From the GreenBiz Notebook (Pt 1 of 3)
Is your team’s mindset positive or negative?
What #GreenBiz can teach us
I attended GreenBiz ’23 earlier this month and there was much food for thought. Of course there was a lot to digest around different aspects of sustainability. For me, there were also a number of points coming out that I could relate to either creative problem-solving or leadership. Over the next few posts, I’ll highlight the ones that resonated and explain why.
Part 1 - Mindset
Today I’m reflecting on the interview with Gina McCarthy, who was the first White House national climate advisor (2021-2), and who previously served as the thirteenth Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (2013-17). I liked the way she kept coming back to the importance of mindset. These four things in particular were thought-provoking for me:
“When you’re facing big tasks and challenges, the first thing is to be hopeful. Do the best you can with what you have.”
Mindset is crucial to success. If you know that you’ll have a positive solution – you just haven’t found it yet – then it’s easier to keep going. Your job as leader is to remind your team of what you’ve set out to achieve, and actively look for ways to apply your staff’s talents. Channel a sports coach who helps their athletes keep their eye on the prize.
“There’s no such thing as a dead end. You have to just keep working it.”
Albert Einstein is credited with saying “Creativity is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration”. Persistence is one of the foundations of creative thinking. Imagine if Thomas Edison had given up after a few tries at the light bulb!
“Don’t worry so much about where we’re going to be in 10 or 15 years; worry about what you’re doing today, about the creativity you can bring to the table, because if you do, you will achieve your goal.”
Those of you who read me regularly know that I feel for every leader who is having to deal with changes happening faster than ever and that this creates havoc when it comes to strategic planning. From my days as a productivity consultant, where I helped business owners and executives deal with the overwhelm in their office and their head, I know that what helps you feel more in control is controlling the things that you have control over. Think about this statement for a minute. You can’t control what your customers and clients are going to do far in the future, the decisions they will make. What you can control are the services, products, and responses you provide your customers now and in the short-term. The bridge that connects current offerings with future activities is understanding your customers. Getting to know what’s in their head now will help you more accurately predict how they’ll behave in the near future. Nobody is able to predict buying or giving behavior in the long-term, so don’t even try.
“Every step of the way, pat yourself on the back.”
In my opinion, we don’t celebrate enough. Celebration is important because it releases feel-good enzymes in the brain, which reinforces the positivity of the action we took and encourages repeating that action. Patting your team on the back for small successes encourages them to keep taking those small steps. Small steps add up to a great distance.
New podcast interview!
If you manage creatives or are a creative, you may be interested in this episode of “Deep Dive: Coaching for Creatives”!
Cami Travis-Groves and I talk about the ways in which creative people and analytical people think differently and how they can peacefully coexist in the same environment, as well as how creatives maintain and articulate their creativity in a corporate or analytical environment.
Have a listen and let me know what resonated for you: https://lnkd.in/gFxbqqtG
I believe that, with the right support anyone can learn creative ways to solve problems. If you’d like to see what tapping into creative potential could look like at your place of work, contact me at Ellia@ThePotentialCenter.com to arrange a call.