Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps- By Dr. Jennifer Garvey Berger
I am going to do my best to entice you to read this fantastic, compelling, and original book by Jennifer Garvey Berger, Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps.
Our world is under profound stress, and leaders are working hard to find the way through the confusion and chaos. Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps suggests that our typical responses to uncertainty leave us blind to a myriad of options. She outlines five pervasive "mindtraps" in an entertaining, informative narrative. I find her mindtraps fascinating and dead-on accurate. You'll need to read the book to learn how to resist the urge to fall into these traps.
The first mindtrap is our desire for simple stories. We naturally assemble data into an understandable story arc and unconsciously ignore information that doesn't support the story we have constructed. Complex problems rarely have a simple beginning, middle, and end and never a simple cause and effect.
The second mind trap is our sincere desire to be right. Most of us believe we are right most of the time, and as Dr. Garvey Berger quotes from Daniel Kahneman, ..."our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance and uncertainty of the world we live in." Our need to be right kills creativity and openness to information that may prove us wrong.
I certainly recognize this trait in myself and can remember many meetings where I confidently presented my concept and seethed when someone new to the discussion raised concerns or questions. My failure to be open and curious closed off opportunities to examine other options to invite others to the table, to welcome a new perspective.
The third mindtrap is the trap caused by the strong need to agree. No one wants to be outside the group, and this results in a strong desire to reach an agreement with others. But the cost of quick approval may be unsatisfactory compromises or suppressing divergent points of view. Dr. Garvey Berger argues that disagreement does not have to result in exclusion or polarization, but could broaden options under consideration and result in richer options.
The fourth mindtrap is the need to control. When life is scary, we grab for as much control over the unknown as possible. But control is an illusion and often is a poor substitute for solving the problem. When it's impossible to control the big problem, we try to control small issues, hence the shelves empty of toilet paper. Dr. Garvey Berger suggests that instead of trying to control a defined outcome, we shift our efforts to influencing and enabling the expressions of new options. Perhaps we are open to small experiments and relinquish the illusion that we can control an uncontrollable situation.
The final mind trap is our egos. We all know this is a problem, in others, but when we look honestly, we can see how much energy we expend protecting our egos. Dr. Garvey Berger quotes Bob Kegan and Lisa Lahey, "In an ordinary organization, most people are doing a second job no one's paying them for. In businesses large and small; in government agencies, schools, and hospitals; in for-profits and non-profits, and in any country in the world, most people are spending time and energy covering up their weaknesses, managing other people's impressions of them, showing themselves to their best advantage, playing politics, hiding their inadequacies, hiding their uncertainties, hiding their limitations. Hiding."
Imagine what we could tackle if we didn't work so hard to protect who we are now.
Please read this book to learn more about these traps and to discover how you may become aware of these traps and find your way out. The complex world we live in requires new approaches. Dr. Garvey Berger wrote the book for leaders, it's spare and powerful, and I urge you to read this no matter your leadership role. At this point, we all need to lead.