Building Your Mental Muscles as a Leader
In the ever-evolving landscape of leadership, achieving excellence hinges on mastering not just external factors but also the intricacies of human behavior and psychology. One approach that has gained recent attention is Shirzad Chamine’s Positive Intelligence (PQ) framework. Geared towards helping individuals and leaders unlock their full potential, it’s a toolkit that can enhance the way executives approach their roles.
I will share here some of the key principles of Positive Intelligence and explore some of its tangible benefits for executives aiming to elevate their leadership.
The Essence of Positive Intelligence ©
Shirzad Chamine’s Positive Intelligence taps into a blend of cognitive science, neuroscience, and positive psychology. The crux of this methodology revolves around bolstering mental fitness and resilience by recognizing and overcoming internal Saboteurs – those negative voices and self-sabotaging thoughts that can impede growth and success.
Central to this model is the wisdom of the “Sage” perspective, representing the voice of exploration, clarity, and knowledge within us and our teams. On the flip side, Saboteurs are the internal critics – they manifest as the Judge, Controller, Avoider, and more, blocking our growth. Positive Intelligence teaches us practical methods to amplify the Sage voice and minimize the influence of the self-Saboteurs.
Applying Positive Intelligence in Executive Leadership
Executives are at the forefront of complex decision-making, high-pressure scenarios, and high-performing teams. The use of Positive Intelligence can yield tangible advantages for us as leaders:
1. Recognizing Saboteurs: One can begin by identifying your internal voices of doubt, negativity, and self-sabotage that Chamine refers to as “Saboteurs.” While they show up in different ways, Saboteurs represent the inner critics. They can hinder your growth and leadership impact. Acknowledging and naming their existence is the first step to countering their impact.
2. Cultivating the Sage Perspective: The “Sage” is your inner voice of wisdom, curiosity, clarity, and more. One can nurture this perspective by recognizing that it’s a reservoir of strength capable of silencing the self-Saboteurs and guiding you towards more effective leadership.
3. Daily Practices: Positive Intelligence (PQ) isn’t about overnight transformation; it’s about gradual sustained change. I personally have found it useful to engage in daily practices that enhance my PQ.
4. Enhanced Mental Fitness: Recognizing the existence of your most common limiting beliefs and managing your mental self-Saboteurs equips you as a leader with greater self-control and mental mastery. By understanding your triggers and habitual reactions, you can learn to navigate high-intensity situations with greater composure and thoughtful response.
5. Strategic Decision-making: Embracing the “Sage” perspective, as Chamine calls it, empowers leaders to make strategic decisions that align with long-term goals and values. Leaders can tap into the wisdom of their teams by asking exploratory questions, surfacing many alternatives through innovative thinking, and deciding on a course of action with the long-view in mind.
6. Stress Resilience: Positive Intelligence provides tools to handle stress more effectively. Stress brings out our saboteurs. Calm, clear-headed focus is the realm of the Sage.
7. Ongoing Personal Growth: The Positive Intelligence “Operating System” can be applied to many areas of growth both personally and professionally – from strengthening healthy relationships, to achieving peak performance, to nurturing well-being and happiness in ourselves and on our teams. A commitment to Positive Intelligence creates an environment for ongoing growth in numerous realms of life.
As leaders use the practical methods within this framework, they typically experience impacts that extend beyond their leadership into various realms of personal and professional life. Positive Intelligence is a path of discovery and improved effectiveness. I am excited to have discovered Shirzad’s work and pleased to share it with you.
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Kathy Letendre, President and Founder of Letendre & Associates, advises organizations and leaders to create their excellence advantage.
Contact Kathy by phone or text at 802-779-4315 or via email.