Most of us take for granted the enormous influence our parents have over our mindset.
Our parents give us what’s called our “implanted mindset.” Our parents or caretakers implanted ideas in us that explained how the world works. They laid down the rules, the do's and don’ts, and how to get along.
Think of the implanted mindset as a garden with flowers, weeds, and rocks. The flowers are the gifts we received from them that we treasure every day. The weeds are the unpleasant memories we wish we could do without. The rocks are the heavy experiences we had to endure that weighed us down.
The implanted mindset can be hard to change; however, we have a choice to water the flowers and stop watering the weeds. We can also remove the rocks and plant new seeds.
As an example, I think about my interview a few months ago with Keith Krach, chairman of DocuSign, I asked him about his childhood growing up in a small town in Ohio. His father had taken a gamble and started his own machine shop at age 40, and Keith grew up working summers in the shop. Here’s some of what Keith shared about his father:
I think of him as the best leader I’ve ever known in my life. I’ll never forget, I was [about] 15 and we were driving to the machine shop and I said, “Everyone just loves you, Dad. Why is that?” He told me, ‘When you’re with the pope, you pray. When you’re with a drunkard, you drink. Everything in between goes, but always be yourself.’ What I learned from him is [to] respect other people but maintain your integrity.
Keith’s early experiences with his father shaped his mindset and set him up to become the successful leader he is today. Not only has Keith served as the chairman of Docusign for eight years and as the CEO for six years, his leadership pushed DocuSign to expand globally from 75 employees to more than 2,000 employees, including four acquisitions. During his tenure, DocuSign established the benchmark for trust in the industry by facilitating the creation of the xDTM Standard.
You can watch my video about Keith below to learn more, or check out http://keithkrach.com/.
What kind of mindset did your parents provide you? Have you learned to enhance or alter your implanted mindset in order to achieve higher levels of success for yourself – either as an individual contributor or a leader? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comments.
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