Happy Sunday Everyone:
I just came back from my 26th “Summit” for my coaching program, CORE. I had the opportunity to teach a class on mindset. Normally any classes taught are very tactical. How to run a better P & L, team structure, hiring etc. Teaching on mindset is not the normal type of topic for our group and not something we teach. Anything we do coach on should be tactical in outcome. In the end, the class went better than I could have hoped for so wanted to share the formula as I know it will help me moving forward.
We (Monica/coach/partner in the class), started with the reality of today. The thought that it’s a lot easier to be better in all facets of life when the wind is at your back. Job wise, the wind has been gusting at our backs since March of 2020 until spring of 2022. Our business whipsawed. Highs to lows in a very short period of time. It’s okay, it happens, but what do we do with it. I brought up the concept of a fixed vs. growth mindset (Great book by Carol Dweck).
General principal is fixed mindset is you’re stuck with what you have i.e., you’re smart or you’re not. Growth mindset is learning from failures. She’s a PHD from Stanford, there is a lot more too it but in general here are a few examples:
Challenges-fixed mindset avoids challenges, Growth mindset embraces them.
Obstacles-Fixed gives up easily, growth persists in the face of setbacks.
Effort-Fixed sees effort as fruitless, growth sees effort as the path to mastery.
Criticism-fixed ignores useful negative feedback. Growth learns from the criticism.
success of others-fixed feels threatened by the success of others, growth finds lessons and inspiration from the success of others.
Trying to get people in the right head space, I asked the class to write down 8 questions. Here were the questions we came up with, adding just a few extra comments for “why”.
Are you lifting people up or sabotaging their joy? How are we communicating with people daily, misery loves company, don’t do that.
Are you acting like a buffalo or a cow? Do you have a plan? Cow freezes in a storm running away from it, a buffalo heads into the storm and on the other side faster.
Does your team believe that you’re the person to go into battle with? Are you worthy of being followed?
Is your team the team you want to go into battle with? down markets are a great time to make sure you have A players on your bus.
how much do you worry about things that are 100% out of your control? There is no purpose in doing this.
how much time to you focus on items that are 100% inside of your control? This is where we need to focus all of our time.
How much time are you spending with the right people? Favorite quote from Jim Rohm-“you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with”. Monica was speaking at her dad’s funeral last Friday and teaching with me the next. Hanging around strong souls helps stay strong.
What are you doing to invest in yourself right now? What does that look like. morning routine, books, coaching etc…
We then went more tactical to ask 5 questions around 3 areas of our lives:
Those 5 questions were:
What is working?
what is not working?
what do I need to add?
what do i need to subtract?
What do I need to learn?
The 3 areas of our lives were, Self, our team, our business partners/clients.
I’ll give you an example of team for me:
What is working-Daily team meetings and continuing to invest in the team on a personal level, book reports, budgets. It’s easy to stop doing these things when it’s not all good news.
What is not working-4-day work week. we tried to do this to save a position, but we need to take it to a 6-hour day vs. an entire day off because it’s too disruptive. This i short term.
What do I need to add-pivot positions. When it’s slow, every project we wanted to get done when we were too busy needs to get done now.
What do I need to subtract-all overtime which we’ve done.
What do I need to learn-spend more time in the P & L to adjust for breakeven number with various price points/loan amounts. This will help with forecasting for 2023.
The class was 90 minutes so trying to wrap it up in few words is harder. Overall thought on mindset is you have to have a big picture appreciation of where your head is by asking those 8 questions. I do believe all the tactics in the world don’t matter if you don’t have an appreciation/thought for the “why” you’re doing them. Once you have the right headspace, asking those 5 questions around those three areas of your life is a quick way to make sure you’re moving in the right direction- like a buffalo would.