Your mindset amplifies your leadership

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Have you ever considered whether your mind is set or whether you have a defined mindset? The answer to that question determines how?personal your leadership ?is and the?leadership experience ?you provide.

Take a moment to think about that. No really, stop and think about that. Is your mind set, or do you have a defined mindset? Your success as a leader, of yourself, your team, your organisation, is determined by whether you have made a proactive choice or have had your current mindset thrust upon you.

Do you, allow yourself or others, to blindly walk into their beliefs, or do you insist they choose them? Great leaders constantly opine the need to choose, examine, determine, what you believe or what you do.?

Your mindset, like your leadership is personal.?Or at least it should be!

A mind that is set struggles to learn and grow, a defined mindset is capable of inspiring, empowering and succeeding. When we ponder this fact, it naturally leads us to consider what mindset we choose to define for ourselves.?

The?Cambridge Business Dictionary ?defines mindset as ‘a person’s way of thinking and their opinions’. There are multiple ways to categorise mindset, especially if you include your belief systems (for example an abundance or positive mindset). My passion for real leadership to be demonstrated, springs from my belief that anyone can change the world around them by utilising Maverick Leadership principles. The right mindset is essential to ensuring that you can thrive in a complex, constantly changing world with integrity, empathy, and passion.?

Effective leaders understand that their mindset amplifies their leadership and naturally incorporate?Corbin Lang ’s?‘4 types of learning mindsets’:

·???????The Growth Mindset - ‘With hard work and effort, I can get smarter’.

·???????The Self-Efficacy Mindset – ‘I can succeed’.

·???????Sense of Belonging – ‘I belong in this community’.

·???????Relevance – ‘This work has purpose for me’.

Successful leaders also utilise a Maverick (wilfully independent) mindset, a pathological curiosity, and a search for objective truth at all times.?

The Maverick Mindset

“Manipulators rarely advise you to seek new and diverse information or to learn and research for yourself, it tends to be safer for exploitative and irresponsible leaders to keep their citizens in the dark; in their view, less independent thought is the better. Independent thought leads to an inquiring mind, a mindset that eventually leads to the questioning of authority figures, and that is the one thing that inadequate leaders do not want” – Teresa Stover

This is the quote I use to introduce the Maverick Mindset chapter of my book?The Maverick Paradox: The Secret Power Behind Successful Leaders. Effective Maverick Leaders will pathologically search for the objective truth and then they will see how that truth is filtered through relative truth. For example, they will ask themselves, ‘what is the objective truth of this situation?’, and the relative truth here is ‘John believes the opposite because he only knows half the picture’.?

This ability to detach (whilst acknowledging) their own relative truth, when analysing the situation, is an important part of their mindset. The knowledge that seeing things only through their own relative truth, clouds objective truth, making the right solution much harder to attain; is something that they respect and recognise. It is also knowledge that empowers.

There are 6 main aspects of the Maverick Mindset, the most essential being the mantra?I describe in my book, believe nothing test everything.?This mantra does not mean maintaining a suspicious mind and reducing your ability to trust.?

It’s the exact opposite.?

It is recognition that Maverick Leaders must remain open to new ideas and possibilities for as long as possible. It’s a reminder to constantly be open to different perspectives, even as you narrow down to the one solution.

It’s also an aide-memoire to return to first principles. If someone asserts that ‘x’ is the problem – believe nothing, test everything. Challenge that assumption, so you can be sure, that ‘x’ is indeed the problem. Ask questions, make sure you are trying to solve the actual problem and not just the symptom. Don’t take anything for granted.

The importance of character

Great leaders recognise that their character and those that they associate with, is important. It’s a reflection on their leadership and what they value. Reputation is the interplay of congruence, integrity, and capability. Leadership is personal and reputation determines how easy you will find your ability to lead.?

Extreme problem solving

Effective Maverick Leaders look for the flaw in the argument and are not upset if they can’t find any! This is because seeking flaws is a diagnostic process not an ego enhancing one! To problem solve is innate for the Maverick Leader and they excel at it, using the opportunity to provide themselves with a mental challenge as well as an opportunity to help others. Having an open and inclusive mindset is the key to good leadership.

Mavericks believe in the brutal truth, whatever the cost

This is not a call out for hurtful behaviour! This is a reminder that Maverick Leaders are more concerned with the truth and not other people’s opinions of them. It will be the Maverick Leader who proclaims that the emperor is naked (or your pet project will not work), and their mindset of reducing cognitive dissonance by standing for what they believe in (the truth) is a trait that should be encouraged within all organisations.

Leadership is personal and people align with someone’s personal truth if that truth is aligned to the greater good principle.

Indiscriminate challenge of all things

The most dominate role that a Maverick will assume in a group or team is Devil’s Advocate and looking for flaws is a primary diagnostic tool for them. It isn’t necessarily a challenge of authority, more a way to ensure that all possible solutions or problems have been appropriately surfaced, so that real, sustainable change can occur.

Despite appearances, for the Maverick this is an intellectual pursuit and not an emotional one. When a Maverick Leader is playing Devil’s Advocate, they have yet to reach their own conclusion, they are testing possibilities and how attached you are to them. It’s an important test of the data that they have been presented with. They are looking for the best solution to the problem and are not interested in the status quo or what has happened before (unless they have tested the current method and are satisfied that it is still fit for purpose).

A test of credibility and integrity

Challenge is an excellent way of testing someone’s credibility and integrity. Maverick Leaders will make an assessment on an individual’s level of integrity before they decide whether it is in their best interests to align or work closely with them. By challenging the individual, whether this challenge is overt or covert, enables the Maverick Leader to better understand whether the individual can be trusted or is indeed trustworthy.

Maverick Leaders are not only interested in testing the individual, they are also testing for flaws in an argument/discussion or idea/process. They will never assume that something is fit for purpose nor that the correct process is already installed, without checking first.

Excellent problem solvers, Maverick Leaders often see problems as broken processes requiring a solution. When problem solving, Maverick Leaders ask for data in sequential order, challenging and testing every link in the process. By doing this they often see things that others overlooked or become aware of where the solution can be sought.

Let me enquire again … Have you ever considered whether your mind is set or whether you have a defined mindset? The answer to that question determines how well you lead and whether you will succeed in your endeavours.

It can be easy to forget the important role your mindset has on your ability to lead, even though the people you lead are very aware of the impact of your mindset on them and your endeavours.

Avoid sleep walking into someone else’s mindset, the one that they have chosen for you. Choosing to have a Maverick Mindset might be the very thing you need to amplify your leadership.

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You can also:

# contact me to enable Maverick Leadership?for yourself or your organisation

#?subscribe and listen ?to my podcast The Maverick Paradox Podcast?

# read my book, The Maverick Paradox: The Secret Power Behind Successful Leaders

# browse my magazine:?The Maverick Paradox Magazine

# check out my website:?maverickparadox.co.uk

Judith Germain ?is the founder and principal consultant of?The Maverick Paradox, ?a leadership consultancy that utilises Maverick Leadership principles to enable business owners, leaders, the C-Suite, and organisations, thrive in complex, constantly changing environments by improving their diversity of thought, impact, influence and leadership capability.?

She is the leading authority on Maverick Leadership, an author, C-Suite and CEO Mentor, consultant, trainer, and speaker. Judith is a Brainz 500 Global honouree, recognised as one of 500 Companies and Influential Leaders who are recognised for their entrepreneurial success, achievements, and dedication to helping others.

Full bio and how to work with Judith at?maverickparadox.co.uk