Mindset mastery for business leaders, but what does it mean.
You will have seen and heard of mindset mastery being bandied about on just about every social media platform. It’s become a bit of a buzzphrase. Along with many other fashionable terms such as ‘mindfulness’ and ‘wellbeing’ both of which in my opinion are just two of the positive by-products of mindset mastery. It can feel too out of reach for the business owner, amongst all the other seemingly more important pressures in everyday business, and becomes like white noise.
But I am here to shout out loud that it is NOT woo woo! Your mindset is your most valuable and powerful business asset. There is so much going on inside your head.
Mastery of your mind.
Imagine the magic of backing yourself 100% every day. Imagine having that business leader in your head and by your side every step you take. This is the mastery we seek.
A formal and concise definition of mastery continues to illude me. However, mastery to me is a learned skill that I would argue becomes an art form. And one which is only truly realised with practice! It’s not an academic thing, which then just hangs on the wall or sits gathering dust on a shelf. It’s all about the implementation. Do you remember when you first learned to ride a bike? You are perhaps a little wobbly and apprehensive about stopping at junctions. You rarely changed gear because it meant looking at the gears and thinking about which one to choose. It felt clunky and awkward and even a little scary. Then after practicing you progress to taking jumps or doing tricks…look no hands!
That is mastery and we can do it with our minds.
When you break down the term MINDSET you start to see many of the characteristics, values, and beliefs of what it takes to create a successful business leader and a natural leader in life.
Breaking down Mindset.
M – is for me. I heard an excerpt of a great speech which was given in 1960 by an American motivational speaker Bill Gove being given to a packed house of businessmen. Now the excerpt went like this.
“If I want to be free
I have to be me.
Not the ‘me’ I think, you think, I should be.
Not the ‘me’ I think, my wife thinks, I should be.
Not the ‘me’ I think, my kids think, I should be.
Not the ‘me’ I think, my colleagues, think I should be.
No.
If I want to be free.
I’ve got to be me. So, I had better know who ‘me’ is.
This is natural leadership. It is the beating heart of getting the best out of you, your business, your life, and your employees.
It’s where the effort becomes easy. Where, confidence and competence flow without resistance. And where your WHY resides alongside your values and beliefs.
What we carry about in our minds gets fully projected out into the world in front of us.
Jim Rohn once said, “work hard on your business and you will earn a living. Work hard on yourself you will make millions”.
Jim Rohn
Without you, you have no business.
I – inspirational, not motivational. Let me be clear of the difference. To be inspired or be inspiring is all about the long haul and will promote exponential growth.
It is the one that will see you through thick and thick. And is, to a business owner, what thermal uplift is to the migrating birds.
Motivation on the other hand is great, but I liken it to a sugar high or a kick from an energy drink! It’s all over in a flash.
If you are as old as me, you may remember the ‘choke’ on the car or the over-drive button. The choke gives you more fuel to start the cold engine and the over-drive for when you need the extra power and the short live thrill of the overtake!
Think about those who inspire you. Identify the qualities they have because they will be part of you. Like attracts like but it’s your job to recognise it.
Mastering your mindset is all about accountability. Being firmly in the driving seat. Which means being at the cause of your success and your learning, not at the effect of others.
I used a great quote in The Monthly Musings a month or so back which was “If you don’t run your day, someone else will”. Business leaders do not belong in the back seat, do they? Just check which seat you are in when you are feeling frustrated, or plans are not materialising. You only see the full picture if you’re in the front.
N – notable. This is often a bit of a stumbling block for business owners. New and the more experienced. You see waiting for someone to ‘hopefully’ notice your work, your great offer and performance is a dangerous game. Playing small is rarely a good strategy if your goal is big enough. It is noisy in the crowds of others trying to make their way to success. Be prepared to stand outside your comfort zone and be exposed. Being accepting of criticism, judgements and potential rejection for all the possible value it offers us. It’s all part of the course to success.
It’s not about being thick-skinned and it’s not about becoming ‘arrogant’ as was one of my client’s fears. In fact, when you do the work on yourself. I suggest you might go back and really read the Bill Gove speech again. It holds the key to you. Allowing yourself to be humble, transparent, vulnerable, and imperfect, gives you the most amazing sense of freedom. At the opposite end to arrogance and the overinflated sense of importance.
It is one of my most important values for The Guru Company. To remain grounded. It’s returning to the basics, to simplicity, the uncomplicated, and extraordinarily authentic.
“when we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same”
Marianne Williams
D – is all about the destination. As one of my Coaches said, ‘clarity over certainty. It’s how we maintain growth and momentum. There is something very attractive about being in the company of a person who knows where their heading. There’s an air of competence, confidence, and a calm collectedness in their approach to every day.
To go a little toward the woo woo again! There’s an energy around them that is easy to be in. When we talk of the Law of Attraction it is that magnetism, the ‘month round the lightbulb’ metaphor, or like the pull of gravity but it all comes from the mindset.
S – is for self. This is all about the personal development and investment you make in yourself to gain self-awareness. We could probably all pick out someone in our networks who you might recognise ‘lacks’ self-awareness at times. And it’s got to be said, is a much easy thing to recognise in others! Self-awareness is, however, part of the foundation of successful leadership.
When it comes to the multiple hats you wear as a business owner and a leader, understanding where your strengths lie and how you respond when you need help is a skill.
E – empowered. This is about being at cause in your life and not at the effect. When you accept full responsibility, no matter what, you retain the power of what happens next.
It’s often one of the toughest conversations to have with clients. But when you stop pointing the finger and saying, “if only they…” or “if the political ….” You change your questions, and you alter your approach.
Take the example of needing to increase revenue. To increase something requires us to do something extra. So, stepping up and changing gear is being at cause of increasing revenue.
Continuing to do what you’ve always done, and customers flow doesn’t change, Service doesn’t change, how are you expecting revenue to increase? This is being at effect. “The customers didn’t come”, “No one wants my service”. Listen we have all been there, hit the bumps in the road and it would be a lie if I said I didn’t fall into the blame game trap every now and again!
T – thought leadership. Willingness to share opinions even if you are in the minority. It’s about being willing to disrupt the status quo in the advancement of understanding. It’s about having an awareness of the ecology of our fields to influence and create new opportunities. Researchers are doing this every day, the entrepreneurs, the inventors in their garden sheds. These are our Isaac Newton’s, the Einstein’s, the Nelson Mandela’s, and the Gandhi’s of our tomorrow.
A great thought leader seeks to open discussions, finding unique perspectives to share.
Think about your service, your products, your ‘underpinning WHY. In there you must seek your thought leadership angle as it will be what elevates you from the madding crowds.
When you discover your thought leadership, be consistent in how you communicate it, so your customers can hear your voice and it is recognisably you.
“Creating knowledge without sharing it, is elitism. Sharing knowledge without creating it, is marketing. Creating knowledge for the purpose of sharing it is thought leadership”
Adam Grant (Author Dec 28 2019)
I would like to leave you with the following…your mindset is so much more than just a Noun, it is very much a Verb. It is all about the action and the attitude. By breaking it down I invite you to begin to master yours in bite-size elements.