Character is what allows you to reach the top and stay there
- All these people had character
- None of them thought they were special
- They worked hard
- Keep their focus under pressure
- Stretched beyond their ordinary abilities when they had to
Take charge of the processes that brings and maintain success
People who have fixed mindset count on their talent to carry through.
- they consider themselves finished products
- They feel the need to protect themselves
- and blame
- They do everything but take charge of the process to grow
- Avoid the somebody/nobody syndrome
Success is a team sport
- It maybe one person’s name on the record but takes an entire team that make its possible
Self-confidence and hubris
- There’s only a razor’s edge between self confidence and hubris
- Self-confidence is the courage to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source
- Beware of success, it can knock you into a fixed mindset – the I won because I have talent attitude
- You never stay the same, you can either go one way or the other
CEOs and the Big Ego
- History
- Prior to Iacocca’s rise to prominence
- CEO is a buttoned-down organization man
- well treated
- well paid
- essentially bland
- characterless
- After his rise to prominence
- Fixed-mindset executives started vying for those labels
- CEOs became super herods
- People who preen their self egos are not the same people who foster long-term corporate health
- Prior to Iacocca’s rise to prominence
- Fixed Mindset executives
- The CEO becomes the main thing people worry about rather than reality being the primary reality
- Instead of learning, growing and moving the company forward
- It starts with the boss being worried of being judged and it ends up with everyone being worrying about being judged
- It breeds group thinking
- Growth Mindset executives
- Lou Gerstner CEO of IBM
- Opened up the channels of communication up and down the company
- Create ways to foster alternative views and constructive criticism
On Negotiations
- Mindset has an important impact on Negotiation Success
- Ability is changeable and can be developed
- Experts in the field now believe that negotiating is a dynamic skill that can be cultivated and developed over a lifetime
On Relationships
- A no-effort relationship is a doomed relationship
- it takes word to communicate accurately
- it takes work to expose and resolve conflicting hopes and beliefs
- They worked happily ever after
- Choosing a partner is like choosing a set of problems
- Change from a judge-and-be-judged framework to a learn-and-help-learn framework
On False growth mindset
- People take what they like about themselves and call it a “growth mindset”
- There is a difference between being flexible/open-minded to being dedicated to growing a talent
- Couples who shifted from fixed mindset to growth mindset during counseling when sliding back into the fixed mindset again experience fiercer than ever bickering resulting from disappointed hopes
New research
- The brain is more like a muscle
- It changes and gets stronger when you use it
- Scientist have been able to show how the brain grows and gets stronger when you learn
Personal Insecurities
- many People with fixed mindset understand their cloak of specialness was really a suit of armor they built to feel safe, strong and worthy
- earlier on it may have protected them
- later on it constricted their growth
- sent them into self-defeating battles
- cut them off from satisfying mutual relationships
On Child rearing
- Communicate that feats of intellect or physical prowess are not all you care about
- Help them love the idea that they have to work every day for some little gain in skill or knowledge
Additional Readings:
- Slate by Kames Surowiecki
- Who says the elephant can’t dance by Lou Gerstner
- Money ball: The Art of winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
- Michael Jordan Speaks: Lessons from the World’s Greatest Champion by Janet Lowe