Have an impact – type of mindset

A few days ago I’ve got the opportunity to exchange these thoughts with my friend, Rodica.
Here’s what the story was about.

She argued that inside the so called “oppressive” organizations, people are silenced, in the “brought to silence” sense of it and that, function of how acute is the level of fear from the organizational space, the person, the team or the group for that matter, won’t tell what they would truly believe. Their language would be reserved.
She continued by saying that, when the fear is predominant, one cannot speak clearly or at all, hence one learns to not tell the truth and so limits oneself to silence or superficiality.

She ended by telling that one way of regarding the fear from within organizations, is to correlate it with the level of oppression generated, in an aware or less aware fashion, by the leaders in there.
It is precisely this closure that intrigued me and to it I responded the following:

The problem of “fear” is not the organizations’ making, at least not at its core and for sure not entirely. It is rather rooted in the local culture and in the self-esteem of each individual.

One, who ends-up in an organization, perceives fear due to at least two reasons independent of what the company is doing to or with the respective person:

• One reason would be that they have learned what fear is, before, in their families, in school, on the streets, etc. (aka “the local culture”);
• Another reason would be the divergence between their personal objectives (their “why”) and those of the company, discrepancy which, on top of a lack of self-esteem, would imprison any potential one may have.

People generally believe that they have understood, during an interview of a couple of hours, that what the company wanted to achieve with them, but they are not capable of challenging the different state of affairs once they discover it. This is due to a low self-trust and the lack of values of any kind.

Now, while some may find an excuse, to some extent, in the short amount of experience that they may have, the problem of the majority, seems to me, is the “impacted” type of mindset they have. Most people go to a job to have something happening to them, rather than trying to be the ones to make the world turn.
That’s how an inward mindset works, having the ones who serve it stay in their own boxes while thinking the worst of the world around them, people for whom everything would go better if others would just change, but not them.
That sort of behavior can easily be translated as hiding. And what better place is there to foster one’s perception of fear?

I urge you to test in your lives the SAM principles of the outward mindset. I assure you that, before long, you’ll start to notice how seeing others as people puts an ease to your life, how considering their objectives invites the same from them, while giving you the fulfilment you need so much to live a healthy life.
You’ll soon start to notice how adjusting your efforts to support others and measuring your impact in doing so, is mirroring the very meaningfulness you are out to create.

This post was inspired by Rodica Obancea – successful business coach and a friend of mine.
Credit goes as well to The Arbinger Institute, without which the key of this debate would probably have not existed.