“All of these people had character. None of them thought they were special, born with the right to win. They were people who worked hard, who learned to keep their focus under pressure, and who stretched beyond their ordinary abilities when they had to.”
– Dr. Carol S. Dweck in her book “Mindset; The New Psychology of Success” at the end of a section on champions who won without playing their best
Last week’s series on The Heston Group leadership model began with “R,” recruiting and retaining the best talent we can possibly afford…
I believe that’s key. But there is one thing that trumps talent.
Mindset. And it should over-rule pure talent when we’re selecting / de-selecting our team members.
Mindset is what puts us in a position to win even when we don’t have our best stuff. That’s why I’ll take a talented person with a growth mindset over an amazingly talented person with a fixed mindset every time. As for the REELAX model, that’s why the Environment and Expectations are so important — talent is a great place to start, but it’s just a start. In other words, selecting for culture is at least as important as drafting the star player, lest we risk throwing off the balance of the team.
Market application matters, so if you’ll forgive me a slightly-longer-than-usual post today, let’s look at the mindset / talent selection matter from the market’s perspective.
Everywhere we look we find “shrinking markets,” right? With the exception of IT / IT Services, one need not look far to see contraction, if we believe the media and / or our simplistic view of those markets.
Retail is shrinking, right? Banking is shrinking, right? Telcom, commercial real estate, legal services — all downsizing and pulling back, right?
That’s the fixed mindset view.
Let’s just look at the first two examples. Retail isn’t shrinking. Amazon just reinvented the way we purchase consumer goods. Banking? Even with one fewer bank (and credit union) this morning than there was Friday, the number of people consuming banking-like services is not going down. Fintechs and disruptors like Apple, Sofi, Starbucks, Square and Venmo are simply affecting the way the services get consumed, and the business models of those that provide those services. Bankers and provider beware, by the way, it’s coming to commercial lending, too.
The question we have to answer today is simple: Is the market shrinking or is it just our mindset? And when we choose who we’re going to add to or keep on our teams — we need to get this in crystal-clear perspective.
Dad always said, “If you keep doin’ what you’re doin’ you’re gonna get more of what you’ve got.” These days, what “we’ve got” may be obsolete, or, at the very least, subject to attack from competitors or just from the status quo. If we’re going to win in these times, we’d better be willing to grow our mindsets. (Buy and read the book. You’ll be glad you did…)
Times of great challenge and great change call for ideas – because ideas are the currency of difference makers. And ideas sprout best from a growth mindset.
Instead of “Woe is me,” let’s strive for, “WHOA! It’s me!”
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