In my current role as Dean of the Honors College and Texas Academy, I have found that there are many challenges across both programs. From the smallest minutia of the daily whirlwind to the larger “fires” that our team put out. The daily whirlwind, as mentioned in the Influencer model by Grenny et al., 2013) can be very time consuming and frustrating because most of those experiences tend to steal the lifeblood out of your day. However, these small challenges can still move the needle on your wildly important goals (WIGs), that is, if you have those goals clearly articulated. This means every single discussion, move we make, and even the harder decisions and challenges can be an opportunity for that stubborn needle to move. This is not an easy task and requires much thought, patience, and a strong commitment to what is seemingly difficult to navigate. What can really lunge an opportunity forward or backward is how we navigate the larger challenges. It is so important to engage ourselves introspectively: “What is my mindset right now? Who am I and where am I going? Who do I want to become?” The same tool can be used for the team: What is our mindset right now? Who are we and where are we going? Our goals should be at the forefront of everything we do, including our reactions, the moves we make, etc. This goal is difficult to maintain if words are the only method used to get there, in other words, talking the rhetoric only. Actionable, tangible goals that move the needle in the right direction that impact the organization for the positive are not only difficult to do, but also a challenge to maintain.
What I have become a master at doing these days is turning challenges into opportunities – this is part of a Learner’s Mindset by the way. Each difficult scenario I tell myself, “I just added another metal vertebrae to my spine.” That is not to say that all challenges are bad; but some are more difficult than others. It is the process of navigating through those challenges with the thought, “what can I learn and what good can come out of this?” This is very timely for me because I will soon be attending a meeting where words were exchanged between two people that turned out to be a misunderstanding. It is easy to dismiss the issue and not bring up important topics, but the key here will be to establish trust by putting dialogue into the pool of meaning (Crucial Conversations) so moving forward a shared understanding is developed. Conflict is important; conflict can lead to the better results, even better than what existed before. All that to say that I view each issue, challenge, and problem as an opportunity to rise above and find a way to link that challenge as a stepping stone to meeting my WIG. I have found that modeling this behavior and walking the walk is the best way to do this for yourself and others. Yes, it does require a shift in thinking and an inward view of your own mindset. But that is where the opportunity itself lies, it is a matter of interpretation and cycling back to, “What is my mindset right now? Who am I and where am I going? Who do I want to become?” Those are the key drivers behind making a decision to be proactive versus reactive, finding a way when there seemingly isn’t one, and discovering that you have the potential to grow into someone you never thought you could be, and finally, recognizing that every challenge is YOUR opportunity.
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The new science of leading change (2nd ed.). McGraw Hill.
Harapnuik, D. K. (2021a, February 9). Learner’s mindset explained. It’s about learning. https://www.harapnuik.org/?p=8705
