Mastering Mindset: Leveraging Mental Frameworks for Setting and Achieving Process Goals

As we pursue of our aspirations, whether personal or professional, setting goals is often the first step towards progress. However, while outcome goals define the destination, it's the process goals that pave the way towards achievement. Process goals focus on the journey, the steps, and the habits necessary to reach our desired outcomes. Yet, setting and achieving these goals isn't solely about creating a to-do list; it's about cultivating the right mindset to navigate challenges, setbacks, and successes along the way.

Navigating change: The essence of adaptive leadership

The ability to navigate uncertainty and lead through change has become paramount in today’s ever-evolving landscape. Adaptive leadership, a concept introduced by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky, emphasizes the importance of agile, flexible and proactive leaders in addressing complex challenges. This leadership style is not about having all the answers but empowering teams to adapt, innovate and thrive amidst constant change.

Let’s explore some real-life leadership challenges and scenarios to help us better understand what adaptive leadership looks like in practice.

When not to email

As head of school, I would have my assistant head of school read sensitive emails that I was planning on sending.

As time went on, I would stop sending such emails entirely, and insist on face-to-face meetings.

That's because we do a terrible job of accurately reading intent when it comes to things like email.

We lose sight of tonality. We lose sight of intent.

How to disaster-proof your business and your life, part II

In my last post, I shared insights from a group of leaders about how to position ourselves and our businesses for coronavirus and “disaster-proof” our lives moving forward. This post follows along the same theme and highlights the insights of some powerful coaches.

How to Disaster-Proof Your Communication with Lila Smith, communication expert

As Smith sees it, COVID has confronted us with our core values. We have been forced to “check in” with ourselves and reassess our past behaviors as we consider life moving forward. What is it that is most important to us and should be performed and engaged with more in the future? And what have we been doing that hasn’t served us and should be scaled back as we begin to emerge from quarantine?

4 Dangers of Digital Communication and 8 Tips to Avoid Them

It’s no surprise that we use email and text for so many of our communications. It’s often faster, it’s neater, and it can easily be saved for future reference without paper sifting and clutter. Digital communication allows us to send and reply at our own convenience. And you can communicate with several people at one time,

But there are also some serious dangers that, unless managed properly, will turn these advantages into a huge disadvantage.

Successful Teams Communicate

No project of scale can occur without clear communication. Everyone involved must know what needs to be done and how they’re expected to do it. Otherwise, you’ll quickly get a silo effect, where team members work too independently and decrease productivity.

As leader, you’re the one who needs to set the tone. For many of us, this can be a real challenge.

How Colors Impact Leaders, Especially During Transitions

One of the greatest challenges that confronted me when I assumed the role of head of school was the contrast in personalities between my predecessor and me. In many ways we were polar opposites, including our general affect, how we interacted with others and in the amount of quiet, private time (with the door closed) that we wanted or needed to function effectively in our jobs.

At the time, I really didn’t appreciate this issue. To me, I was who I was and I assumed that everyone else would simply get used to dealing with a new boss. In hindsight, I feel that I could and should have taken more time to understand my personality and, by extension, leadership profile and how that may impact those around me, especially when they were used to something very different. While personality differences between leaders are to be expected, when they represent a major shift then there can be a difficulty in adjustment for everyone involved. And that difficulty became apparent soon enough in my situation.

One of my favorite leadership training sessions is based on the True Colors Personality Assessment. In this system, people generally identify as being one of four colors: blue, green, gold or orange.

Say "no" to unimportant meetings

So often, we get excited about a new process but lack the tools, commitment and/or mindset to see it to completion and long-term integration. This is particularly true when there are multiple elements to it and a number of people involved.

Just because we decided to become more productive and took initial action toward that end does not guarantee long-term success or maximal productivity.

The goal of this fourth step is to empower you to keep going in the face of expected setbacks and maintain the requisite level of well-being required for succeeding over the long haul.

Blazing Your Own Path to Success

Did you ever look around in amazement at people around you that don’t appear to be all that extraordinary yet have achieved extraordinary things? These are people who have greatly succeeded in business, in politics, in the arts, in sports, or in some other space, but in many respects seem pretty much on par with you (or even inferior to you) in terms of their core abilities and talents. How is it, you wonder, that they “made it” in such a robust manner while you continue to middle along in relative obscurity, earning a pedestrian income and feeling somewhat unfulfilled?

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How to Disaster-Proof Your Communication with Lila Smith, communication expert