Winning Words vs. Losing Language: How to Shape the Mindset of Your Team

0:00:00.0 S1: How many of you want to be on a winning team? How many of you want to have your team wake up every day, come to work and feel like they are part of a winning team, or do you want them to feel like for your language, they are losers and nothing's ever gonna be good enough.

0:00:20.8 S2: The landscape of business is changing radically, yeah, leadership is being taught the same hallway it's always been to when the world is changing, it's time to bring our leadership styles along for the ride, thanks to cutting edge neuroscience, none, access to new tools and new language that inspires action, collaboration and innovation in the modern workplace. I started this podcast to bring you the best of these cutting as tools, exercises as practices and modern leadership strategies every single week, whether you're a company leader, a corporate visionary or an entrepreneur, this show gives you new insights and sender OSCE, CE and language of leadership as well, as practical steps and tempts you can take back to the office so you can lead your team in a powerful way, keeping your people happy and engaged while cheating your biggest goals, because no one has ever changed the world by doing things the way they've always been done. I'm your host, Jen for... I'm a talent strategist, an executive coach, speaker in the founder of free or coaching. Now, let's fix leadership.

0:01:24.7 S1: On today's episode of Let's fix leadership, we're gonna talk about how language creates the mindset of winning or the mindset of losing, and today is gonna be a great example of the work is the same, but the language creates different ways of thinking and different mindsets, and there's so much out there around leadership where the work is actually the same, but the language we use creates two different worlds in which that work is being done. So we're gonna talk about how to create a mindset of winning, and there's a thousand books you can read on it, go read those books. We're gonna talk about something a little different than all of those things out there that have been written on for 30 years. We're gonna talk about your language and how you start to think about building in milestones, recognizing milestones, how do you manage long-term projects in a way in which people wanna continue on the race with you, many of you as leaders, as executives, as directors, managers, whatever role you are in... In your current space, oftentimes, you are responsible for putting together some long-range planning, and that could be a six-month project, a 12 months project, it could be a three or five-year projects, when I'm coaching executives, oftentimes, we are talking about three to five year projects, of where they're taking an organization and how to get them there in the mindset of getting an organization to all March 4 to something that could be three to five years in the making, that's not easy.

0:02:59.3 S1: But again, the work is the same, whether you're leading a six-month project or a five-year project, how you use your language, we'll create the sense of winning or the sense of losing. So let's talk more about that. All projects that are longer term and range are going to have milestones or those pauses or those... We get this done and then we go on to the next and the next and the next. I would say that most leaders, when I start coaching them are so worried about what's next is that they never worry about where we are or what we just accomplish, and they just jump to the next, so they're in that meeting, that meeting... We've all been in, that's so painful that there's a big project in multiple departments are touching it, everyone gets in there and everyone has to give their update... Their department updates. And no one's paying attention. Everyone's just rolling their eyes. We all been in that meeting. I don't need to describe it to you because we all got some trauma around that, but here's what happens, is we just report the news and then we start to talk about what's next or what's going on, or how someone else is gonna get that next one.

0:04:08.5 S1: Here's what we're not doing that often, and that is celebrating the wins and making sure someone feels like they have crossed a finish line. Now, this is a long race. There are many, many finish lines to get on to get to the final final race, but if we're not celebrating those wins along the way, then the mindset is, This is hard, this is difficult. We're never gonna get there. All we're worried about is what's next, and there's never this sense of I-1, and I want you to have a team that feels like, man, when I work for this leader, I am a winner, every single day I'm winning in some way, because that creates evidence of success, and we all know the more success we have, the more success that gets built on top of that, now, this isn't about the wood, giving everyone a participation trophy. I don't want you guys to think about it that way. I want you to think about your language and how your language either makes people feel like they're part of a winning team, or makes them feel like they're part of a losing team, and again, the work is the same, the milestones are the same, what you have to get done is the same, the actions, the task, all of those little details that are in that spreadsheet, all of that is the same, but how we use our language creates two different worlds, so when someone is making progress, you wanna say, Hey, I see the progress in this...

0:05:33.2 S1: Congratulations, I appreciate this progress. You're really close to the newest Finish Line and leave it at that... It's hard to leave it at that though, you want... And if you listen to what I just said, I kind of wanted to add to... Because it's human nature, you wanna talk about what's next, but I want you to learn how to pause and say, I like where you're at, I like what you've done, you won today, you've gotten it all done for what you needed to do today, go home and feel like a winner. Congratulations.

0:06:02.5 S2: And leave it to them back... Let's take a quick break from the conversation, does your company need to prepare those upcoming leaders to take the rain to learn more about our leadership and our coaching, and to see if your company is a good fit for our transformation program?

0:06:21.2 S1: Is it three or four? Coaching dot com. Now the next morning, you can say, Hey, let's talk about what's next, and you can start that race again, but let someone take a breath, let someone really enjoy completing something before you throw something else on their plate, because that's creating neuro pathways is creating this neuro pathway that when I finish something, I can take a one-second breath, 'cause often times you don't even give each other one second breath. I can appreciate what I've accomplished. My boss sees that I've accomplished it. Everyone's excited. And guess what, now I'm excited to do it again. I have evidence that I can take these tasks, these projects, and I can get them over the finish line over and over and over again, I can do this, and that creates this mental mindset of, I'm able to accomplish things, I'm able to do things. Now, the flip side is, and what happens again, because we're running fast and we don't have enough time, and we're always worried about productivity and we don't have enough people and too much work and all those things that we love to talk about. What happens is we go, Oh.

0:07:35.9 S1: Oh, did you get that done? Great, great, great. Yeah, because what I need to talk to you about stays and you talk to you about what's tomorrow and tomorrow, but Lola... And we just keep running because we carry that anxiety, we pass that anxiety and that stress and that urgency on to our teams, and we do that through our language, and so really listen to yourself as you go through your next few days, if you're listening to this during the week, and it's in the morning, you listen to yourself when you get to work today, or listen to yourself tomorrow morning and start to recognize, are you allowing someone to celebrate what they've accomplished before you throw more on them, are you allowing them to celebrate their wins, or are you just ignoring it and giving your anxiety of What's next over to them, Remember your language can change this, your language can create a world where people feel like winners, and so find those milestones, build them in. If you have a project and there's six key milestones, look at those again and before you start to break them out, you know, is there maybe 12 and they're really short sprints, and every one of those sprints is spent with five minutes as a team, celebrating and talking about how proud they are of their accomplishments before you start talking about What is next, really think about how you can start to create moments of winning within your team, These winds can be small and these winds can be big, and the winds can be in between small and big, but the more opportunities you find for your team to win and for you to verbally say, Great job, I'm glad you completed that, I'm impressed with what you've done.

0:09:18.8 S1: Good job. Any of those things, the more you say it, the more someone's gonna feel like they're part of a winning team, that you see them as a winner, and that's how you keep people engaged, that's how you keep people on your team, that's how you keep people working together, that's how you create a team that helps each other over those milestones and into those winning zones, and don't spend their time complaining on the side, because talk about productivity, if you could get people to stop complaining on the side, you'd have probably 20 hours back to your team every week, and really thinking about how to create this environment where people are winners, so go out there today, I want you to feel like a winner yourself, don't forget to make milestones for yourself as a winner, but also find as many opportunities as you can for your team to be winners, celebrate those times, talk about them, post them, give them names, whatever it takes, but use your language to create a winning mindset, and so that your team feels like they're a winner every physical day.

0:10:21.2 S2: Things for listening to Les Vic leadership. By hanging out with me today, you're already on your point, if you're looking to learn more and to see if your company is a good fit for our coaching and leadership education, and Hey, visit 3044 coaching dot com if you got value on this podcast. Share it with a friend, and we mean the world to... If you leave a thoughtful review and a rating on iTunes, thanks again for listening, and I appreciate your work and fixing leadership.