Around 175 AD, Marcus Aurelius wrote “Our life is what our thoughts make it.” Abraham Lincoln echoed this sentiment with, “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.” And Dale Carnegie quipped, “Our thoughts make us what we are.” These are wise words handed down to us through time.
A few weeks ago, at the Dale Carnegie annual convention, we heard a keynote speaker talk about abundance. These initial quotes from history and the speech on abundance are linked and have extraordinary implications for us as CEOs and executives.
Our mindset impacts everything and everyone within our organization and sphere of influence. An abundance mindset makes all the difference to our leadership style and how we approach our business and people.
We are the message and we are the face of the company. What we say, how we say it and how we look when we say it marks the difference between trust, credibility and respect, and disengagement.
We are tasked with having or developing an abundance mindset so that we can be that message. But what is an abundance mindset?
Beyond the surface definition, an abundance mindset is how we steel ourselves against the tough times. It is easy to have a good attitude when things are going well; a true leader has an abundant mindset even when the chips are down.
Let’s contrast this to a scarcity mindset. Scarcity tells us that here is never enough. Scarcity makes us believe that there is not enough of anything to go around; the zero-sum game. Scarcity tells us that we need to scale back, spend less, grow less, train less. Hunker down to weather the storm.
Don’t get me wrong, there are times when we must implement strategic changes, as long as they are strategic and based on data and not knee-jerk reactions to emotional stimuli that we have allowed to give us a scarcity mindset. Scarcity and negative are twins. Do not let them infect your mindset or it will be picked up and carried by everyone around you/us.
Recently, a number of challenging opportunities occurred in our business. It was difficult to not let it invade my mindset.
We were on a Zoom when my text notification prompted me to look, when I normally don’t. The team could feel my angst in response to the message through the Zoom.
Luckily, it was just the leadership team. Imagine if that was the whole organization feeling our negative emotions through the screen. We must control our mindset, our thoughts and our emotions to spare passing something negative onto the team. After reading the text, I thought of a quick saying given to me by Dale Carnegie. Thinking it enabled me to move it to my smile and then to my attitude.
I may have stumbled but I did not fall. A quick few thoughts, and my abundance mindset was restored. If I act enthusiastically, I will be enthusiastic. Now it is your turn to achieve that mindset.
John Glaneman is president of Dale Carnegie Training of Northeast Ohio and Western PA
