Mindset or Neuroplastic? Make Your Mind Up Picture

Mindset or Neuroplastic? Make Your Mind Up

by with No Comment Business

Lots of focus on Mindset these days – and plenty on Neuroplasticity too. But which is it? You can’t have both.

‘Mindset’ is an oxymoron. A healthy mind is intrinsically plastic – it gets impressed by sensory input. It retains impressions as memory and is always open to new ones. It can create new forms in the imagination.

Unhealthy minds get set – sclerotic even – in which the same perspectives, beliefs, opinions, ideas and thoughts persist. The mind becomes closed to new impressions and instead fixates on what it believes to be true.

This is the mechanism behind all unpleasant feeling, casual and clinical.

The changing of one mindset to another in the pursuit of personal wellbeing is a long road. However sophisticated, enlightened and modern the mindset is, it is still a set mind, defying and denying the very nature of what our minds are and inexorably eroding our health.

Going beyond mindset is the simplest and most effective route to wellbeing.

So how do we do it?

It all boils down to what we pay attention to. We can continue to entertain the tired old thoughts which generate the all too familiar negative feelings, possibly replacing them with ‘better’ ones. Or we can lift ourselves out of the quagmire of repetitive thinking and know that we are neither our thoughts, nor their attendant feelings.

The latter requires vigilance and a determination to be the architect of our experience, not its victim. It compels us to live consciously in the emergent moment, open to impressions and free from the constant assessment, comparisons and judgements that beset us.

This is not an intellectual pursuit, quite the opposite. But it is intelligent and it leads to a freedom which is enlivening, empowering and intrinsically healthy.

And if you were wondering what it all has to do with leadership… it is leadership.

Toxic People and Environments Picture

Toxic People and Environments

by with No Comment Business

There has been a lot of discussion about toxicity recently. Historically reserved for dangerous substances, the adjective is now used to describe cultures, environments and people.

Like many abstractions and metaphors, the focus has shifted from the physical to the psychological; a repeating pattern in the last few decades.

So, just as Hydrogen Cyanide – a well-known chemical toxin – can threaten the wellbeing of anyone inhaling it in sufficient quantity, so too can a toxic person or team compromise the mental health of anyone exposed to them for long enough. At least, that is the theory…

Having worked in and on teams that have exhibited behaviour that could certainly be described as toxic, I’m aware that the comparison with lethal substances is limited.

Firstly, what is experienced as toxic by one person, may not be by another. For example, what one person calls banter, another might call bullying. In contrast, as far as I am aware, HCN is a danger to all humans.

Secondly, psychological toxicity is only ever experienced in terms of a relationship with one or more people. Relationships are always reciprocal – in other words, one’s own behaviour will impact, to a greater or lesser degree, the toxic nature of that relationship. Chemical toxins do not allow you such discretion.

At this point I need to emphasise that toxic behaviour, individuals, cultures and teams are all, unequivocally, unacceptable, in any shape, form or context. There is never justification for contributing to any sense of belittlement, worthlessness, shame or fear.

On that note, it is imperative, as many advocate, that we do all in our power to eradicate this kind of behaviour.

But, however necessary this may be, it will never be sufficient in isolation.

Not only do we need to address the perpetrators of all unacceptable behaviour, we also need to empower their ‘targets’ with the resilience to transform, or at least mitigate, the potential impact of toxic behaviour.

Any imbalance in this two-pronged approach will result in either withholding the possibility of developing resilience on the one hand, or ‘victim-blaming’ on the other. Both extremes will result in unsustainable solutions.

Psychological Safety is not just a feature of an environment, it can be something we carry with us wherever we are. Empowering people to do this is simply a process of developing self-awareness and understanding the inner dynamics behind our thinking, feeling and perception. Seeing our inner world with clarity allows us to see that of others.

This is not a process of education or training – which can be forgotten – it’s a process of development and insight. Once seen, you cannot unsee it.

So let’s not just create psychologically safe spaces, let’s create psychologically safe people too.

Businesswoman explaining to colleagues during board meeting

The Secret of Leadership Development

by with No Comment Business

Over the past few years HBR, Inc and McKinsey have all published articles on why leadership development frequently fails to deliver on its promises.
All three make a strong case against orthodox leadership development but fail to provide a clear, coherent answer to the question: How do we develop leaders?
All promote a focus on leaders’ current work challenges rather than scripted material and case studies. That makes sense and is the basis of coaching. It’s absolutely necessary, but far from sufficient.
So what’s missing that causes conventional leadership development to fail? What’s the secret?
Like any other activity, leadership has a very visible outer dimension which is generally distilled down to a series of outcomes and indicators of success: share price, profit, turnover etc. etc.
But that outer dimension cannot come into existence and fruition without a corresponding inner dimension. This is the inner world of thought, feeling and perception. In other words, everything begins with an idea, desire or vision. This is the secret.
The inner dynamics are causal, the outer phenomena are results, effects, outcomes.
So on this basis alone, answering the question: in which dimension will leadership development and intervention have most impact, becomes a no-brainer. It must begin with a focus on the leader’s inner dynamics of thinking and feeling.
This is where the action is and where the levers of change lie.
Leadership development has to begin with an ever deepening self-awareness and familiarity with our innermost faculties. In contrast to mainstream approaches, this has nothing to do with personality testing or knowing your strengths and weaknesses. It does not require any familiarity with neuroscience or fixing of mindsets. Rather, it develops a clarity of mind that enables the individual to observe their inner dynamics as they play out. This facilitates a degree of choice in behaviour which is simply not available through any other avenue.
Once leaders start to look inwards, the game changes through a realisation that much of what appears to be ‘out there’ is, in reality, a shadowy projection of what is ‘in here’. The focus shifts to the inner world which is infinitely easier to change than the circumstances you find yourself in. But only once you know how.
The immediate benefits of this Inside Out approach are twofold:
Clarity of thought
Emotional balance
These quickly enable you to:
clarify and communicate your vision to your followers
establish the culture you want for your people
delegate in the fullest sense of the word
meet the inevitable challenges you will encounter with resilience
Both the right material and 1-on-1 coaching are needed to provide the kind of leadership development that only a radical, inner shift of perspective and focus can deliver.