Breaking Barriers
How Overcoming Limiting Beliefs Can Transform You and Your Team
What could we achieve if we realized our full human potential?
Many experts believe that most people operate far below their full potential due to psychological, social, and environmental factors, namely: (1) Limiting Beliefs, (2) Comfort zones, (3) Lack of motivation or goals, and (4) Environmental constraints. Today, we are going to tackle Limiting Beliefs.
Two weeks ago I wrote a post about Limiting Beliefs and how to overcome them. Here, we are going to expand on the topic by covering: (1) What limiting beliefs are, (2) How they are relevant in sales management, (3) Strategies to overcome them both personally and professionally, and (4) How to distinguish between a true barrier and a limiting belief.
I hope you enjoy this expanded post. I always appreciate your feedback.
Part 1:? What are Limiting Beliefs?
Limiting beliefs are assumptions or convictions that a person holds to be true about themselves, others, or the world, which limit their ability to achieve goals or take action. These beliefs are often subconscious and can stem from various sources such as past experiences, societal norms, cultural background, or personal insecurities. They can manifest in many forms, such as thinking you're not capable, worthy, or deserving of success, happiness, or love.
Some common examples of personal limiting beliefs include:
These beliefs act as mental barriers, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy by influencing behavior and decisions in a way that reinforces the original belief. Overcoming limiting beliefs typically involves identifying and challenging these thoughts, often through techniques such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness, or personal development practices.
Part 2: How are Limiting Beliefs Relevant in Sales Management?
Just like in one’s personal life, limiting beliefs can have a significant negative impact on a business, particularly within a sales management team in a technology organization. Here’s how they can manifest and influence outcomes in this context:
Impact on Sales Performance
Self-Doubt in Reaching Targets: Sales managers or team members might believe they cannot meet certain targets because they perceive the goals as too ambitious. For example, "Our product is too niche, and the market is too saturated to hit these numbers." This belief can lead to a lack of effort, reduced motivation, and ultimately missed targets.
Fear of Rejection: A common limiting belief in sales is the fear of rejection or failure, such as "Prospects won't be interested in our product." This can cause sales reps to avoid high-potential but challenging leads, leading to a loss of opportunities.
Inhibiting Innovation and Adaptation
Resistance to New Technologies: In a technology organization, embracing new tools, platforms, or sales methodologies is crucial. A limiting belief like "Our team won’t be able to learn this new CRM system" can slow down the adoption of innovative solutions, reducing efficiency and competitiveness.
Stagnation in Strategies: Beliefs like "We've always done it this way, and it works" can prevent the team from exploring new strategies or approaches that could lead to better results, especially in a rapidly changing tech environment.
Leadership and Team Dynamics
Micromanagement Due to Lack of Trust: A sales manager might hold the belief, "If I don't oversee every step, my team won't succeed," leading to micromanagement. This can stifle creativity and autonomy, demoralizing the team and reducing overall productivity.
Limiting Team Potential: Managers might unconsciously project their own limiting beliefs onto their team, such as "This team isn’t ready to handle enterprise-level clients." This could result in fewer opportunities for team members to grow and prove themselves, limiting career development and business growth.
Customer Relationship Management
Assumptions About Customers' Needs: Sales teams might believe "Our customers won't be interested in additional services or upsells," leading to missed opportunities for cross-selling or upselling. This limits revenue potential and can reduce customer satisfaction if their evolving needs aren’t being met.
Prejudgments on Pricing: Limiting beliefs around pricing, like "Our product is too expensive, customers won’t pay this much," can lead to unnecessary discounts or hesitation in offering premium packages, affecting profitability.
Adapting to Market Changes
Market Perception: Beliefs like "We can't compete with bigger players in the market" can discourage a team from pursuing larger clients or entering new markets. This can prevent the business from scaling and capturing new opportunities.
Technological Disruption: In a tech organization, the fear that "We can’t keep up with the rapid changes in technology" can result in reluctance to invest in R&D or adopt cutting-edge solutions, leading to obsolescence.
Motivation and Morale
Barrier to Motivation: If team members believe that success is unattainable, their motivation to push through challenges diminishes. For example, if they think, "It's impossible to hit our targets in this economic climate," they may not put in the necessary effort, resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Impact on Team Culture: A culture where limiting beliefs are prevalent can lead to a negative atmosphere, where employees feel stuck or powerless. This can affect not just individual performance but the overall energy and morale of the team.
Keys to Overcoming Limiting Beliefs at a Corporate Level
Awareness and Identification: Encourage open discussions about beliefs and attitudes within the team. Regularly assess whether these are grounded in reality or if they might be limiting performance.
Training and Development: Provide training to help the team develop a growth mindset. This can include workshops on resilience, adaptability, and embracing change, as well as specific skills like negotiation and closing techniques.
Leadership Example: Sales leaders should model behavior that challenges limiting beliefs, such as setting ambitious goals, celebrating risks and failures as learning opportunities, and encouraging innovation.
Data-Driven Decisions: Use data and analytics to challenge assumptions. For example, track customer feedback, sales conversion rates, and market trends to provide evidence that counters limiting beliefs.
Mentorship and Coaching: Provide access to mentors or coaches who can help individuals and the team as a whole recognize and overcome limiting beliefs, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
By addressing and overcoming limiting beliefs, a sales management team in a technology organization can unlock greater potential, adapt more readily to market changes, and achieve higher levels of performance and innovation.
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't—you're right. -- Henry Ford
Part 3: How to Overcome Limiting Beliefs at a Personal Level?
Jess and Corey on their Financial Independence blog at TheFioneers.com offer us these 6 strategies to help overcome our own self-limiting beliefs.
Flip the Script
Say the opposite of your limiting belief and see if it feels believable; if it does, great! You’ve just proven to yourself that you cannot only identify potential self-limiting beliefs, but you can also challenge them even before seeking outside assistance!
Look for Evidence
Objectively, consider what evidence exists that this belief is or is not true; this is often easier said than done, especially if you are in a negative mindset in the moment! That is, your saboteur, that inner critic, is blinding you from all other possibilities.?
Ask Questions
Get curious. Invite your inner critic in. Ask yourself the following series of questions; take the time and space in a quiet moment to consider…
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Articulate a New Belief
Write yourself a new, more empowering belief about yourself or your world even if you don’t yet really believe it to be true. If you have trouble coming up with a new, more positive belief, use your community in step #6 below (Build Community) to help you.
Test the New Belief
For some, this may be considered an advanced-level step…? act as if your new self-empowering belief is true; consider in what ways this new belief is empowering; by focusing on the positive aspects of this new belief you will slowly build evidence and confidence to challenge and eliminate the old self-limiting belief!
If after giving it a good try, you are still struggling with your newly articulated belief, go back to the previous step and try formulating another belief and test it. We humans are complicated and every situation is different. We need to consistently stay in a growth mindset, learn from perceived "failures" and be willing to try again. I can just picture the flow chart on this one!
Build Community
You don’t have to go it alone! For those limiting beliefs that are strong and well-established, it may be difficult to see the other side. Find a supportive community; facilitate a discussion about limiting beliefs; ask others to share their experiences
Alternatively, build your own supportive community; look around you….who do you know who is open-minded, on a similar journey of self-discovery, willing to challenge the norm, who is empathetic, or just a good listener? It could be one or two trusted friends who always have your back.
As you can see, whether we are challenging our limiting beliefs on a personal level or at a team level within an organization, the two paths have many correlations. By challenging the assumptions behind our limiting beliefs, we can begin to disassemble them, build new more positive, and balanced beliefs, and ultimately empower ourselves to greater confidence, and agency in our lives.
Part 4: How to Distinguish between a Limiting Belief and a True Barrier?
Distinguishing between a limiting belief and a true barrier involves a combination of self-reflection, objective assessment, and sometimes external feedback. Here are some steps to help differentiate the two:
Self-Reflection and Awareness
Examine the Origin: Consider where the belief comes from. Is it based on a past experience, societal influence, or personal insecurity?
Analyze Your Emotions: Notice how the belief makes you feel. Limiting beliefs often evoke feelings of fear, inadequacy, or anxiety.
Objective Assessment
Gather Evidence: Look for factual evidence that supports or contradicts the belief. For example, if you think "I'm not good at public speaking," assess past experiences objectively. Have there been times when you spoke well?
Test the Belief: Challenge the belief through experiments or small actions. If you believe "I can't run a mile," try starting with a short run and gradually increasing the distance.
Seek External Feedback
Ask for Opinions: Talk to trusted friends, mentors, or colleagues about your beliefs. They can provide an outside perspective and may see strengths or capabilities you overlook.
Professional Insight: Consider working with a coach, therapist, or counselor who can help identify whether the belief is limiting or based on a true barrier.
Consider the Consequences
Impact on Goals: Reflect on how the belief affects your goals and aspirations. A limiting belief often prevents you from even attempting to achieve something, while a true barrier is a tangible obstacle you need to navigate or overcome.
Behavioral Patterns: Notice if the belief consistently holds you back in various areas of your life. Limiting beliefs tend to be pervasive and affect multiple domains, whereas true barriers are usually specific to certain situations.
Identify Solutions and Alternatives
Problem-Solving: For true barriers, you can often identify clear steps or solutions to overcome them. Limiting beliefs, on the other hand, may require changing your mindset or perspective rather than concrete actions.
Resource Availability: Determine if there are resources or support systems available to help overcome the barrier. If it’s a true barrier, there may be practical ways to address it (e.g., training, tools, support networks).
Here are a couple of examples:
Limiting Belief: "I can never be a leader because I'm too shy."
True Barrier: "I cannot become a commercial pilot because I have a medical condition that disqualifies me."
By systematically evaluating your beliefs and barriers through these steps, you can more accurately distinguish between limiting beliefs and true barriers, enabling you to address them effectively and move forward in your personal and professional life.
Conclusion
Limiting beliefs often hold us back from achieving our full potential. We all have them. But if we are mindful to identify them, and challenge them we can put them in their place and empower ourselves to move forward with more healthy, balanced belief systems. I hope you now have a better understanding of what limiting beliefs are, how they can hold us back, and how to identify them, challenge them, and create new, more healthy, self-powering beliefs. As always, I welcome your feedback, comments, and questions on this or any topic.
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