What’s a mindset? It’s a way of looking at the world, at a situation, or at ourselves. It’s a set of assumptions that guides our actions. For example, a mindset in the US that electricity is a relatively cheap, abundant, safe, and reliable resource leads us to reach for a light switch when we walk into a dark room. It’s often an unconscious act, based on a set of learned assumptions. Changing any part of that mindset may lead us to different behavior: someone considering the impact of their electrical use on the environment would be more likely to pause and consider whether a light was necessary. Mindsets aren’t inherently good or bad, but are a necessary part of how we get through our day. Without mindsets to help speed decision-making, we would get far less done.

Our mindsets hold great power, in that what we feel we can influence strongly affects what we actually do influence. It’s an idea that we try to instill in our children. Think of “The Little Engine That Could” (“I think I can!”) or the song “High Hopes” (“Everyone knows an ant can’t move a rubber tree plant…”). We seem to lose touch with-or lose faith in-the idea that mindset shapes prescription cialis generic behavior as we get older. Yet there’s new research in neuroscience that shows it’s more than a Pollyanna outlook on the power of positive thinking, but an idea that has its basis in brain chemistry.

Science is now proving two important concepts that have long been held as common sense: that expectation shapes reality and that attention density shapes identity. First, that what we expect to happen, strongly influences what actually does happen. Think of a placebo effect, wherein patients given a sugar pill experience a reduction in pain because that’s what they expect to feel. Second, that with continued attention, mindsets become permanent, stable pathways in the brain. In other words, the more you think that something is possible, likely, or useful, the more that notion becomes an inherent part of your thinking. Further, once an idea like that is part of your thought processes, it determines how you approach the world and the actions you take as a result. That’s a lot of power, knowing that just by changing the way you think about an issue, you can proactively impact the outcome.

The difficulty is that, since most mindsets are unconscious and accessed so quickly, they can be difficult to recognize. Our brains move through the cognitive process in a split second: observing data, adding meaning, and choosing an action. When we’re thinking so quickly, we often don’t realize that our mindset doesn’t fit the situation, or that we’re acting on incomplete data. We tend to pay attention to things that reinforce what we believe.

Human beings are natural storytellers. If we don’t have all the information about a given situation, we fill in the blanks. Recently I was sitting on the expressway in a traffic jam, finally approaching my exit, when a car that had been driving along the median edged in front of me. I looked at all the data-the aggressive driving, the make of the car, the driver’s cell phone use-and I made up a story: this guy was a jerk. He was privileged; he acted like he owned the road, etc. Because I’d decided he was a jerk, I acted accordingly. I tried not to let him in. Not necessarily behavior I’m proud of, but it’s the story I made up about the situation, which then informed my actions. Of course, I don’t know if my story was true. He may have been having a medical emergency. His wife may have just had a baby. He may have been late for the most important meeting of his career. If I had different data, I may have acted differently. Based on my past experiences, though, I created a story and I acted upon it. It all happened in the span of a few seconds, and the same process happens thousands of times a day. The trick lies in learning to recognize your mindsets so you decide whether they’re helping or hindering you.

Author Bio: Mindy Hall, Ph.D. is the President & CEO of Peak Development Consulting, LLC, creating custom organization and leadership development solutions for clients worldwide. For more articles on shaping cultures, cultivating leaders, developing teams, and building HR capacity, visit: http://www.peakdevelopment.com/articles.html

Category: Business/Leadership
Keywords: cultivating leaders, developing business leadership, executive development, leadership development, use of self, intentional leadership, mindset