7 Tell Tale Signs Your Mindset Needs a Makeover

The presence of negative thoughts themselves does not mean we have a problematic mindset. Negative thoughts are valuable. They are feedback to us that we may be off course or imbalanced and corrective action needs to be taken. However, if your first immediate attitude is to see the glass half empty, you’ll continue to come across problems as your patterned thinking in this manner is strengthened.

Stinking thinking can show up as:

Your thinking is not expansive but constrictive and you have limited capability to think laterally and find solutions to challenges.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Albert Einstein

Opting out of attempting something new and taking measured risks preserves us from being vulnerable, making errors and feeling like fools. However, this is the antithesis of what’s required to stretch, grow, improve to be able to perform better and achieve better results. Avoidant behavior is often a sign of an underlying fear of being challenged or a threat to our ego.

Battling breaches of copyright and intellectual property protection clauses are legitimate threats. However, when preoccupation with competitors’ movements is only seen as deliberate acts to belittle one’s own reputation and business, we’ve lost sight of our own mission. Successful leaders and businesses need and view competition as healthy inspiration for them to maintain momentum, continually improve themselves and be innovative.

Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, is an internationally renowned researcher and authority on mindset. She describes the danger of our mindset becoming fixed by defining our value based on whether or not we’re smart or attractive (for example) as opposed to being a persistent and resourceful individual. We become focused on doing what we can to be perceived as smart or attractive. We do this to feel valued by our team and the people we respect. But this does not help us in being resourceful and applying effort to improve. It does not help us change our performance and our results.

Unfortunately, growth can be painful, uncomfortable and bruise our ego. We can often receive feedback that cuts us emotionally, however deep down we may know the advice is right and will lead to positive change. When individuals are closed to feedback, resistant to individual development and mentorship, this is a red alarm. This restricts the capacity for the individual and the team to grow and improve.

“If Jack had not become so emotional about the last sale falling through, he probably would still have closed the next opportunity and we would have made a budget.”

When outcomes are not great, the majority of the focus is on others’ lack of effort: “It wasn’t my fault.” Often there is little to no recognition of how that leader might have contributed to or even be responsible for the unfavorable result. Finding external excuses to explain why we haven’t achieved the desired result is a clear sign of a mindset lacking maturity, accountability and strength to admit fault and failure.

When we repeatedly dwell, as leaders, on unfavorable past events and results there are likely unprocessed emotions attached to those which need addressing. It can keep us stuck and prevent our team from moving forward even though our team is past the grieving.

When we resort to only using our own judgment to make decisions that affect our team and the course of our business, we could land ourselves in hot water. Personal opinions and assessing whether something is good, bad, right or wrong is a reflection of our own moral code. Judgments and decisions derived purely from our own individual belief systems are dangerous in leadership. There is little to no room for moral codes and emotional framing.

Critical evaluation gathers wider perspectives to determine whether or not an approach or result is not necessarily good or bad, but whether it is helpful or not. Judgment is more subjective. Critical evaluation is more objective.

Regardless of whether you have a leadership role or are a member of a team, having a strong leadership mindset as an individual is essential. As you think of your own leadership mindset, how did you fare?