Top 3 Successful Mind-Strategies Revealed | The Leadership Secrets Series

Whether or not you are a new leader, emerging leader, or even an experienced leader, these 3 mind or mindset-strategies will either give you a strong foundation for success or enhance and revitalize your leadership for greater success.

"The mystery surrounds what comes first, inner work or outer actions. It's like the chicken or the egg story. In reality, the world works in parallels - given how fast we all want to move and get great results at the same time."

Let's learn about these inner and outer strategies that work together for cohesive results.

1. Human Mind-Strategy 

This strategy works when you take a moment out of our super busy schedules and simply realize and make peace with the fact that you are a human dealing with other humans. This means:

• You have those Muscles but You are NOT a Superhuman: You have strengths and areas of development and so do others. None of you are superhumans. Explore yourself and re-explore yourself because things might look a little different then previous years. Unlearn a few things and learn something new about yourself and others. Be curious and aware of the strengths and development areas - not to judge but to create a platform of understanding ans supporting self and others. If you haven't done self-assessment yet or would like a refresher, then feel free to choose one or more of free self-assessments available here.

• Make Room for Vulnerability and Authenticity: Authenticity counts at the end of it all. As a leader, regardless of the role or title, you must have the courage to be mindfully vulnerable or simply become an Authentic Chameleon. At the same time, it is important to provide other's a sense of psychological safety, where they are able to be themselves and learn by making mistakes too. Transparency, respect for diversity and expertise, high trust and expectations are built on those grounds of authenticity. 

• Be Patient with Yourself and Others: If you are venturing out to apply any of these strategies, then be patient with yourself and others. Not everything reaches success overnight. Be consistent, be aligned and make adjustments - that's what matters. Allow your and others' minds to sink in.

2. Service Mind-Strategy

You can’t win in the marketplace unless you win first in the workplace.-Doug Conant

Leadership is all about people. No one is a leader, if their actions are not inspiring others in a positive direction. No followers means no leader and vice-versa. Both, leaders and followers are a part of the leadership package. No one wants to follow a leader who does not care about others. A service-mindset will enable every leader to build a constructive environment of shared leadership:

• Recognize, Acknowledge and Embrace the Diverse Interpersonal Needs: You and others have basic interpersonal needs that need attention. Those needs will be shared and demonstrated through different behaviors. Everyone's interpersonal needs are different. For example, you might have a high need for inclusion in different activities taking place in a team, while another person might have a low or medium need for getting included in different activities. Based on the contexts and situations, these needs need to be catered to and honored to the best of degrees. Other interpersonal needs may include influencing and getting influenced by others to operate well, or even having an open and more personalized environment to connect with each other.

• Share Your Power and Build a Community: One of the greatest ways to manage power bias is to share your power with others. It takes courage but is the best way to demonstrate inclusion, respect diversity at all levels, including expertise of others, high trust and shared leadership. As you share your power with others through trust, you will be providing a great service to them by allowing them to be who they are and providing an opportunity to perform optimally. Eventually, you will be building a community of leaders. 

3. Growth Mind-Strategy

"Growth is in the journey, not the final destination."

• Stop Chasing Perfection: Perfection is a myth and never ending pursuit of many leaders that feel exhausted in their endeavors for obvious reasons. Moreover, pushing down your perfection-rush on to others is even worse. Focus on the learning journey, growth and results. There are other ways to achieve things that you need to achieve that do not need a stamp of perfection. Breathe with an open mind. Remember point #1? No one is a superhuman.

• Coaching, not Telling:  Guide and support people towards growth and achieving results; do not tell them how to - embrace and trust the diversity. They are leaders too. Choose to coach instead through the power of questioning or inquiry. Coaching will make others more confident in navigating the complexities of their roles and leadership. It will make you feel more confident about the people that you work with. Encourage curiosity, listening and sharing, feedback, innovation and taking accountability. Find out how to use coaching as a powerful tool for growth.

• Think Ahead: Think about the possible challenges, outcomes, roadblocks and ways to navigate through them. Encourage everyone else to do the same and leverage the collective efficacy for some organic growth and results.

I encourage you to try out these mind-strategies and let the magic happen. Take micro-actions and integrate them as micro-habits for the bigger leaps in your leadership journey.

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Author:

Sahil Sharma
Talent, Learning & Leadership Development Professional | Certified Leadership Coach
CTDP | MBA

For consultation and services, contact us at www.ledxlearning.com