Mindset Trumps Skill Set

(Or how a mindset shift is always necessary for hardwiring new behaviours.)

In our experience, most employers say their most successful hires were those where they chose mindset strengths over skillset strengths.

Here's the reason: What's the point in having an individual with a great skill set if they haven't got the right mindset to use the skills effectively?

Your mindset is the attitude or disposition you hold that predetermines your reponses to and intepretations of a situation. It is not innate; rather it is a perspective held based on life experiences.

The good news? Mindset can be shifted and developed. With the right new experiences, a new mindset can be easily learned.

The 'Catch 22' challenge to growing your people.

As we grow our people talent, one of the biggest challenges we have is to shift their mindsets, to help them evolve. And it's one of the most important things (if not the most) for us to tackle. Because everything else is downstream from mindset. People won't do differently until they think differently.

However, it's a bit of a Catch 22.

For anyone to actively learn a new skill, they have to 'believe' it is of value. For them to believe it is of value, they have to have had an experience of it already being of value.

This is where a strong development program helps.

Coaching and training that hardwires new behaviors.

We won't get into the science of it here ... or you'd be reading for the next 3 hours. Suffice it to say that there is a science behind hardwiring new behaviors. And it starts with getting people to make a shift in their minds that is more than an 'oh, that's a nice idea' response.

We've all had an experience of learning a new skill and feeling inspired to use it at every available opportunity, starting just as soon as we walk out of the room. But too often, we find ourselves a few days or weeks down the line and have completely forgotten about it.

Sometimes it's a bit more dramatic than just forgetting. Like finding ourselves in an emotionally charged or crisis situation that we've been 'trained' to handle ... and reacting the same 'old' way, getting the same 'old' results.

That's because the 'new' behaviour hasn’t been hardwired – and the old one still is.

It's built into all of our programs.

We are fanatical about this idea of mindset preceding skill set. Because we KNOW that it's the only way to make new learning stick (and to make the investment in training programs worthwhile).

With over 30 years working with the Synergetics models, we have fine-tuned a process that works.

In fact, we get calls and emails regularly in which people tell us that they are astounded at how quickly they became conscious with their new learning and how rapidly they were able to not only try them out, but integrate them into a new way of operating.

It's very exciting. Not only for our clients who are getting the great results, but for us as well.

We like to see people grow.

Find out more.