E109: Adrian Terry Shares about the Abundance Mindset for Generative Leaders

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

abundance mindset, generative, leader, opportunities, leadership, thinking, Dave, work, abundance, abundant mindset, people, environment, organizational change management, mindset, create, run, roadblock, connect, demonstrated, weekly sessions

SPEAKERS

Kayanna, Dr. Dave, Adrian

 

Kayanna  00:02

Let's talk about it.  Talk, talk, talk, Let's go deep. We all have something to share. KnolShare with Dr. Dave

 

Dr. Dave  00:09

Let's just get started, you know, Thank you for coming on to the KnolShare with Dr. Dave podcast, and especially contributing to this series, which is called Generative Leadership to Thrive. And you know, just having the opportunity to work with you. And watch you do some great work in the trenches, transformation management office, and some of the things you were doing with the Agile transformation. I just want to say that my observation is like, yeah, you're you bring that generative leadership, you know, habits to the table, and especially in the abundance mindset of trying to expand because you didn't do it in a small way. You did it in an enterprise way, bringing in people from different roles within the enterprise, which I thought was amazing. So, thank you for doing that. And allowing me to have that experience with you.

 

Adrian  01:06

Absolutely. Absolutely. It was undoubtedly great. Working with you and also being part of this conversation today.

 

Dr. Dave  01:12

Yeah. So let's talk about abundance mindset. Because when I think of that, you know, you came to mind immediately what I was thinking of the people that I should talk to about this, and everyone has lots of different interpretation. So when we talk about generative leadership, right, that we're embracing this mindset of collaboration, empowerment and growth, where we're creating these environments where individuals and themes and teams can thrive, contribute with their unique talents and, you know, as a collective achieve success. How do you define abundance mindset?

 

Adrian  01:52

Yeah, no, it's a fantastic question. When I think of an abundant mindset, as a leader, it makes me think of this notion that there isn't enough for everyone. And when I say enough for everyone, meaning that everything that is good, that is wholesome, that is profitable, that is advantageous for both the leaders and their employees of followers, there is enough for everyone, there's enough revenue to be made enough food to go around. So the general idea that my sharing of myself, won't result in me not having enough of being missing out. Now, when I talk about goodness, if there's enough good to go around, I mean, I mean that in every capacity, new opportunities, opportunities for advancement opportunities to be on the spotlight on stage, microphone style, because you're presenting, given an opportunity to the employee so that the broader organization can see their talents, their skills and their gifts. On a higher level, though, if I were to deepen the definition, Dr. Dave, I would say, it's not only that I have enough, but that my cup is continuously overflowing of any and all of that good stuff we just talked about, and that my supply will never cease. So it's the difference at, let's say, at looking at some finite inventory. When you think of like a fixed set number of boxes sitting in a warehouse, you can count them all versus a natural underground spring that is continuously providing fresh water. There's abundance in both of those scenarios. It's just that the warehouse mentality might cause a leader to hoard a little bit because my run out, that's right. But when you are connected to an ever flowing spring, there is no running out. It's, it's you're always getting what you need, right when you need it.

 

Dr. Dave  04:09

That's true. And you know, when we tried to think about the generative leader or practicing generative leadership and you're combining that with the abundance mindset how do you practice genuine generative leadership without it?

 

Adrian  04:29

Oh, practicing ah, Yeah, that's gonna be a challenge right there. Dr. Dave. When I think of generative leadership, it is creating an environment that allows for healing to occur much more quickly. You know, we we've been having fun over the last decade or so with mutants and their self healing powers and you get a Wolverine you get a scratch on his cheek and it'll heal within three seconds. That that healing function And it's kind of how I see generative leadership when it's at its best. And what it does to the environment. Yeah, there may be some, some days when you have difficult conversations, critical conversations, you have to address conflict. But the ability to get past it to get through it happens so much more quickly in a positive way. So to create that environment, an abundance mindset, absolutely can serve as the vehicle for achieving that. It causes the leader to give in a way that allows others to kind of follow that lead. So that's, that's the role of the leader to establish the tone for how he or she expects others to behave. So if I'm giving, and I'm operating from a mindset that I'm never running out of the supply that I have in my inventory, if you do the same thing, what can I do for the environment around it? So Oh, I hope that answers the question for you.

 

Dr. Dave  06:02

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's very good to see that it's hard to, you know, practice generative leadership without having an abundance mindset. Because the abundant mindset gives us the ability to be multipliers. And so not only do we affect or have some influence in our team members, but we also have those with our peers, and even, you know, the people who sit at the level above us to be able to shift the way they behave as well.

 

Adrian  06:31

Absolutely, absolutely a leader who operates by thinking, you know, I might need to limit my support of you, my follower, my employee, because it might help you advance and possibly help you to go higher than me. You know, that's not going to be that issue that aligns well with generative leadership.

 

Dr. Dave  06:47

Yeah, I agree. So, you know, you have experienced many leaders like I have, who's just trapped in that scarcity, mentality, right view. And you talked about the talking about people and opportunities and successes being limited? How can one transition from the scarcity mindset to abundance, especially within, you know, the stance or the walk as a generative leader?

 

Adrian  07:14

Yeah, that, to me, in my mind, the generative leader understands, first and foremost, that when it comes to opportunities, new opportunities that all good opportunities are accessed through people. And the fuller your network, the greater your access to opportunities, and abundant mindset knows this, and will not only seek out opportunities for other people in their network, you know, connecting people, connecting people to opportunities, but they never have a fear of losing out while serving others in this capacity. And moreover, the bigger the Leaders Network, the more opportunity exists for helping others as well as helping themselves. And then there's good old fashioned karma. You reap what you sow, and you reap where you sow, I'm a big fan, that regenerative leadership creates an invisible economy of opportunities. To the degree that you're helping someone else, you're planting seeds for yourself new opportunities in an entirely different space, that you can't even see that at the appropriate time, those new opportunities will present themselves.

 

Dr. Dave  08:31

Without a doubt. You know, as you were talking about a brand new economy, I was just thinking about the liability of not having trust, right, which is a very costly thing and creates lots of friction in relationships and things like that. But let's talk about some examples from you an anecdote from your experience. We're adopting an abundance mindset make a tangible difference in terms of decision making and outcomes as a leader as a generative leader?

 

Adrian  09:05

Yeah, one example, I think, just recently, early part of this year, I think I had a pretty good opportunity to see this demonstrated in leading a transformation management office, one of the workstreams was focused on organizational change management. And along with myself, there were one or two other leaders who needed to be attending the weekly sessions to just stay abreast of changing issues and messaging and whatnot in the early days of the workstream. Coming together. The leadership team was attending the sessions at a at a at a pretty good attendance rate, but they soon fell off. And it turned out that I was the only leader attending the weekly sessions and without having to exert a whole lot of abundance, mindset, energy, or generative leadership, just your presence, showing up as a leader to demonstrate that you care about what the workstream team members are concerned about. So as you know, kind of serving as the only leadership representative, it produced a couple of good things and demonstrated that I cared for their capability, I've always had a passion for OCM, organizational change management, showcased my consistent willingness to support their work. And it allowed me to connect with team members on a deeper level. You know Dr. Dave sometimes in these meetings, the agenda that you're supposed to address. you can kind of run through that pretty quickly. With the time you have left, there's an opportunity to connect at a personal level and talk about what kids are going off to college, what mom or dad is sad, and we'd be because they're going off to college. Yeah, happy that they're out of the nest. And all, you know, from, from a generative leadership perspective, generating a whole new round of positive energy that was going to sustain us for the longer term. So in my ability to do that, basically, my abundant mindset told me told me that I have more than an option of cycles for myself. And I was in a position to give the team the benefit of a leader who's willing to show and show that I care.

 

Dr. Dave  11:32

Yeah, and I've seen that. So you know, I'm a witness. So I've seen that firsthand with you. So. So when we think about, you know, the in the about the abundance, mindset influence, you know, on team dynamics, collaboration or overall workplace culture, what does that really look like, you know, from from the context of being a generative leader.

 

Adrian  12:02

So, an abundance mindset, right, and that its influence on the team, right? The people that are on the receiving end of it. Well, for me, allow me to increase my empathy, and put myself in their shoes. You can't do that, though. If you're not listening to the stories, listening what they're doing, gave an opportunity to see the employees around me to care for them to appreciate them. And where I did have the opportunity to reward them for what they were doing. I certainly attempted to do that. And then just coaching and helping them with their development, and being a partner, as they work on the skills that they need for, for tomorrow. And so the evidence, where I did that well, it surfaced when people would message me off to the side, hey, Adrian, anything you have any opportunities on your team, please let me know, I would love to be a part of what you're doing. So there's a prescription that I'm trying to walk out as a leader, then there's the evidence with people on their own, or then seeking out opportunities to connect with you on a more permanent basis. So, man, when it happened, it's a beautiful thing. And I think it's a good approach for all leaders.

 

Dr. Dave  13:30

Yeah, I mean, definitely. And it's also interesting to see how that culture allow others within your organization, right to behave the same way. And like kind of demonstrating or mimicking what you have done. So well.

 

Dr. Dave  13:51

Let's talk about roadblocks you know, so what are some of the common roadblocks and misconception leaders face when trying to cultivate an abundance mindset and how can they navigate them?

 

Adrian  14:06

One common roadblock I guess would be the a mind that is diametrically opposed to the abundance mindset that's going to be a fixed mindset. It's going to be a limited mindset. It's going to be a closed mindset. It's it's probably going to be a bit Machiavellian in its in its approach to the employees and why they even exist, it's going to see people's people as a means to an end and not as an end unto themselves. I even worked briefly, oh thank god and goodness briefly with a small business owner who did PMP exam prep, a little bit of product project management consulting on the side, but the exam prep courses, and in my work title, they teach classes but to help them revise his content, was a very interesting leader and he saw people as tools. He literally ran his business by the cash in his pocket. Air quotes and quotes. Once you receive your paycheck, working for him, his routine thinking was to reflect on what you did for him to earn that rumination. Right. So every paycheck, what did you do? What have you done for me lately? And so his thinking was to get the most out of his people as opposed to the best from them. Certainly he lacked a generative leadership certainly did not have any kind of abundant mindset, as you can imagine. He's no longer in business. So there you go.

 

Dr. Dave  15:49

Yeah. Well, there you go. Definitely a roadblock. In that way of seeing that. You know, what, when people have the kind of thinking that believing that we are unable to share what we have and create space for others to thrive, you know, it's, you know, you don't last very long, you know, and if you do, you know, people don't have a lot of good things to say about you, that's for sure. Right. So, for leaders, inspired by our discussion today, you know, what daily practice or habits, would you recommend to nurture and sustain an abundance mindset in the long run, while you're building up your generative, generative leadership capabilities.

 

Adrian  16:39

It's, it starts with your source. If you see that the source of all your knowledge, skills and abilities is limited. Again, go back to that warehouse, lots of boxes inside, you got a pretty good inventory. But that's the extent right there, there aren't any additional 18 wheelers, driving up, dropping off more boxes, increasing your supply source, but see yourself as connected to a spring of goodness, freshwater constantly pouring into you seeing yourself as an overflow and shame. I think it's something that leaders need to do. I say that because that's the starting point. For an abundance mindset, and the ability to exercise generative leadership, you have to know that not only do you have amazing qualities within you, but you can give them away and not be at risk of running out. You have a tremendous amount of value to give to others. And you'll always have more than enough, you know, when you attend weddings every now and then Dr. Dave, and we've seen that classical champagne glass pyramid, and they start pouring at the top. And as that glass gets filled up, it pours out onto all of the ones beneath it,

 

Dr. Dave  18:11

right? Yep, yep. Yep.

 

Adrian  18:13

As long as that Champagne is flowing, everyone's gonna get wet. So

 

Dr. Dave  18:18

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's beautiful.

 

Adrian  18:20

Again, the difference is the champagne doesn't run out. With the abundance mindset, you're up, you're always filled with what you need. And you're always in a position to get better with other people.

 

Dr. Dave  18:37

Yeah, it's kind of funny, as you were speaking, I was thinking about the, the champagne just flowing over, I was thinking of turning, you know, water to wine where there was an abundance, right, an abundance for everyone to like, participate in. So now that was a great, great story. You know, they're, you know, like, I really enjoyed just having this conversation with you. And man, I always enjoy having conversations with you, we go deep, and talk about a lot of different things. So any final thoughts you would like to add? You know, for the listeners, anything they may you may even want them to know about you?

 

Adrian  19:14

Yeah, just a one; I'm super excited that you're tackling the subject of generative leadership and how one of the best ways to exercise is with an abundant mindset. And just, and not only in our organization I've been involved with in the last few years or so, but even friends of mine who, in some cases of suffering in other organizations, leaders can take a hold of the messaging that you're putting out and just try it. Just try it. Try it. You know, good old fashioned A 90 day trial and see what sort of fruit it produces for you and environment where you're leading, I promise you, you won't be disappointed.

 

Dr. Dave  20:11

I can concur. That is so good. Thank you so much for making this possible. I just sharing all of the goodness today, you know, I really appreciate that.

 

Adrian  20:23

Awesome. Thank you for having me

 

Kayanna  20:32

Let's talk about it.  Talk, talk, talk, Let's go deep. We all have something to share. KnolShare with Dr. Dave