Frontier Mindset (Second Edition)

Why Settle for Average? Discover the discipline of change leadership and create the future that you want.

Marcel Wilson

• Publisher: Publicious Book Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780995436633
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

Do you have an idea improving your industry, company, community or family?

Why are some people able to create the future they want, while others are followers of others' ideas?

Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King and The Wright Brothers all had one thing in common – their Frontier Mindset. Frontier Mindset is a change-enabled way of thinking.

Acquiring a Frontier Mindset is the key to thriving in our fast-changing world and getting what you want.

Frontier Mindset cuts through the complexity of life and reveals the simplest approach to becoming an influential leader of change.

In this book, you will learn how to:

• Develop your capability as a leader of change

• Acquire a frontier mindset and amplify your influence

• Take control of your future

Frontier Mindset helps individuals and teams to gain the ‘mindset advantage’ they require to thrive in our fast-changing world.

PART 1

CHANGE LEADERSHIP

CHAPTER ONE

Constant Change — Now What?

For many of us, the pace of global change has developed such momentum that by the time we get to understand a new technology, implications of cost cutting in our industry, changes at our company or a new social media trend, something new appears and, again, we’re” on the back foot.”

In your lifetime, the world you know, your comfort zone, your company and its industry, will be completely transformed in ways that you can’t even begin to comprehend. In the coming years, you will be intrigued, challenged and in some cases shocked how new technologies, changes in social policies, evolution of jobs and transformation of workplaces will impact your life. What I am talking about is the exponential trajectory that our society has taken since the turn of the last century. There is no doubt that our time is defined by constant global change.

With every change that happens outside of your control, you are expected to ‘jump,’ to continually determine the next move for your career, the strategy for your finances or how you will secure your family’s future. Constant change has meant that today, most people’s lives are out of control – their future is at risk. It’s no wonder stress is the number one killer in developed countries! Many people are simply out of control with the pace of change and that’s a stressful way to live. No one wants to be a victim of change.

Is there a better way?

There is no denying we all face the chaos of our fast-changing world. Is there a better way to deal with change? How can each of us acquire greater certainty to get what we want? How can we live with greater empowerment? How can you create a better future for you, your family and your company? For people who want to rise above the chaos, these are the most pressing questions of our time. In this book, you will discover that by committing to developing your capabilities, you can leverage our society’s appetite for change to your advantage — to not only take control of your future, but also thrive! You will learn the approach taken by the most successful and influential people who thrive on change. You will learn to harness change instead of fight against it and, in the process, turn uncertainty into clarity. You will learn how to amplify your influence to create your own waves of change. When you do this, you too, can achieve your goals.

Today, it’s not enough to simply work hard and expect that “somehow” things will fall into place.” Today, too many people struggle because their thinking is outdated. They think from a time when the world was slower to change; things were more stable. High-performing individuals upgrade their thinking to ensure it is fit for today’s world. What we all require is a mindset that is change-ready. Thriving through change requires we move from a mindset of limitation to one of no-limits.

As we will explore in this book, ‘high-performance’ in a fast-changing world cannot co-exist with things that limit us such as: fear, rules or our own skills. Highly effective people who thrive in our fast-changing world share a mindset that is limitless rather than limited. This mindset is what I call a “Frontier Mindset.” It is the mindset that underpins high performers like Bill Gates (co-founder of Microsoft), Grant Cardone (world leading sales trainer), Elon Musk (founder of Tesla and SpaceX) and other innovative company leaders like Google and Apple. It is a mindset that enabled the Wright Brothers to invent powered flight. These are just some of the examples we will explore in this book. A Frontier Mindset enables these high performers, and you, if you’re ready, to constantly reinvent how they add value. Regardless of whether you work in a constantly changing marketplace, an uncertain workplace or a complex battle zone, a Frontier Mindset is what you need. As we will explore, it is this mindset that is fit-for-purpose for our fast-changing world.

Frontier leaders don’t see their skillset, business credentials or even fears as fixed or immovable limitations. Rather, their success is underpinned by an obsession to overcome obstacles that stand between where they are today and a future goal or objective. They break through the constraint of rules, processes, lack of capability, capital and even their own fears or insecurities.

To become a frontier leader who can influence others toward positive change, we must develop a mindset that can swiftly flip a thought based on limitation into a thought of possibility or opportunity — the good things that propel us forward.

Limitless on one breath

There can be no better example of mental strength based on a limitless mindset, than what is required in the sport of free-diving. Although there are many different professional classifications of free-diving, the sport requires athletes to swim to depths on one breath with no assistance from any external air supply. In 2016, world-renowned free-diver and record holder William Trubridge, from New Zealand, set a new world record. The category of the record was ‘free-immersion,’ requiring competitors to deep-dive following a vertical line with no fins and, of course, on a single breath of air. Trubridge smashed his own record on the 1^st of May, achieving a new depth record of 121 meters.

At this depth, no light is visible, the water is cold and the diver is required to maintain incredible composure just to survive — let alone achieve a new record. When you consider that the average person can likely dive to 10 meters, a dive of 121 meters seems incomprehensible. How can a person with two arms and two legs, like you and I, perform at such extreme levels? At age 38, Trubridge is clearly an incredible example of what the human body can achieve once the mind has removed all limitations.

Developing your mindset is your duty

What are the possibilities for your work, family or personal aspirations, if ALL limits were removed? Imagine if you could break through your current levels of performance. What would it mean to you if, like William Trubridge, you could achieve at world-class levels in your field? As we will explore, the answers to these questions substantially relate to your mindset and ability to push through the barriers that limit change. These barriers can be physical, psychological, social, structural, processes, beliefs or even ourselves. You see, anything can be a limiting barrier if we allow it. Some people have phobias of the strangest and most ordinary things. For those people, these limiting mindsets severely impede their ability to make the most out of life — including achieving their full potential. For this reason, it is our duty to ourselves to take control of our mindset. By doing this, we can start every day capable of realizing the fullness of our potential. When you’re facing constant uncertainty and change, you’re going to need to bring your ‘A-game’ to stay ahead. This starts with taking responsibility for your mindset. A limitless mindset is your duty!

Where to start

Many people are overwhelmed by the forces of global change in their lives. They don’t know where to start to regain control over their own lives. For many people, it doesn’t seem like job security can be possible. Especially when global companies are closing manufacturing facilities, jobs are disappearing and technological automation is replacing people. What influence can individuals have on creating job security in a world that is dominated by large, powerful companies? Just like William Trubridge who breaks beyond seemingly immoveable physiological barriers in the sport of free-diving, you too, can break beyond the barriers of control in your own situation.

With the right leadership skills, you can influence change in your favor. The implementation of these skills is sometimes called change leadership. Change leadership, however, is unintuitive — it isn’t something that can be managed like a project. Instead we can only facilitate change; influencing the flow of information, processes and fostering relationships between people. Also, because of the indirect pathways to realizing outcomes, change leadership is not something can that be simply taught. The pathway to becoming great as a leader of change requires both life-experience for understanding the human condition, and experience in utilizing and practicing change-specific skills. In this book, we are going to cover the most powerful concepts and strategies relating to change leadership, but it’s up to you to utilize, practice and apply these in your own life. Over time, you can become a truly great change leader. But first, we will start with the basics …

What is change?

Change can be any decision, strategy, project idea or initiative that you want to implement. Before the value of our ideas can be realized, a change of people’s behaviors is often necessary. In other words, for any idea to be successful, the people involved must change their behaviors to support the idea. So, when we consider “change,” it’s really any planned or unplanned future initiative or idea. But since that’s a bit of a mouthful, in this book I will refer to these important plans, initiatives or ideas we each have simply as ‘change.’ When I talk about you as a ‘change leader,’ I am talking about how you can get others to change their behaviors to support your important ideas or vision for the future! Change leadership is the set of skills that enables you to have maximum impact when facilitating change.

Who should lead change?

What is your profession? I am not asking: what is your job title; what are you good at; or what do you want to be doing at work. Don’t over-think it... What is your profession? The answer I want you to come up with… and be so very clear about is this: your profession can only ever be about one thing.

You are a CHANGE LEADER.

No matter your job title, there is only one thing that matters — that you support your company to change. As you know, today, change is constant. Your company, regardless if anyone has told you or not, requires your expertise to help it create value. For this reason, everyone within an organization is involved in leading change of some kind. Receptionists lead change in the way people are greeted and served at a front desk. Programmers lead change in the way quality code is written. Team leaders lead change in the way their teams support customers.

The greatest thing you can do this week in improving your performance is to stop thinking of your work as a job that you do. Instead, think of your work as an opportunity to lead important change improvements.

If you’re unsure about what I’m saying and want someone’s ‘permission’ before calling yourself a change leader? Ask your company’s board or CEO if they would like things to remain the same or change for the better. I haven’t met any company head who said that they are content with how things are at that moment! Every company in every industry is under pressure of some kind to improve, grow, shrink, expand, deliver projects, restructure, automate, acquire, reduce headcount, geographically consolidate etc. Because of this, every employee, regardless of his or her role, is also pivotal in enabling those changes to occur. Shareholders expect growth, governments keep changing regulatory requirements, new technology is invented ‘every second.’ Contrary to what most people believe, change isn’t something only leaders at the top are required to do. Change happens at the grassroots level, with people like you and me leading it.

While you may not hold the title of president or CEO; I assure you that you are a leader of change in your life. If you’re a teacher, you’re a leader of change in the lives of your students. If you’re an architect, you’re a leader of change in lives of people whose houses you design. If you’re a chiropractor, you’re leading change in the back health of your patients. If you’re a lawyer, you help your clients to create change in their legal issues. If you’re a parent, you’re a leader in supporting your children in growing up! The point is that in every profession and in life in general, everyone leads change. Why? Because leading change is how value is created. Staying the same doesn’t create value. Value comes with change. If you don’t create change in your company or for its clients, shareholders, employees or partners, then sorry to say, it’s likely that you don’t create a great deal of value. Those who are most employable are the ones who create the most value for their company and its shareholders.

My point? It is your obligation, responsibility and duty to recognize your role as a leader of change. For this reason, acquiring the skills, confidence and experience to lead change is vital for everyone to be effective at their job and life in general. Your responsibility as leader of change is not only important to your own life and personal achievement but those around you. How seriously you take your change leadership responsibility will also impact the lives of your students, team members, patients, clients and children, whomever you care most about. Each of us learns to acquire the functional skills to perform our specific professions. But while learning, what universities and educational institutions fail to tell us is that these skills are not enough for getting the results that matter. Creating an impact in your job and life in general, comes from being able to make change happen. For that reason, you require the skills to influence others to follow your vision and support new ideas for change. In our fast-changing world, everyone has a responsibility to develop this change leadership capability.

Removing barriers in a world that is obsessed with change

It takes time to become good at something. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers¹ describes how intentional and disciplined practice over time is required for acquiring world-class capability in any given field. Gladwell even quantifies this duration of dedicated practice required; a number he coined as the “10,000 Hour Rule.” Just think of a violinist, a sports person, a lawyer or any field that requires practice: according to Gladwell, these pursuits require approximately 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to become world-class.

Just as in these high-profile and competitive fields, in each of our lives we are required to develop a range of important skills. We are required to acquire these competencies to simply be effective at life. For example, we must be competent with d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Special Invitation
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Note to Readers
• Part 1 — Change Leadership
• Part 2 — Frontier Mindset
• Part 3 — Equanimity
• Part 4 — Willingness to Let Go
• Part 5 — Conclusion: Your Vision for Change
• Glossary
• Acknowledgements