I have a confession – I used to think I was “bad” with people.
For years, I told myself that people didn’t like me because I didn’t know how to talk with them and didn’t understand how to be a good teammate to them.
And for all those years, it kept me safe. And at a distance. And deeply unhappy and unfulfilled.
On my work teams, I’d seek out any and every opportunity to perform my work independently.
I’d remain silent in meetings.
I blamed others for my dissatisfaction.
And it caused huge fractures on my work teams.
I heard whispers of people feeling like they had to walk on eggshells around me.
It completely sucked.
Because I, like all other humans, craved to connection to others. My insides were in a constant push-pull and I definitely was not getting the results I wanted in my life.
I didn’t want to limit my leadership potential. I had to embrace a growth mindset.
So I decided, after a llllooootttt of coaching and personal development work that I was going to make an effort to do it differently.
I make the conscious choice to deeply trust that I had the ability to work with others and assume that just maybe people weren’t trying to piss me off on purpose.
It started by supporting one client to hire another assistant. And then another client asked me to bring on two assistants. And then I was hiring project contractors. And then it moved to helping build full coaching teams.
I was helping these incredible dedicated clients build out their teams so that they could scale up their businesses.
Not only was I actually happily working with other people, I was now responsible for hiring, training and managing these people at varying degrees.
It was a 180 degree change in how I used to work.
And guess what happened?
I found my purpose. To help build and lead high performing teams.
I went from someone who shied away from communicating with team members and basically being a large part of team breakdowns to someone who has built numerous successful, high-achieving teams that rely on regular communications – no drama allowed.
I wanted to share this story with you because I’ve been reminded lately of how far I’ve grown in the past 5+ years. Accomplishments and insights that I had never thought possible were only achievable because I decided to think differently about what things meant.
No matter where you are today, whether you’re like me of years ago and basically being the destroyer of your team or closer to me of today and understand how to lead your team with clarity, adopting a growth mindset will take you further than you thought possible.
It’s the secret sauce to help you improve if there’s a larger gap to close or if there are some things to fine tune to get even better.
How are you using a growth mindset to support you in your business? Where might the lack of a growth mindset be holding you back?
Comment below and share it with me. I’m on the edge of my keyboard waiting to hear from you.
Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash