Break Out of the Box, Learn & Adapt

Intro

Don’t be afraid to change your mind 

Flexible and adaptive 

vs.

Stubborn and narrow-minded

How will you work and lead?

I have found through the last couple years, as I’ve gone on a journey to figure out who I am what I love, and what I’m here to do, I dig deeper to learn more about myself and become more open-minded.  

The Story

My mind changes about previous beliefs or the lens at which I view them. This is something hard that can be difficult to explain so forgive me for the lack of good visuals here, but when you do open your mind to learning, development, new industries, new ways of doing things, it’s amazing how much your perspective changes on positivity, connection, people, and a general outlook for the future.

Whether you’ve been in the military, you’ve been in an hourly floor job, you’ve been in a restaurant, customer service center, or you’ve been in corporate, it can have a way of brainwashing your individuality out of you. And I don’t mean anything against any of those as they can all be  real positive environments depending on their methods, the company values, your drivers, way of working, and enjoyment. 

People thrive in jobs where they get to do it their way at least some of the job. That doesn’t always work, and doesn’t always happen, but it’s important to find opportunities where you can work and be as close to your true self as possible, where artificial limits aren’t put on you. There are enough ceilings in life for many—you don’t a ceiling established for the sake of one, handed down by an institution.

And if you don’t put yourself in situations where you test the way you work, the way you think, what you believe, and you don’t have a clear path to go that direction, you’re setting yourself up for failure from beginning. The same goes for leadership when you’re trying to bring other people along with you—think about how they feel, when you can put yourself in their shoes and can reframe how you approach situations. You’re much more empathetic and can relate to your team the the more you put yourself in their shoes and really think about where they’re coming from.

So if you can get your people out of the box and put them in an environment where they can thrive in the context of your business, you’re putting your yourself, and them, in a much better position to succeed. What you’re doing is positioning them in an area where they can learn because if they are happy about the direction, have some passion about the work, or even if they don’t like the the work necessarily, but they feel good about the overall organizational culture and the path forward, the mission that you’re trying to work on, your journey, then your people are more likely to stay on board and do anything they can to make that vision happen. And they’re more likely to embrace the learning and that’s where the growth comes in, is when you don’t learn to check the box, but you actually learn to learn, and get better.

I know from experience—we’re not always learning for learning sake, to get better to develop, and to be the best version of you. A lot of times we’re learning because we have to, we’re directed to, and we’re just checking the box, doing what we’re supposed to do. 

Closing

To wrap it up, think about your own role and why you would stay beyond pay, and consider other people with the 80/20 rule—80% of the job has structure, 20% has your own stylistic time of day, flexibility, creativity aspects to do it your way. It’s a good rule of thumb to explain to people and set the right mindset of structure, but also your own style. We need a little more you in your role or business, instead of trying to make you into someone else.

Don’t be afraid to change your mind 

Flexible and adaptive 

vs.

Stubborn and narrow-minded

How will you work and lead?

Lead10x OS | Building the Organizational Leadership Framework of the future

Supporting Content - For More to the Story

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"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

- Mark Twain

About the Author, Graham Peelle