Forget The Skills, First Upgrade Your Mindset.
If you've been in healthcare (or any other business) for a while, you're constantly learning new things. New medications are out, new ways of documenting in the charts, new payment models, regulatory mandates, or new patient (or customer) expectations you need to adjust to. It is a constantly shifting and upgrading system and we are learning new skills along the way. This applies to the 'billable' work as well as to leadership.
Except, when we talk about learning new leadership skills, we usually think about things like: building multidisciplinary teams, giving feedback, negotiations, understanding mergers, etc. Skills are your tools, just like a mechanic has tools in a toolbag, but those skills are as useful as the mindset of the mechanic allows them to be. For example: if the mechanic is notoriously late for the job, or decides to skip steps to save time, or he doesn't protect his health on the job... his skills will only take him so far.
The same applies to leadership: if a leader knows what "clear communication" means, but if she "clearly communicates" a message while feeling angry because a result didn't match an expectation, the tone of her message will likely render her communication skill less effective. If the leader knows the value of multidisciplinary teams, but during the meetings he doesn't believe that it's safe to allow other people alter his decisions, the value of such a team diminishes. Most leaders I know are well versed on the theory of leadership, the intellectual stuff, but they can't tell me what their mindset is.
Mindset is the underlying driving force of all our decisions, goals and endeavors. Mindset stems from our beliefs, attitudes, thinking and feeling patterns that we have accumulated throughout our lives and which have helped us suceed up to this point. Yet, if we want to now step into a new chapter in our leadership, one where we want something fundamental to change, that change won't come from your skills, it will come from updgrading your mindset.
Mindset is the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves and the world around us. It helps us predict the future and keep us from trouble. Mindset is our autonomic nervous system (ANS) algorithm about what is safe, what we can handle and how to trust other people.
Because mindset is formed largely through the ANS part of our brain, it is mainly focused on our safety and survival. It is only when our sense of safety grows, then we allow ourselves to expand, upgrade and develop our mindset. Most of the time we allow this process to happen on its own, without our conscious effort or in a directed and structured way. And that is why most leaders reach a certain level of productivity, influence and satisfaction, and stall.
This has been me, painfully going through classes and trainings and courses, without any real difference in my results. Despite certifications and titles, I was the last person to be considered for even the smallest next leadership role. My frustration, resentment and sense of failure only grew every step. That was until I was accidentally thrown into a different kind of leadership development, focused entirely on healing my deeper wounds, re-writing the stories of pain when growing up and turning them into wisdom, love and safety within myself. This work was a process, it was not magical or accidental. It was me intentionally getting to know myself through the lens of my pain, my purpose and my strenghts, and re-telling my own stories to create the kind of leadership mindset that was powerful, open, abundant. While the journey always continues, there is no more resentment, sacrifice or disappointment, there are clear next steps with impact, and results that align with my purpose and gives me the deep sense of fulfillment.
When you upgrade your mindset, new possibilities and opportunities will appear out of nowhere, and then you can focus on the skills you need to capture those opportunities.
Takeaways:
You don't realize that everything you do goes through the filter of your mindset
If you're stalled in your results, you've taken courses and still no change, it is your mindset that's holding you back
To upgrade your mindset, you need to do a deeper personal development work that's not focused on changing your past, but on re-writing your nervous system algorithm with a new story in which you are a powerful creator
Next Steps You Can Take..
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