Founder, Incito Executive and Leadership Development. Helping reactive leaders become strategic and inspiring leaders.
Getty
A common misconception of leaders is that they have to know what to do all the time, especially in times of crisis or uncertainty. While senior leaders may have a significant amount of expertise and experience at this point in their careers, it is also important that they remain open-minded.
Open-mindedness, and the willingness to consider new information, can help everyone grow. However, leaders sometimes feel conflicted about welcoming outside perspectives and what that might mean for their authority.
Why Some Leaders Have Trouble With Open-Mindedness
Some leaders get caught in the trap of thinking they have to have all the answers and put pressure on themselves to figure things out on their own. They may think, “it’s all up to me.” Others might think that being open to others’ opinions means having to change their view to match the others’ as a result—that they can’t listen and still have a different perspective or opinion after.
In high-pressure situations, leaders might feel that they have to make decisions right away—that they don’t have time to spend on listening to other voices outside of their own expertise area or that shopping around perspectives is too slow. They might also think that too much input or too many options can be confusing and lead to analysis paralysis, like being given a big menu at a restaurant. But all of this points to a fixed mindset due to an urge to self-protect.
What harm can truly come from being open-minded? It is just information after all, and you can make your decision on what to do about it after. Just because you have new data doesn’t mean that you have to be completely swayed and change your whole belief system. But even if it does, information shouldn’t be feared, but embraced, because of the opportunity it brings for a better future.
Open-Mindedness Signals A Growth Mindset
Leaders encounter challenges on a regular basis. However, the thinking that created today’s challenges won’t be the thinking that gets you through them. When you encounter especially difficult issues that aren't easily solved, you probably haven't been through them before. Therefore, the key to moving past these problems is being open to new information to help find solutions, and simply being open to that shows a growth mindset.
Those with a fixed mindset often believe they have to be perfect from the start. You may not even start or could give up early on. With a growth mindset, you move from thinking, “I can’t do that,” to “I can’t do that yet, but I can figure it out,” and take baby steps forward. Learn and be open to influencing and evolving your thinking. Have the humility to recognize gaps in your knowledge and the courage to take on new thinking when it challenges what you thought you knew. Both of these can engender trust with everyone you work with.
Generally, it's highly rewarding to learn new things. Being challenged and stretched is usually a strong intrinsic motivator. But some leaders may think that in their position, they should have already learned everything they needed to in order to get to where they are. People with strong abilities can get caught up in feeling that if they need to grow, maybe they weren’t good enough to begin with. However, that is where the mindset should change from learning being a corrective measure to something that is evolutionary. Open-minded leaders continue to evolve from a proactive and positive outlook.
Problem solving also gets much easier with access to more viewpoints. When you’re always considering future perspectives and new thinking, you’re less likely to feel like you’ve been caught off guard.
Cultivating Open-Mindedness
There are a lot of ways leaders can practice open-mindedness. Pause and reflect when you encounter new and unexpected information. Practice suspending your judgment and staying curious just a little bit longer. Notice when you’re getting trapped in judgment.
When digesting new information, be sure to take confirmation bias into account. Journaling and taking time to think things through can help with this. Consider what has worked for you in the past and what may be different in the future.
Expose yourself to new experiences and ideas. Read a diverse range of articles and thought leadership sources. As a senior leader, you have a lot of strategic thinking involved in your role and likely encourage innovation. Innovation is a collision of ideas to create something new. You need new ideas in order to make new advancements.
You should also connect with peers and discuss emerging issues and trends. Ask questions of people who think differently than you do. Invite others to test your thinking and give you feedback. Take professional development courses, especially ones that are outside your expertise area. Be open to taking courses that round you out as a leader and professional, rather than focusing on depth in your functional expertise area.
As a leader, you should always be looking at what could make you better for what is coming next. Instead of fearing what new perspectives will do for your authority, look at learning as a good thing. Being open-minded is not about adopting someone else’s viewpoint. It’s about having a “yes, and” mentality. The combination of your and others’ thinking can help you evolve. At the same time, you should make room for self-compassion, because it is not easy to challenge your own thinking. Not everyone expects you to have all the answers all the time, but where you are is always a good starting point.
Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
