{"id":39324,"date":"2024-11-06T18:07:08","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T02:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=39324"},"modified":"2024-11-06T18:07:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T02:07:08","slug":"a-timely-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-timely-read\/","title":{"rendered":"A Timely Read"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since returning from Washington, my work life has been turned upside down. For different reasons, we had several people resign within weeks of one another. Add our need for added funding and it was a perfect storm, literally. \u00a0The conversations have been difficult, hours long, and emotions on the edge. I am exhausted. Reading Mindset<\/em> by Carol Dweck was timely.\u00a0 Dweck is a highly regarded researcher in the field of social and developmental psychology.<\/p>\n

The premise of this book was that how a person perceives their ability to fulfill their potential is largely dependent if the person has a fixed or growth mindset[1]<\/a>. To lay the groundwork, mindsets are part of personality. They are a way of looking at life and how a person perceives different situations such as problems and the need for hard work. For instance, a person with a fixed mindset is more likely to fear failure because they fear being judged on their performance, whether it is on a test, sporting event or work. Success depends on performing well[2]<\/a>. Making a mistake or losing a game would mean the person was a failure. Someone with a growth mindset is open to learning from challenges or mistakes and growing through them. They are inspired by hard work and willing to take risks to change.<\/p>\n

In The Happiness Advantage, author, researcher, Shawn Achor promoted a concept similar to Dweck but from a different perspective [3]<\/a>. \u00a0Achor\u2019s concept is that how a person chooses to see things impacts their perceptions. As an example, when he got to Harvard, he could not understand why many students were stressed, pessimistic, and depressed. This all occurred within 2 months after they were ecstatic about being admitted to such a prestigious school. Yet the students who likely stood above the rest of the students at their High School in June became one of all the other, likely, valedictorians who got into Harvard. They were comparing themselves to steep competition. Achor\u2019s premise, that I think compliments Dweck was that the lens through which your brain views the world is the lens which shapes your reality[4]<\/a>. If the lens is changed not only can the person\u2019s happiness change, every single educational and business outcome also can change.<\/p>\n

In Mindset<\/em>, I was particularly interested in the chapter Business: Mindset and Leadership. Here Dweck discussed business practices that get companies into trouble such as blindly following a leader, using group think where a group puts unlimited faith in a talented leader or a genius[5]<\/a>. I like what Alfred Sloan the former CEO of General Motors did when there was an important decision to be made. After the leadership agreed on a strategy, he would recommend that everyone go home and sleep on it overnight to come up with possible risks that weren’t considered by the group[6]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Back to the organization I serve; I realize that many factors play into where we are today. Some of the disruption was caused by factors that are out of our control. Yet, looking back I can see my reactions to these factors could have been different. Executive coach Patrick Lencioni says that one of the most difficult challenges a leader faces is the desire to protect employees from harm[7]<\/a>(paraphrased). I easily fall into that trap. Yet, reading Mindset<\/em>, gave me an understanding that trying to protect them, I was using a fixed mindset with them. So, I am starting slowly with this team. When someone gives me a paper to proof, I am phrasing my responses to something like, \u201cI can see that you put a lot of thought into this concept.\u201d It doesn\u2019t come naturally. I want to say, that\u2019s great, or I don\u2019t know if this is our best approach, but I am pausing before commenting. \u00a0We are doing a significant overhaul of our fundraising efforts. Rather than focusing on big events that are expensive in time, money, and human energy we are focusing on the one-on-one relationships with current, former, and potential donors. Seeing everyone working hard, my default option is to give them time to do their work without interruption. However, I am finding that the senior team is looking for more interaction to be included in decisions, not less. With that, I will make more intentional time with each of them a priority. Some of these things have been started prior to reading this book, however, putting the research for Mindsets<\/em> behind the actions inspires me to continue to grow with them. These are initial steps. I am sure as we navigate this time there will be better ideas emerging.<\/p>\n

Neither Dweck nor Achor said in their research that outcomes came easily. Dweck even says there are some innate things that a growth mindset cannot change but it does open the door to possibilities and \u00a0the person can have joy on their journey through life by learning and growing, regardless of the outcome[8]<\/a>. Likewise, Achor recommends people practice naming 3 things for which we are grateful, journaling, exercising, and meditating daily. All of these things take time and energy. However, I don\u2019t know of anything that is worth doing that doesn\u2019t take effort. \u00a0The one thing that neither Carol Dweck nor Shawn Achor touched on was the impact faith has on the mindset of a person. For me, knowing that God is walking beside me allows me to pray:<\/p>\n

Oh God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change<\/p>\n

The courage to change the things I can,<\/p>\n

And the wisdom to know the difference, Amen[9]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: Changing the way you think to fulfil your potential (New York, Random House Publishing, 2006).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Dweck, 16.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Shawn Achor, The Happiness Advantage, TEDxBloomington-ShawnAchor-\u201cTheHappinessAdvantage\u201d.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Achor, The Happiness Advantage.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Dweck, 134. When J.F. Kennedy was president, group think led the country to the brink of tragedy because the people surrounding Kennedy did not question his recommendations enough regarding the Bay of Pigs and Castro.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Dweck, 135.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Patrick Lencioni, The FIVE Dysfunctions of a TEAM (San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass, 2002) 206.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Dweck, 49.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Historically attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since returning from Washington, my work life has been turned upside down. For different reasons, we had several people resign within weeks of one another. Add our need for added funding and it was a perfect storm, literally. \u00a0The conversations have been difficult, hours long, and emotions on the edge. I am exhausted. Reading Mindset […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3356,3355,2967,2328],"class_list":["post-39324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-achor","tag-lencioni","tag-dlgp03","tag-dweck","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39325,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39324\/revisions\/39325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}