The first step in transformation is to move beyond denial. Many leaders claim that there are no significant behavioural or cultural issues in their organisations. Others refuse that their behaviour is a primary contributor to organisational performance. When you are in denial, your problem will either not appear on your radar screen or it will appear as the fault of others or circumstances.
IT IS YOUR CHOICE TO EITHER PLAY BIG OR SMALL.
In order to play big, you must
- move beyond denial and
- expand your personal context for how you relate to yourself, others or your organisation.
You have a personal context –a framework of thinking and beliefs – that defines whether you place big or small and determines your capacity to succeed.
You tend to vacillate between playing small and playing big depending on how you interpret the situation.
Your personal context shrinks when you are unwilling to confront your blind spots, your need to be right and your victim mentality.
Blind spots: https://beatakalamar.com/blog/leadership-blindspots-and-derailers/are-you-blindsided-leadership-blind-spots
The Need to be right: it is instinctive and natural. The problem rest with our inability to recognize when we become stuck in unbending and unyielding views and do not know how to move beyond them. It creates a fixed view that becomes ‘the truth’ and prevents you from seeing other perspectives. The underlining fears are losing credibility, and respect of others, making mistakes, being wrong, feeling of personal inadequacies, and experiencing shame.
Victim mentality: this is another automatic behaviour, which contributes to resignation, shrinking the game and building silos. It can be summed up in one word: should. Victims believes things should be different, they should have more, or someone else should do something. There is always ‘a should’ for the victim. When you fall into the victim trap your fundamental belief is that the problem is outside your locus of focus and everyone and everything else is to blame.
As a leader you provide organisational context every time you talk about the purpose of the organisation and what you want to achieve.
Who do you as an organisation or team want to be?
What are you up to creating and generating?
When leaders play small, the organisation can only play small. When leaders play big, the organisation can transform. If your personal context is mall, you cannot influence change because your focus, choices, and possibilities are limited and your organisation cannot expand beyond its current capacity.
Playing big contains 100% accountability, committed partnership, emotional alignment and ownership mentality. Its impact on business is engagement, agility and increased sense of urgency.
- Who do you need to be in order to expand your personal context?
- Explore and identify where and with whom are you resigned, shrinking the game or engaged in a victim mentality.
- When do you feel emotionally drained, as if you are running on empty? What is happening there?
- When and to what extent people seek you out, avoid you or work around you?
Sources: Fearless Leadership by Loretta Malandro