There’s something glamorous about a cocktail bar. The different sizes and shapes of the bottles, their colourful branding, and the lure of their contents call seductively to choose me, choose me. So many choices with each bringing a different outcome.
Much like leadership. Every day we are presented with decisions that only we can make. Decisions that have catalytic power to change our business, our teams and ourselves. Most of these decisions, we make unconsciously based on our values, conditioning, and past leadership experiences. We tend to do what we’ve always done but we can never create new, more rewarding results if we don’t adopt a new perspective. That’s why it’s critical that as leaders we do the personal development work and shift our perspective to one that supports us in making conscious choices.
There are three basic tenants to making this shift of perspective.
- What is your self-identity? Most people rarely contemplate who they are, why they’re here and what is their purpose? And for those who do, many times they come up short on the answers. As leaders, we must have a clear vision of our self-identity because until we become self-aware, we will never be able to identify with or be aware of others. Without self-awareness, we make unconscious choices from a fixed mindset, learning only from our mistakes, if at all.
- What is your world-view? If you perceive the world as a hostile place, you will make fear-based, unrewarding decisions. You’ll spend your time in conflict management, struggling to find resolution with yourself or your team. Until you see the world as a friendly place with the resources you need to excel at your role, your choices will be limited.
- The third aspect to adopting a new perspective is mastering our mindset. A willingness to think and thank outside the box is essential. Going beyond a growth mindset and applying the latest research on how to rewire and fire the neural pathways in our brain means we become more capable of making of conscious choices.
Don’t wait for the next important decision to come along. Do the personal work now. Shift your perspective so when choices present themselves, you won’t procrastinate, you’ll accelerate.
