J: Welcome to Slingshot25’s shotcast, a series of bite-sized podcasts that will feel like an espresso shot to your brain. I’m Jackie
C: And I’m Courtney.
J: And something that we have been thinking about is thinking, actually, and your brain, see how I did that? We’ve been thinking about thinking, which I believe it’s called metacognition.
C: Oh my goodness.
J: I know I’m throwing out the big words really early, not even 30 seconds into the baby. Google it. So, what we really want to say about thinking is that leadership is a thinking game, and we want to talk a little bit about the difference between thinking and technique. Does that make sense, Courtney?
C: It does to me, but I know what we’re going to talk about.
J: Help make sense of that to our listeners.
C: So, we end up saying a lot, like we don’t teach a lot of technique, and what we mean by technique is prescribed instructions on how to lead like formulas, scripts… Answers to the back, the back of the book. We don’t teach much of that because, as we talked about in some of our other episodes, being a good leader means being able to sense and respond. And part of the things we have to be able to sense is how do we actually think about things. Because our thinking drives our actions are behaviors, and it is actually the sum result of how we treat people.
J: That’s right to another word that is out there and getting really popular and has been popular for a number of years, now is this idea of mindset. And this, of course, is what we’re talking about. You’ve heard things like the coaching mindset or the leader mindset. This is what this is, really essentially what we’re getting at. There is a way to train yourself to think about situations differently – about how you show up. How you essentially experience any interaction with another human being, and this is what we talk to people about. Moreso than technique. Now, I’ll let you know that if you’re ever in any one of our training classes, you will learn some technique. We are not here to shame technique teachers. We’re just finding that in order to get people to really make the most of technique is to also, give them the deeper mindset that is behind that. Because we can we think that, if you, if you can teach yourself to think differently in it in a setting, to essentially show up differently into a moment, all of the technique, all the words you need to say, the things you need to do, the ideas that will, then that will come to you and, and come out in a conversation is based on how you’re thinking about that moment.
C: And your intent ends up being the thing that overrides like is less about the words and it’s more about what you mean to create an experience for someone else. So the words matter. Words always matter. But, deeper than that is. What’s your intention? Do you care? Do you value the person in front of you? Can you are you there to help them? If you’re thinking about that other person, if you’re thinking about how you make them successful, If you’re thinking about, hey, I believe in them and I think they can do this. You have those kinds of thoughts, as a leader, it doesn’t matter how you talk, or what words, you use to talk to them. That intent and that goodness will come across, and people will follow that. So, you need to think about how you think.
J: Yeah, that’s right. There is a researcher, I don’t have the name. I’m beginning to become notorious for coming on to these little conversations. Courtney talking about someone else’s work and not being able to give them proper attribution. Again, thanks to Google, you can look this up. It’s a researcher who came up with the idea. Actually, it’s a philosopher who came up with the idea of an I-thou versus an “I – it” conversation. Corporate America is notorious for pushing us into more of an I – it meaning – seeing interactions as more transactional. What I can get out of it. What kinds of things I can get? What kind of problems I can solve for me? And to see each interaction is more transactional. And I – thou, I know it’s a bit of a dated word, “thou,” but basically, an I – You conversation, puts you in the mindset of approaching that conversation as we are two people in a moment together. And that my focus is about you and wondering about what you are thinking and feeling how you are experiencing this moment and it’s focused on relationships. That’s essentially the kind of thinking and we have all kinds of strategies and exercises and practices for how we can and wiggle you into that mindset so that you’re not grasping for technique. In it in more of a transactional kind of way.
C: And who do you want to work for, right? Do you want to work for someone who treats you like an “it” or someone that treats you like a person? It is pretty simple and then who do you want to be to others?
J: That’s it. We’re also famous for saying, don’t believe everything you think.
So with that, that’s all we have for this episode of our Shotcast. But of course, we always have much more to say particularly on this topic. So if you want more or drop us a line at Slingshot25.com. Until next time…