May 2023 Third Turn Thoughts - The Impact of Leadership’s Growth Mindset and Focus Through Transition

Written by Linda Milanowski - Westdorp | May 29, 2023 1:00:00 PM

May 2023

The Impact of Leadership’s Growth Mindset and Focus Through Transition

Explore May’s podcasts #70 and #71 for insights into the power of a leadership growth mindset and wisdom that lends itself to effective goal setting, governance, and areas for focus in times of transition.

New Maestro-level leader Cohort Starting!

Linda Milanowski-Westdorp, our newest facilitator coming to us after more than three decades of leadership at MillerKnoll, is a gift to anyone who joins the cohort she gathers. The 4-year peer-cohort experience is designed to offer a place of camaraderie, with navigational tools, executive advising, and scheduled calendar time dedicated to the important, and often delicate, work of transitioning from the top leadership position to whatever is next in life - whether via retirement, sale of a company, or, simply time to move on. She would be delighted to hear from you via email at lmilanowski@designgroupintl.com.

Recent Podcast Episodes

Listen to Episode 70

Listen to Episode 71

Listen to Episode 72

Noteworthy Quotes

"When you can create an environment where you can be the example and be resourceful in allowing people to tap into these resources and tools, now you're giving them the opportunity to take responsibility for themselves. Cause when it's all said and done, they're responsible for themselves, not for someone else, only for them."

- Christopher Salem (Episode 70)

"What is common to all three of these is the board always needs to focus on ensuring alignment with the educational goals and the fiscal responsibility."
- Cheryl Edwards-Cannon (Episode 71)

"I was hoping we can each tell a story of where we’ve seen intentional leadership development succeed… I have two stories that come to mind. One is retention and the other is impact on the culture…"
- Mark L. Vincent & Linda Milanowski-Westdorp (Episode 72)

Key Themes

Culture Shaped by Leaderships’ Growth Mindset

Christopher Salem touches on five things leaders can control in their mindset and behaviors. When practiced daily, leaders experience an increase in confidence, which then sets the tone for growth mindsets throughout the organization. These same habits and mindsets are critical for building and reinforcing throughout our leadership’s development and transitions.

Wisdom that lends itself to focus in times of transition

Join Cheryl Edwards-Cannon as she shares ways in which leadership gains grounding throughout three types of transitions. While presented in the context of a board of directors, leaders in any setting can remove themselves, their leadership teams, and organizations out of the fog and back on track by staying grounded in:

The stated goals, observable evidence of outcomes, and fiscal responsibility of the organization;
Governance – creating a strategy with policies to support it;
Recruiting competent and skilled team members;
Conducting and discussing annual team self-evaluations.

Helpful Concepts

Hear how Cheryl’s kaleidoscope of experiences led to leadership roles of serving people at the bookends of life – from ensuring elementary students are engaged in education and life skills, to empowering the elderly and their families to navigate through challenging near end of life decisions.

Some Inspiration

Listen for specific examples of how you and your leaders can learn through Christopher’s story of how he overcame self-defeating behaviors and codependent relationships. Daily practice of habits increased his confidence and unleashed a creative mindset–the habits and mindset we need to build and reinforce within ourselves, our organization, and within the leaders we are developing.

- Linda Milanowski-Westdorp

Find out more about joining a Maestro-level leader cohort.

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