Leadership Nudge® 404 – Get better!

Intent-Based Leaders follow the principle “Don’t be good, get better.” Moving from where we are today to where we want to be involves mental contrasting. Here’s Jenni with more information.

“Don’t be good, get better” is one of my favorite Intent-Based Leadership principles. We can get better at things we don’t think we’re very good at yet. And we can get even better at things we’re already good at.  

How can we take advantage of our brains to jumpstart the get better process?  

Moving from where we are today to where we want to be involves mental contrasting. It’s the strategy of comparing and contrasting positive and negative aspects of our future. Essentially, it’s the process our brains use to make the steps for getting better tangible. Mental contrasting enables us to look at where we are now. And where we want to be in the future – going from here to there – and how. 

So instead of just daydreaming about becoming a better listener, for example (or “even” better listener) instead, I think about, “Okay, what’s working, what’s not working? What’s my desired outcome if I become an even better listener? And then what steps will it take? Who can I talk to, to get ideas and inspiration around things so that I can try? What obstacles might get in my way? And how can I remove them?” This is Mental contrasting.  

When we make our improvement process more tangible, we increase the likelihood of actually reaching our “get better” goals. 

So the next time you find yourself thinking about how you might become even better, get better. Make the steps that it takes to go from where you are now to where you want to be concrete.  

I’m Jenni Jepson with your Leadership Nudge. Let us know how it goes.