The Growth Mindset can be applied to different areas of our lives.
Growth Mindset consists in converting your past failures into successes.
It shows us how to love and cope with failures then to turn these failures into a learning experience.
The Growth Mindset allows us to challenge and stretch ourselves, to avoid a life of regrets, to cultivate our intelligence and most skills through failures and perseverance.
It encourages us to do our best, to put forth the effort where there needs to be, change the beliefs about ourselves and identify our personal qualities.
On the other hand, the Fixed Mindset limits our achievements.
The Fixed Mindset
The Fixed Mindset has been instilled in us, unbeknownst to us, since our tender childhood.
When you don’t have a Growth Mindset, you tend to:
Show more depression.
Believe that you possess fixed traits.
Look for outside validation or for people who are worse off than you are.
Feel an urge to succeed and to prove yourself.
Fixed Mindset leaders only hire people who can boost their ego and make them feel superior.
They use their company as a display of their superiority.
They tend to compare themselves to others, to become abusive and controlling, to pick on people who perform at their best.
How leaders grow their mindset?
It is possible for leaders to shift to a Growth Mindset by adopting a few habits.
Growth Mindset monitor their surrounding and thought patterns. Then, they seek to understand their implications and what they can learn from their experience.
They learn to maintain a sense of confidence and devote themselves to growing.
Furthermore, they make concrete plans that they can visualize. They understand that their plans will fail from time to time and that they will have to develop strategies to maintain their Growth Mindset.
Growth Mindset leaders don’t hide their mistakes and are not defensive about them. They don’t beat themselves up for their failures.
They ask for feedback and for more opportunities to learn. They believe that everyday is an opportunity to learn.
Finally, Growth Mindset leaders take care of their people.
They allow dissenting voices to speak up and avoid groupthink.
They don’t feel threatened by high performing employees. Instead, they help employees to improve on the job.
Review
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck is a self-help book that encourages introspection and teaches us how to develop a “Growth Mindset”.
In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol S. Dweck shares poignant examples of people who have embraced the Growth Mindset, overcome challenges and achieved personal success.
In addition, Carol S. Dweck recaps all the ways we can be harboring a fixed mindset in our parenting, relationships and leadership.
For Carol S. Dweck in Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, compared to adults, children are eager to learn and never worry about failing.
She also asks significant questions to help us determine whether or not we have a Growth or Fixed Mindset.
I wish there were more detained and practical advice or a step by step guide on how to acquire a Growth Mindset.
Let me know below what you think about this book!
Favorite quote(s)
People may start with different temperaments and different aptitudes, but it is clear that experience, training, and personal effort take them the rest of the way.
Mindsets are just beliefs. They’re powerful beliefs, but they’re just something in your mind, and you can change your mind.
Even in the growth mindset, failure can be a painful experience. But it doesn’t define you. It’s a problem to be faced, dealt with, and learned from.
Real self-confidence is not reflected in a title, an expensive suit, a fancy car, or a series of acquisitions. It is reflected in your mindset: your readiness to grow.
Nowadays, many companies redesign their workspaces to stand out, to create a more balanced environment, to exhibit their brand, values and personalities.
In the last 10 years, employees have admitted that their relationship with work and their workspace have changed.
According to recent studies, only a small percentage of employees have a positive opinion of their workspace and the percentage gets even smaller when it comes to millenials.
Therefore, companies must adapt to meet the needs of this younger generation. That is why these companies are redesigning their workspace in the hopes of attracting and retaining young talents.
Wondering how to design a positive workspace in order to retain young talents?
Benefits of redesigning the workspace
Workspace relates to the physical environment at work and can affect our life, mood, mental and physical well-being. It also involves workers safety, quality of work and of life.
Improving the workspace has considerable benefits for employees. Indeed, employees are healthier, more fulfilled, more engaged and more productive. Indeed, the well-being generated by a positive workspace leads to positive emotions, builds greater relationships, and fosters a sense of purpose.
For organization, a positive workspace drives better customer service, decreases absenteeism, saves time and money on the long-term.
Roadmap to creating the perfect workspace
There are no real roadmap to creating the perfect workspace but there are several criteria that come up when employees talk about improving their workspace.
To grade a workspace, employees take into account their working conditions, their working methods, their ability to focus, their level of productivity, and their creativity.
Building a healthy and innovative workspace
For the most part, companies have considered the following criteria to attract and retain young talents:
1. The startup mentality
Companies can start by updating the apparence of their building, opening up their workspace and creating a startup mentality.
Truthfully, most millennial don’t want to work in traditional workspaces anymore and prefer startups.
2. The healthy work-life balance
Organizations ought to create a healthy work-life balance.
Employees are best able to perform professionally when their personal life is in order. Companies must find a equilibrium between employees well-being and their productivity at work.
3. The use of external services
Integrating innovative and ethical services is a way fro companies to retain talents.
For example, some companies pay for cleaning services, tend to go green, monitor their energetical expenses daily, regularly test for ventilation and air quality. Others offer work out sessions and relaxation rooms.
4. The use of innovative and ergonomic equipment
Incorporating innovative and ergonomic equipment to prevent physical strain, pain and exhaustion increases employees engagement and value.
Most employees stay in a sitted position at their desk for hours at a time and don’t partake in physical activities.
Some workplaces are so sophisticated that they have installed sit-to-stand desk and different activities during working hours.
5. The minimization of paperwork and bureaucracy
Companies are able to retain their talents by allowing paperless procedures and reducing bureaucracy, by proposing communication apps, digital platforms for online training and for better communication.
On one hand, employees gain time and increase their efficiency.
On the other hand, companies become technologically savvy, agile and react more efficiently.
6. Learning and development opportunities
Providing training, learning and development opportunities says that your workspace values your employees skills and that it is geared towards innovation and learning.
Training stimulates the mind and opens it up to new and interesting ways of thinking and implementing their task.
Furthermore, training and development activities are an investment and are also the best place to introduce stress relief and stress management in the workplace.
7. The company culture
Hiring talents who will fit in the company culture is benefitial to the workspace.
Besides being competent for a given role, employees who fit into the culture tend to be more positive, perform at the best and treat customer and colleagues better.
8. The positioning of employees
Having employees work according to their strengths and weaknesses can only boost the general workspace.
Positive workspaces are constructed when employees are able to focus on tasks that interest them, are challenging and that utilize their strengths.
Promoting effective leadership is a sure way to support human basic needs and to promote healthy company culture.
Last Words Of Advice!
Research demonstrates that creating a healthy workspace, keeping employees happy and healthy increases the organization bottom-line and creates a more positive office culture.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
Powerful leaders remain in communication with their authentic self, are honest with themselves, reveal their true abilities and have developed their personal power.
They are confident enough to have achieved success on their own terms.
Wondering which strategies are mostly used by powerful leaders to achieve success?
Strategy 1: Powerful leaders set intentions
Powerful leaders decide what they want even if they don’t know how to get it.
Then, they do whatever it takes to get it.
Basically, they declare their intentions and commit to them.
To set the best intentions possible, they get to know themselves and learn to deal with their strengths and weaknesses.
Strategy 2: Powerful leaders take risks
To achieve success, powerful leaders tend to let go of what is safe and familiar.
They learn that they have to give up the good for the great and chose what is right for them along the way.
Strategy 3: Powerful leaders focus on winning
At some point, powerful leaders take risks, play the game and play to win.
They focus on winning no matter what.
Strategy 4: Powerful leaders speak up
Powerful leaders speak up for themselves when something goes wrong or something is bothering them.
Speaking allows them not to play victim.
Unfortunately, in modern society, women who speak up still hold a negative connotation. Most of the time, outspoken women are seen as bitchy and are punished for speaking up. Whereas outspoken men are seen as assertive, direct and forceful.
Strategy 5: Powerful leaders stretch their abilities
Powerful leaders don’t stop at what is doable or at what they think they are capable of.
In addition, they take risks, stretch themselves, feel the fear but go after their goals anyway.
Consequently, they often bite off more than they can chew but still manage to succeed.
Strategy 6: Powerful leaders seek support
Powerful leaders surround themselves with people who can individually and collectively believe in their abilities, who can guide them, and who can show them how to succeed.
Last Words Of Advice!
Powerful leaders don’t wait for opportunities to come their way, they create them. Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
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Although, most women remain underpaid and make 50% to 80% of what men make, more and more women are earning high salaries.
Women who underearn operate below their potential, have negative beliefs about money, work more for less pay without making the “conscious choice to live with less”.
The reality is that underearning affects your self-confidence, breaks down your lifestyle and limit your opportunities.
To start earning more and to make the right decisions, women need to change the way they think about themselves and their relationship with money.
SECRET 1 “Financial Success Is Possible in Almost Any Field, and Lack of Education Doesn’t Have to Hold You Back.”
Six-Figure women get credentials and go for the highest level of education they can possibly get.
However, they don’t let credentials stop them from achieving success.
SECRET 2 “Working Hard Doesn’t Mean Working All the Time.”
Six-Figure women take pleasure in their work and they work smart.
At the very least, they find jobs that are stimulating and fulfilling.
SECRET 3 “Focus on Fulfilling Your Values Rather Than Financial Gain.”
Women feel that they have to overwork themselves, stay longer hours than their male counterparts in order to attain their ambitions or to compete with men.
However, that lifestyle is not sustainable. High earning women look for signs of fatigue, burnout, a way to get more done in less time, to up their focus and for a way to balance their personal and professional life.
SECRET 4 “Loving What You Do Is Much More Important Than What You Do.”
The put their visions and values before financial gain.
Moreover, they want to live on their own terms.
Focusing on making money only creates an internal void that could never be filled.
SECRET 5 “Feel the Fear. Have the Doubts. Go for It Anyway.”
They are confident and believe in themselves.
They believe that they can do anything they set their minds to.
Of course, they struggle with self-doubt and fears but they somehow manage to overcome those fears or to fake it until they make it.
SECRET 6 “Think in Terms of Trade-offs, Not Sacrifices, to Find a Workable Equilibrium.”
Six-Figure women deal gracefully with social injustices.
They have figure out ways to deal with biases, injustices, racism and sexism with their sense of humor.
SECRET 7 “Sometimes You Just Have to Shrug It Off and Have a Good Laugh.”
They are grateful for what they have and how far they have come.
SECRET 8 “Appreciate Abundance.”
Six-Figure women are not victim of their circumstances.
They refuse to be beaten down or depressed for extended periods of time. Instead, they remain positive and optimistic against all odds.
Review
Secrets Of Six Figure Women: Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life by Barbara Stanny identifies the secrets of six-figure women, understand the traits and the principles that these women live by, so that we can apply these principles to our personal lives.
Secrets Of Six Figure Women: Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life helps you grow internally, expand your mindset, remove self-limiting beliefs, become self-aware, become financially aware and boost your income.
Furthermore, Barbara Stanny aims to shift the mindset from overcoming obstacles to finding in opportunities to increasing your earnings.
She shifts the focus from wage gap to wage gain, from lack to abundance.
Barbara Stanny, a new aged woman with a lot of questions when it comes to the process of women earning six figures, interviews and introduces us to the mindset of high powered and high earning women from all professional background.
I enjoyed the fact that she gave easy and achievable steps into earning more.
I also appreciated that Barbara Stanny tackled the fact that almost every woman and monorities experience the same hardships in the workplace.
Unfortunately, in 2020, not much has changed in corporate. Racism and sexism are still present in most organizations.
Do you have the same experience at home or in the workplace? Has earning a high income created any backlash at home or in The workplace?
Let me know below what you think about this book!
Favorite quote(s)
Was holding a high-paying job even worth what I imagined it would entail? Did six-figure women have to work absurdly long hours, forfeit their femininity, forgo their happiness, give up all semblance of a personal life? Did their marriages hold up? Did their children suffer? Did they bear lasting scars from breaking glass ceilings or battling gender bias? Was it possible for anyone to become a high earner? Could I?
What if we shifted the spotlight from women’s plight to women’s progress? What if we turned our attention from what’s wrong with the system and instead analyzed what’s working for those who are succeeding? We’re not ignoring the problem; we’re merely shifting our perspective.
Lawyer Tracy Preston told me the same thing. “If I internalized every time someone said something racist or sexist I wouldn’t be able to function. There’s always some incident that’ll be jarring, but I recognize it’s people’s ignorance. How do I deal with it? As they say, being black in America isn’t easy, so you have to have a sense of humor. Otherwise you’d go crazy.”
Like it or not, money affects virtually every area of your life. Lack of it leads to dependency and hardship. It can limit your access to health care and lifestyle choices. It can keep you in an unhappy marriage and an unsatisfying job. It perpetuates the cycle of poverty and debt, of discontent and chronic stress.
Our state of mind, however, often resembles a rearview mirror. We head toward the future seeing only the images from our past, and then wonder why nothing ever changes. I once heard insanity defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting it to be different. Given that definition, I can safely say underearning is a form of financial insanity.
The real work in raising the bar is to stop doing the same old thing you’ve always done, to try out new strategies, to ignore false alarms, to resist the urge to quit, and to refuse to fall back into familiar terrain. The ability to tolerate discomfort—doing what might not feel good, but doing it anyway—is the only way you’ll ever complete the path to financial success. It helps to keep in mind that the discomfort is temporary, but the payoff is extraordinary.
You must let go of where you are to get to where you want to go.
men got high marks from their bosses when they were forceful and assertive, but women were downgraded for displaying the same qualities. To be quite candid, the double standard is alive and kicking—assertive men are respected, assertive women are resented.
As a leader, you are really spread thin and barely have time for yourself. It is good to take this opportunity to relax.
You might want to use this time to reflect on your life. There are many activities that you can do to get back into the growth mindset.
You want to improve yourself and get you act together to reach your goals and insulate yourself from further failure.
Wondering what you can do as a leader to grow during the era of social distancing?
1. Communicate with your inner self
You can start the self-improvement process during quarantine by checking in on your inner self so you can to come out quarantine better than when you entered.
Sometimes, we are so busy that we don’t take the time to slow down, breath, embrace solitude and see how we are mentally doing.
Some choose to meditate and others to journal. Journaling is a great way to communicate with yourself. By writing down your thoughts, you free up you mind, confront and let go of past troubling experiences.
2. Make an honest assessment of yourself
When you know who you are and where you are, you will know which steps to take to reach your goals.
It requires real honesty and an ability to confront every part of yourself — the best parts as much as the horrible parts of yourself.
Doing that will give you a sense of who you are. Assessing yourself will help you gauge your strengths and weaknesses, get i touch with your purpose, identify the situations and opportunities that fit you.
3. Understand your worth
You have to believe that you are worthy as a person and still have room for improvement.
Furthermore, as you improve yourself, you will realize your worth, become wiser and make better decisions.
4. Reevaluate
You can use this moment to reevaluate, reset yourself and organize yourself for the future. You will know how to tackle your goals as soon as things get back in order. To do so effectively:
Think about all the things you have to do.
Write down your goals and tasks. Then, set a time-frame, a level of impact, an order of importance and emergency.
Foresee the potential obstacles that are ahead of you.
Not because you are cozy at home or remotely working that you have to let yourself go or give up on yourself or your goals.
5. Learn to compete with yourself
Nobody really knows what to do in life but the first step you can take is evaluating yourself and ensuring that your future self is better than your older self.
To compete with yourself, it helps to think as yourself as a brand, to have a prioritized task list and to regularly track your progress.
6. Unclutter your space
You may not be able to immediately improve on yourself but you can fix small problems around you that will free up some mental load and enhance your mental health.
The clutter around you occupies the space in your mind. To unclutter, you may want to organize your room or repair things around your house for example.
7. Do something worthwhile
To grow and get out of a somewhat negative space, it is imperative that you take responsibility for yourself.
Besides, you cannot stay in one place self-loathing or blaming someone else for your situation.
There is no need to dwell on your problems and go down the rabbit hole. Instead, figure out your purpose and do something with meaning that can outweigh your negative situation.
8. Connect with others
While you are bored in the house, we can get activated and still improve ourselves indoors or while social distancing.
For those who love to be social, you can use all this time to your advantage, connect more deeply with your entourage and build deeper trust.
You can talk to someone, who will help you grow, about your inner turmoils or your dreams.
9. Read all the books you can
Sometimes, we are stuck in one way of thinking.
It takes an external event or person with deeper knowledge to promote our mindset.
Books contain knowledge that you couldn’t acquire on your own, events that probably have or won’t happen to you. Either way, books will broaden your sense of self and open up your mind.
Nowadays, podcast and audiobooks provide us with the same purpose as books.
Last Words Of Advice!
Social distancing is hard for some.
As you use the era of social distancing as an advantage, be very careful on what you focus your mind on.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
Thoughts, positive or negative, influence our character, our behavior, our vision, how we deal with setbacks, how we build and maintain relationships, has direct impact on our body and health, emotions.
For instance, negative thoughts affect our daily lives more than we think and can send us down a spiral of despair, depression, insecurity, anxiety and self-sabotage.
Needless to say, most people want to improve themselves, to evolve, to get ahead in their work life but have a tendency to welcome negative thoughts or ignore how to shut them down.
Unfortunately, they end up hindering their accomplishments and career advancements.
That is why it is necessary to control the damage caused by our mind, to discipline our thoughts and emotions, to build up a robust positive attitude and to find peace of mind.
Wondering how to process and control negative thoughts, emotions and how to use a positive mindset to get ahead at work?
Thoughts automatically appear in our mind. They come from past experiences and from the fact that we believe what people have previously said about us. They can be brought up by a word, an image or a memory and employ torture words that decrease our self-esteem, worsens situations, such as “should”, “must” and “have to”.
Because they are spontaneous, we think that they are true. In the long run, thoughts sometimes become rigid beliefs, absolute truths.
Therefore, it becomes an imperative to gain control over them. Disciplining your mind, controlling your thoughts and generating emotions regardless of your environment, regardless the level of attack help you become more mature, make healthier decisions, become more creative, escape, heal bad memories.
Maintaining A Positive Mindset
Positive attitudes can become difficult to maintain in challenging situations in the workplace. But once acquired, it is a habit that can help you overcome bad situations.
Indeed, positivity ensures progress, diffuses situations, alleviates stress, reduces fear, increases endurance, increase self-esteem, attracts positive results and better opportunities. It requires inner work and is independent of external circumstances of the outcome.
There are many ways to bring positivity into the workplace and into your mind:
Identify the source of your thoughts and check the memories that you store in your brain. Be selective about the information that come into your mind. Stay away from the news because they will negatively affect you. Have a joke of the day and send it to people who matter to you. Watch shows, listen to podcasts, audio books that will uplift you, inspire you and motivate you.
Identify triggers, patterns in your thought process. How do they start? What my thoughts say about me? What are the consequences of my thoughts? What do you say regularly to yourself?
Be aware of the content of your thoughts. Therefore, you will be able to interrupt them whenever they don’t help you, to delete the negative ones and replace them with forward-looking ones. Changing thought patterns is difficult because our brain generally resist change.
Understand that you are not the prisoner of your thoughts. Be the one to change the atmosphere in the workplace. Don’t allow the environment to drain you or define who you are. Don’t let someone else control your behavior.
Think about who you want to become and how you want to affect people. Write down 5 dreams that you have ever have, find 5 words to describe yourself and think about it several a day.
Select and force your brain to redirect negative thoughts toward more pleasant alternatives. For example, think about the opposite of the negative thought, attach constructive emotions to an outcome, visualize a positive outcome for the situation or visualize the perfect life every day before you got to bed and everyday when you wake up.
Focus on what is going right instead of what is going wrong. People give negative emotions more importance than the positive ones, which conditions our brain to bring up negative thoughts automatically and repetitively for a long period of time. You have the power to choose and train your brain to give positive emotions more attention.
Accept the present moment and understand that it is inevitable. How to focus and stay in the present? Understand that panicking and worrying is useless, that the past is unchangeable and the future uncontrollable, that every experiences have made you who you are today.
Give your thoughts a name and call them out whenever they send us down a negative spiral and challenge every single thought by speaking them out loud.
It is easy to complain and whine, so be grateful that you have a job and show appreciation in your contribution.
Learn to discern toxic coworkers. Don’t tolerate or focus on negative people.
Get up early and work out before going to work to release the endorphins throughout the day.
Create a positive work zone by insulating yourself with headphones for example. Also, avoid gossip at all cost, put up motivational objects around your desk. Take regular breaks from your cubicle to stop thinking, to meditate and go to the bathroom.
Create a better work life balance to protect your home life. Leave the drama at work, be strict with your hours, avoid staying late and taking work at home.
Behave positively as well. Meaning fake it until you make it.
Separate yourself from the negativity and surround yourself with open-minded people with a positive mindset. Stick positive quotes on your wall of your cubicle or on your desk.
Take a class after work or find a hobby so you have something to look forward to at the end of the day.
Discreetly find a more comfortable and productive workplace.
Last Words Of Advice!
There is a need for Positive Leadership.
Positive leaders have a moral compass, are purpose driven, communicate effectively, exhibit integrity and provide emotional safety. Because they inject good energy into the team, they instill an atmosphere of trust and openness they rip enthusiasm, motivation, transparency from their team.
Positive leaders are able to impact their company culture, improve results, increase performance and enhance job satisfaction.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz gathers four “agreements” to live by to ensure a better lifestyle, a deeper understanding of life, a life in the moment.
He encourages us to be impeccable with our words, to not take anything personally, to not making assumptions and to do our best.
3. Radical Candor: How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean
He shares various tips on being a better leader. He also urges us to define who we are, to identify where you are going and how you will get there.
6. Principles: Life and Work
Author: Ray Dalio
Ratings: 3/5
Dalio shares many principles to navigate life and work.
Ray Dalio encourages us to stay open-minded, to find and speak truth in order to live a healthier lifestyle, to meet our goals and to handle setbacks.
7. Tribes: We need you to lead us
Author: Seth Godin
Ratings: 3/5
In Tribes: We need you to lead us, Seth Godin declares that everybody wants and needs to belong to a tribe.
He also demonstrates how challenging the status quo is a simple way to create your own tribe, to build your fellowship, to define your leadership without forcing people.
12. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Author: Daniel H. Pink
Ratings: 4/5
In Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel H. Pink shows us that people are not motivated by common external factors such as money or fame.
Daniel H. Pink reveals that people’s behaviors are mostly driven by purpose, passion, autonomy, a need for self-improvement and for self-imposed goals.
Leaders can use that innate drive to increase productivity, improve performance and build stronger teams.
13. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Author: Angela Duckworth
Ratings 3/5
In Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Duckworth defines Grit as a combination of resilience, determination, purpose and passion.
According to Angela Duckworth, anyone can acquire grit. Furthermore, people with grit are more successful than people who are talented but who don’t put in work.
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