Introduction Flashcards
Welcome
Good morning,
For those of you who may not know my name is Gareth and it’s an honor to be able to speak with you this morning.
Topic: customer example
Speak about two mindsets
Thought of a simple example, that I know I faced early on in my career and a lot of you face this challenge daily.
There are some clients that stop us dead in our tracks, whether it be the hard core Afrikaner or the quick talking Indian
Topic: mindsets are created
Mindsets are created from previous experiences and how you handled them. Each time a similar challenge is presented you recall how you may have failed.
Depending on your mindset you will try your damnest to avoid the situation because you feel you cannot handle it and you don’t want to fail again or you will believe that you’ve learnt from the previous experience and see it as another learning opportunity
Topic: limited abilities
When you believe that you cannot grow and that your abilities are fixed, you will avoid facing challenges and therefore never stretch yourself. But if you believe that your challenges are opportunities you’ll never back down from them.
Topic: importance in a team & no one is perfect
These two mindsets are important to understand from both and individual perspective as well as how we behave as a company.
It is also important to note that we generally don’t only live in one of these two mindsets, we often bounce between them depending on our challenges. The goal is to be intentional about leaning towards the one rather than the other
Fixed mindset: define
People and teams believe that their qualities, intelligence, or abilities cannot change. When you feel you are limited it creates the fear of feeling dumb or been wrong. For example, if you get an F for a test, and you believe that you cannot improve, you are defining yourself. You’ll put less effort into that challenge, avoid it, or make excuses when things don’t go your way.
Fixed mindset: company example
In my career, I’ve worked for a business that had a fixed mindset culture. When challenges were presented, you could literally see the team withdraw. People would only give enough of what they felt they were capable of because they didn’t want to be wrong and look stupid. And they didn’t want that because they thought they’d be forever defined by that one moment
Fixed mindset: company example continue
This type of mindset obviously brought a lot of problems, because people were not stretching themselves and therefore no one was growing. This had big consequences not only for the individual but the companies growth as well.
Fixed mindset: not stretching yourself
When you don’t stretch yourself, you will begin to feel stagnant. The lack of growth within a team or yourself will drain your motivation. This becomes clear when you see a lack of effort or, for example, a workplace strictly becomes an 8 to 5 job instead of a place that you enjoy and want to be part of.
Fixed mindset: wrap up
To summarize, a fixed mindset means that you think you cannot develop and that an outcomes of failures defines your abilities.
Growth mindset: define
Teams and people with a growth mindset realize that talent alone will not bring success, they understand that putting in the EXTRA effort leads to higher achievements. This mindset has an underlying belief that qualities and abilities grow with time and experience. When faced with difficulties they don’t think “I’ve failed” but rather “I’m learning” and then use those learnings when presented with challenges.
Growth mindset: pressures faced & opportunities
I’m sure, like me, we’ve all faced challenges in our lives or careers that lead to self-doubt so I’m not saying that with a growth mindset that there’s no pain when we fail, rather, we understand that it’s not a defining moment and an opportunity to learn. So instead of avoiding challenges we must start to seek them out and thrive on them.
Growth mindset: wrap up
The main principle is to know that abilities do develop with time and experience. You are not defined by one moment.
It is important to reflect on your failures and face them by been candid with yourself. Once you have done that you have to be intentional about applying your learnings by seeking out your challenges
Mission statement
We believe that the insurance industry is in desperate need of change
The opportunities for change lie in innovation
We are fanatical about learning what customers want
Grit: growth mindset not easy
By no means is applying a growth mindset easy, you will need to apply some grit to break down walls. But grit doesn’t just appear out of thin air, you need to have your values and goals in place. If you don’t have values and goals when a challenge appears you’ll have very little to fight for.
