74: Leaders With Heart Know That They Are Responsible For Their Mindset

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In this episode, Heather talks directly with listeners about the importance of protecting and controlling their mindset. 

Recently, Heather delivered her first ever TEDx talk on Transforming Adversity into Opportunity. In it, she shares a personal story of adversity and what she did to overcome it. You might want to check her talk about before listening to this episode HERE.

Key takeaways:

• Adversity starts in the mind.
• We can choose to be stopped by the adversities that come our way or rethink them.
• Leadership is just as much about emotional self-control than anything else.
• Never stop fighting the important fight for those who matter to you.
• Your leadership is only as good as those whom you grow.

The Adversity

Not long ago, I did my first ever TEDx talk entitled Transforming Adversity into Opportunity. In there, I shared my personal story of growing up in a family where I felt like an outsider. I didn’t feel good enough and respected. I felt like I had no voice.

Interestingly, shortly after I posted the talk on social media, a lot of people started reaching out to me with their stories. Many were squared in a space of employee-leadership relationships.

One of them, I could tell, was really hurt. She had applied for a particular job she really wanted. She did very well, and had gone in for multiple interviews but she never heard back from the company. 

When they finally responded, it was just a generic email. She never knew what she didn’t do well enough in order to get the job. As we continued to engage with one another, I could feel her pain through the email she sent. Nonetheless, she thanked me for the impact that my talk had.

The Fight

A lot of the people who reached out to me, particularly the employees who are frustrated with what is happening in their organizations, or people in the HR who are exasperated with what leaders are doing or failing to do, felt limited within their roles. However, it all boils down to the mindset. The issue is, how much of these barriers we see as our own, are real?

In the case of the woman who was feeling low after getting turned down but was uplifted afterwards by my talk, it was because I helped her rethink that it was not the only opportunity out there. Similarly with leaders, it’s not the only avenue you can take.

In the workplace or with employees, we frequently hit walls. I know what it feels like because I always hit a lot of walls, especially when representing the customer, or the employee to the executive leadership team. Oftentimes, it was like doors were always closed on me, making me very infuriated.

But, I understood that as a leader, titled or not, you still have to know that there are many other avenues that you can take, that the fight is worth fighting for.

If you’re a leader, whether you’re just starting off or you’ve been leading for 30 years, whether you’re leading one, or an organization of 3000, barriers will be in front of you and you might become disheartened.

Whenever I interview other leaders around the world and across different industries, I ask them, “What are your words of wisdom for people who might be stuck in their leadership, for them who feels they’re in a hard place, and for those who want to learn more?” Truthfully, I love all of the feedback these people have given. I’ll be making sure to include those things in the book that I am writing.

When they talk about moving forward, taking it day by day, working on you, giving yourself time, love and care—it is so critical.

The Opportunity

For the woman who was going back and forth with her position, it was just so awesome to see her use reframing as a way to move past and overcome what was going on in her mind.

The fight is worth it, but in most cases, the fight starts in the mind. As a leader, if you can learn to bypass those negative barriers existing within you, you’re going to achieve a whole lot more.

I would love for all of you to go and watch my TEDx talk. I hope it will impact you significantly. You can find it directly in mentions below or you may search it on YouTube.

This is the key: as a leader, you can transform any challenges and obstacles you have into an opportunity to grow yourself, your team mainly in growing their emotional intelligence and their ability to overcome, and the organization.

Mentions

Watch Heather’s TEDx Talk on Transforming Adversity into Opportunity

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