Effective leaders keep open mindsets 

This month, I am doing a series of life lessons that came through for me as I attended the Maxwell International Leadership Conference in Florida, Orlando, in USA in March.
In this final post, I use the word mindset to mean an established set of attitudes. In his book Today Matters, John Maxwell has a whole chapter on the topic of attitude. He reminds us of the importance of maintaining a good attitude and observes that, “Most often people with bad attitudes do not get very far in life… we can do great things when our attitudes are great.”  
Maxwell also quotes from Denis Waitley’s book, The Winner’s Edge: “The winner’s edge is not a gifted birth, a high IQ, or in talent. The winner’s edge is all in the attitude, not aptitude. Attitude is the criterion for success. But you cannot buy an attitude for a million dollars. Attitudes are not for sale.” 
I am learning that having an open mindset in the long run allows effective leaders to develop a positive attitude. This eventually, enables them to navigate life’s challenges and failures.

In my view, maintaining an open mindset leads to win-win scenarios. Allow me to share a short personal story here. Before attending the Maxwell International Conference, one of our mentors Chris Robinson often shares useful advice. 
Robinson recommends that we start by “setting our intentions for the conference”. He tells us to ask ourselves three questions as we prepare: 1) What do I want to learn? 2) Who do I want to meet? 3) What do I know I need to do that I am not doing yet?
Although I often answer these questions, I also allow space for what I advise my coaching clients to do which is “allow God to surprise you”. In my view, maintaining an open mindset also means recognising that you can never have all the answers in life. 
This is what happened to me, I believe it was on day two that I was introduced to Jerome Emanzi, a Ugandan engineer based in the USA. One of my habits during this conference is reflecting on my day by journaling my thoughts and lessons for the day. It was when I was doing this that an idea popped in my mind. How about if Emanzi could write this leadership column with me? A quick check with the editor returned a positive response. When I told Emanzi the next day that I had thrown him under the bus. He laughed and gladly welcomed the idea. 

His words “it will be great for me to serve my country” revealed his open mindedness.  Emanzi will be writing the leadership column next month.
According to Carol Dweck, if we do the work, anyone can adopt a growth mindset. She notes, “Mindset change is about seeing things in a new way, it is about changing from a judge and be judged framework to one of learn and help learn framework”.
Dweck also reminds us that leaders who maintain a growth mindset are willing to ask questions and are not afraid to learn from anyone. In addition, they keep the faith in their team alive and encourage them to improve when they make a mistake instead to deeming them as failures.

As I bring these series to a close, I do so with gratitude that I was able to attend the leadership conference and have the experiences I had. Without a doubt, staying close to the fire is making me a better leader. Learning to value people and maintain an open mindset is helping me to grow. I am learning that when I combine what I know with what others know, it leads to win-win scenarios which if you ask me never hurt anyone.
The action point and reflection question for this week are: 
1. Critically examine your current way of leading and begin to address the ways in which you might be leading with a fixed mindset instead of a growth mindset.
2. How can you begin to shift the culture in your organisation to one that embraces trust and vulnerability?

Wamambe is a transformational leadership coach with the Maxwell Certified Leadership Team    [email protected]

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