What Your Mind-Set Says About Your Leadership Style

Are You Helping or Hurting Your Team?

A common theme that runs through our research for clients, as well as our own normative research, is the power and influence that good and bad leadership has on our feelings towards our jobs. We can work for a ‘great’ company but if our direct supervisor or manager treats us poorly, that can be reason enough to quit and we know that replacing employees is a costly and disruptive consequence.

This is why people in leadership roles must be aware of their impact on their team and take responsibility for how they interact. In a recent Fast Company article by Hans Hanson, he explores the idea that people are guided by one of two mind-sets that control their thinking, decisions and responses. The type of mind-set you have will determine how effective or harmful your, or your boss’s, leadership style is on you and the people on your team. Identify which mind-set describes you or your boss:

1. Fixed Mind-Set
- Believes basic intelligence and talent are fixed traits
- Spends their time validating their perceived level of intelligence and talent rather than developing it
- Believes talent alone creates success without effort
- Judges performance in terms of ability (this is an inner belief)
- Seeks easy achievement activities
- Finds excuses for under or poor performance
- Blames their situation on circumstances instead of looking at themselves

2. Growth Mind-Set
- Believes basic abilities are developed through dedication and hard work
- Sees their potential as unlimited
- Envisions their own success and takes ownership for achieving it
- Embraces the challenge of learning as a necessary component of success
- Recognizes that failures are part of the building process
- Creates a love of learning and resilience essential for great accomplishment
- Strengthens ability to endure hardship and challenges
- Allows for accepting responsibility, embracing challenge and adapting to change

As Hanson says, ‘Leaders emerge over a period of time as people who demonstrate effective communication and interaction skills; a persistent and diligent thought process; an engaging and genuinely caring interest in others; knowledge and awareness, creativity and passion; and, a vision for future success. These are the personal traits allowing a person to become influential. In its truest form, leadership can only be earned gradually, not assigned nor appointed.’

The goal should be to take responsibility for our own thought processes and our own mind-set and work towards developing consistent patterns for effective leadership. It’s fair to say that when it comes to our jobs and where we work, we all want to be empowered and empower those around us, and we want to be engaged not alienated.

Original article here:
http://www.fastcompany.com/3038925/what-does-your-mindset-say-about-your-leadership-style