It’s All About “˜Mindset’

Good morning, everybody. Dennis Engelbrecht, with The Family Business Institute and the CEO Roundtable Program for
Contractors.

Today, I wanted to share a story with you. We're also members of a peer group. We run peer groups, but we're also
members of a peer group. And one of our colleagues shared a story of learning, and it's about mindset. So much of the
results you get from your inter-relations with people has to do with your mindset and what kind of mindset bring to the
workplace, the situation, et cetera, because other people play off of your mindset. These weren't earth-shattering stories,
but just two very interesting stories that'll hopefully make you think a little bit about your own mindset and how you're
applying that.

So, the first story, this comes from Lori Sorenson, by the way. The first story, one of her leaders called her up, all sort of
upset, and sharing their experience, which was not a positive one. They were working in a facility that does some volunteer
work, and one of the volunteers came in and they got into it a little bit. And in finding out, and Lori finding out from this
person, what they were so upset about, well, they were upset that this volunteer was not showing them and giving them
their due respect.

Well, Lori, through some good coaching and stuff, diving into there, got into it. and what they came to find was that was
the mindset of the person coming into it was that they were wanting to earn and have that respect from these people.
And it was really their problem, not the other person's problem. And the solution, which they came to through their
coaching, was really very simple. If they just went into that situation assuming respect, because they did have a position
after all, and just assume respect, and instead then take your focus to the task at hand, and really appreciate the
volunteer's work and help them to do it better. With that mindset focus, as opposed to the focus of, I have to get this
respect, the whole would've gone different, and everybody would have a better feeling about it.

So again, that mindset. And I think it's a mindset that happened frequently, even in my career, if I think back to my twenties
and thirties, hard charging and I always wanted people to respect me. and I was in that demanding respect mode and
didn't get a very good response. So, assuming that respect and having the mindset of being there to help the situation and
help out, really gets you a lot further.

So, the second story, also from Lori, was very interesting. She had one of her leaders she works with call her and just say,
"Wow, I just had the most amazing thing happen. I was leading a team of leaders through some disparate interests where
they wouldn't necessarily all be on the same page, but we led them to a successful consensus in the end, and everybody
was happy about it. And so just coming out of there, I thought it was like all those lessons I learned along the way about
leadership, those things you taught me, those habits that I've been working on, they all just came together and worked."

And I thought, wow, what a great story, because leadership is a journey, which I've written about a lot recently, my own
journey. But yeah, along the way you earn these skills, and you learn better habits. And of course, we make mistakes.
That's one of the ways we learn these habits and skills along the way. But it's hard to lead naturally when you're still
practicing your habits, so to speak, or you're trying to be that. But eventually they become ingrained, and they become
natural. And that's when you really become the leader that you can be.

You can't do it without the lessons and the habits and things like that. But I think part of the journey is just those things
becoming ingrained and you becoming your whole self as a leader. And I just thought this was just such a really neat story,
where you figure out that leadership's a journey where you learn and improve your skills, develop good habits and
ultimately control your mindset, which is, at that point, a confident, again, helpful mindset that's outwardly focused and
you don't have to be inwardly focused, which you can stumble over sometimes.

So, think about your mindset. Think about how you can have a better mindset, and I'm sure you'll get better results. Again,
Dennis Engelbrecht, Digging Deeper. Thanks for tuning in.