Grow Your Career and Leadership Success by Getting Outside of Yourself Utilizing This Mindset

Seeing people as people rather than as objects enables better thinking because such thinking is done in response to the truth: others really are people and not objects. —The Arbinger Institute

Many engineers and professionals I talk to care a lot about the impact they make through their work. Will their work make lives better? Does the company they work for promote social values they believe in? What is the overall societal impact of the work?

This is great! It's fabulous to desire impact beyond the paycheck and to work on something that provides meaning in our lives.

Are you Looking Beyond the Mark?

Sometimes, however, we may be looking beyond the mark in regards to the impact we make. Does it really have to be just about the products and services we work on? What about the small impacts we make on those we work with, live with, and interact with on a daily basis?

And what if we could actually change the world just by changing our own mindset?

I believe we can, if we embrace an Outward Mindset, as taught by the Arbinger Institute .?

Inward vs. Outward Mindset

The Outward Mindset invites us to truly see people in our lives as people. When we do this, we treat them differently (usually much better). We care more about learning about others' challenges, hopes, fears, and dreams. We are no longer only focused on our own cares and desires. We spend more time focusing on the team's success, which encourages us to take actions that help others be successful.

The opposite of an Outward Mindset is having an Inward Mindset. When we have an Inward Mindset, we tend to be self-focused and view others as objects, which can include seeing them as obstacles in our way or just a means to accomplish our own objectives. We may use others to achieve our goals, or we may not help others even if we feel we should, because we don't believe they are worthy or we don't see them as people who matter.

One metaphor used by Arbinger to characterize the Inward Mindset is being "in the box" where we are only concerned with ourselves and cannot see others outside. It's all about us.

The Power of Shifting Mindsets

Think about what would happen if even just a few of us shifted to being more Outward most of the time. The good news is, an Outward Mindset in ourselves invites an Outward Mindset in other people. It spreads, and the ripple effect is vast.

It can be a great thing to think about products we work on that can impact thousands or even millions of people. Yet perhaps the greatest impact you make will be in the lives of the people closest to you that you are able to connect with in new ways simply because you shift how you see them.

Take Intentional Action

Wondering if you and your organization are primarily more Inward or Outward? It’s a good thing to know! Luckily, Arbinger has created a free mindset assessment tool so you can get an idea of where you stand now, and get some insights on where you can improve!

Go here to take it: https://arbingerinstitute.com/MindsetWeb.html

Once you take the assessment, don’t stop there. Choose one thing you can do to be more Outward today!

Accelerate Your Progress

This article is an adapted excerpt from my new book, The Intentional Engineer . It was written just for intentional engineers like you. Go grab your own copy today at: https://amzn.to/3u6bJF2