2008).14
These findings have proven what many already knew: that a school reacts to the emotions of its leader. If a leader struggles to manage chronic stress, then so will everyone else in the school. The leader's emotions and the behaviors connected to them tend to be internalized by other leaders and teachers. That's where the most frightening emotional contagion begins. A classroom of students reacts to the emotional contagion of their teacher. If a teacher is experiencing chronic stress, then so will everyone in their classroom. Consider the impact of this emotional contagion on the conditions for learning.
The science of emotional contagion teaches us that emotional conditions for learning are delicate, tenuous, and very dependent on leaders. This is true from the superintendent all the way down the chain to the teacher. There is a far more powerful and complex emotional interdependence between us than we think that impacts our ability to create emotional conditions. Everyone in a school's emotional chain is responsible for the conditions that actually come to pass. The higher up the leader, the more impact they have on the system and the more responsibility they bear for ensuring that a healthy climate of connection and challenge is present.
We Cannot Teach Mindsets …
To understand why we can't teach new, productive mindsets, we must begin with Daniel Goleman's definition of a competency. According to Goleman, competencies consist of a combination of characteristics that are best described using the analogy of an iceberg. Below the water's surface we know that there is not only more iceberg, but significantly more than what we see above the surface. Leadership competencies are like icebergs in that there are the aspects that we can see in a leader's knowledge, skills, and behaviors, but there is much more to the competency below the surface—inside of the leaders or between them and others—that is not visible. In this book we roughly equate the concept of mindset with what is below the surface of Goleman's competency iceberg (Figure 1.1).
Figure 1.1: Goleman's competency iceberg.
Source: Goleman's competency iceberg. Goleman Daniel. 1995. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (Bantam); but may be property of Korn Ferry consulting.
Unfortunately, we cannot just read books, integrate some sentence starters, or practice some leadership skills to change self‐limiting mindsets and behaviors. The root causes are not knowledge‐ or skill‐based, and the behaviors we see are just the tip of the iceberg of the obstacle. The problems that self‐limiting mindsets cause are invisible to the human eye because they are personal and internal, or as I will refer to them, “below the surface.” What's below the surface may be something inside of me, or it may be something between you and me.
Internal Below‐the‐Surface Obstacles
The leader brings a complex stew of emotions, experiences, identities, beliefs, values, motives, and character traits that have a much larger impact on the leader's competency level than what we are aware of above the surface. If the leader's below‐the‐surface characteristics do not align with their above‐the‐surface knowledge, skills, and intended behaviors, then it is not likely they will be able to “perform.”
We can teach to the above‐the‐surface competency gaps by practicing skills and building knowledge. Sometimes skill building is all a leader needs to become competent. This is often the case with leaders who are new to a competency. These leaders find that new knowledge and skills fit nicely with their existing beliefs, motives, values, etc. Through practice, they grow quickly.
Unfortunately, we cannot teach to the below‐the‐surface competency gaps. If there is misalignment between skills, knowledge, and behaviors and a person's values, beliefs, identities, motives, and character traits, there is no amount of teaching that will change that. No one can teach us to shift these deeply personal aspects of ourselves. Others can support us to make those shifts, but the new awareness and strategies come from within ourselves.
Interpersonal Below‐the‐Surface Obstacles
What is invisible below the surface between leaders and the people they lead also contributes to self‐limiting mindsets. In her Six Circle Model, leadership consultant Margaret Wheatly created the simple but powerful concept of the Green Line to illustrate this social version of the below‐the‐surface concept (Perrius 2014).15 The three circles above the Green Line (the horizontal line in Figure 1.2) embody the conversation we tend to focus on with our stakeholders, in essence, what's on the agenda. The three circles below the Green Line represent another entirely different, potentially high‐stakes level of interaction that may go unnoticed and unaddressed. This interaction is emotional and personal. It is the interaction of identities, values, assumptions, emotions, histories, and more. What is happening below the Green Line is always in the room, whether we are aware of it and engage with it or not.
Figure 1.2: Wheatley's graphic illustration of the Green Line concept.
Source: Margaret Wheatly, 1992.
Strong leaders value what is happening below the Green Line and they are adept at surfacing this material, and then engaging with it. Part of this strength is skill, and part of it is mindset. We can't teach this essential leadership mindset just by telling leaders what others are experiencing and having them read books, though these can be part of the solution. Leaders must shift their value systems and learn to exercise new muscles like empathy and compassion to do this well.
… But Productive Mindsets Can Be Learned
We cannot teach below‐the‐surface competencies, but they can be learned. More aptly put, people can change deeply engrained habits of mind and behavior that often seem like permanent aspects of who they are.
Neuroscientists have discovered that our habits of mind and behavior become encoded in our brains as neural pathways. The deeper the habit, the stronger the neural pathway. Our oldest and deepest habits are neural superhighways that are very easy for us to travel. We follow them almost automatically when they are triggered by our environment, our emotions, and our thoughts. The exciting news about neural pathways is that we can deconstruct and replace them with new neural pathways through intentional focus and practice. We can intentionally rewire our brains! (Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee 2001).16
Not surprisingly, rewiring our brains takes significant effort and time. New pathways start out as footpaths that we carve with a machete in the wilderness, even as we long for the comfortable old neural superhighway of habits in the distance. We have to carve the new path over and over again for it to evolve—and stick. We must face the triggers of old habits and force ourselves to choose a new behavior over and over again. Over time, the paths become wider and easier to travel, and our old pathways begin to shrink. When we are successful, the new habit becomes the superhighway and the old one becomes the small dirt path in the forest.
