marinate” yourself in relationally will impact you.

2. Progress not Perfection: Personally, one of my biggest breakthroughs in life has come with the idea of improving where I was at – as opposed to getting it perfect. A mentor of mine advised me to stop aiming for 100% (the target I grew up with) and instead aim for a solid 80%. I’m not a brain surgeon. 80% is good enough for most things I do. When I come back to it later, I try to improve another 80%.

3. Learn a New Skill: The actual experience of going out and learning something new (particularly if you practice progress, not perfection) will go a long way to helping you develop a growth mindset.

Abundance Mindset vs Scarcity Mindset

The scarcity mindset is the mindset most people have. It is the view of life that says that “there is only so much to go around.” It suggests that other people might have ‘gotten theirs’ but I might not ‘get mine.’

It hints that influence, happiness, and contentment are all connected to things that I either need to fight for or accept that I’ll never have.

The abundance mindset isn’t about having a lot of stuff. It is about viewing the world as a place where we can always have enough. A world where we can always create more value, more wealth or resources. It allows for the easy generosity of resources, time and relationships.

They are both ways of seeing.

A leader who has an Abundance Mindset believes the market can be grown, new resources can be created or found, good employees will be recruited. A leader with a Scarcity Mindset believes that in this market – for us to win, they must lose. This leader believes that new resources are limited and may be lost forever. That there is “no-one” to hire.

It isn’t that there are economic ups and downs, difficulty accessing resources or good staff. But if your perception is on limits and scarcity – you tend to always play a zero-sum game. Either I win and you lose. Or, you win and I lose.

Even among those who have more than they need, the “dog eat dog” mentality comes from the underlying fear that there isn’t enough.

How to Grow: These four tips will help you grow from scarcity to abundance.

1. Practice Gratitude: Daily identify three things you are grateful for. This trains your mind to identify good that you’ve received.

2. Practice Appreciation: Daily identify one thing you appreciate about someone else and tell it to them. This trains you to see other people as sources or producers of value – not only consumers of value.

3. Practice Generosity: Give your money, time or resources. Make a practice of giving to others. This helps confront any inner tendencies to horde. It also allows you to experience a widely experienced effect of, “Giving and receiving.”

4. Practice Idea Generation:  I do this regularly and often advise it to clients: Write down ten ideas every day. They don’t have to be usable, practical or even reasonable ideas. They just have to be ideas. About anything you want. (I usually pick a theme.) This takes far less time than what most people think. Over time they discover they can do it very quickly. Over time, they discover they can create ideas. Which leads to creating value. Which leads to abundance.

Growing as a Leader. When you find yourself approaching a limit or a ceiling of any kind, review these mindsets. Explore whether or not you are holding yourself back in some way.

It is definitely possible that there is another force out there that is placing a limit on you. However, it is far more likely that the force holding you down – is one of your own creation.

Take good care,

Christian

P.S. Do you find yourself struggling to accomplish your vision or achieve your goals? Are you concerned that some of this might be self-imposed? Would you like to breakthrough? My clients typically report tangible, noticeable results within three months. Curious? Contact me at christian@vantageconsulting.org or 907 522-7200.