Is Your Mindset Holding You back?

Over the course of my thirty years in business, I have come to understand that the biggest obstacle holding women back in their lives and careers is their mindset. Mindset, in its simplest definition, is the way we think about ourselves and the world around us. Mindsets can be learned over time. They can result from societal impacts. They can be born out of experiences. 

I’m a pattern-finder by nature. I’m also a prolific notetaker, with notebooks dating back decades. When I looked through them in January 2022 as we launched WOTW, I began to recognize patterns in my behavior over time. The symptoms and the manifestations of those symptoms became obvious, and a theme emerged. I started to link, label, and name the mindsets I recognized in myself, which created the foundation of our curriculum at WOTW and the content in my first book, Reclaiming the Fire In Your Belly: A Practical Guide for Women Leaders to Navigate Overwhelm. Now, when I coach female executives, I apply the framework I uncovered in order to help them produce a tangible goal or result. 

For example, during a recent coaching call, a leader expressed that she felt like she needed to be more assertive. She felt like she was not getting her point across when she spoke, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what to do about it. I could see the issue immediately. I suggested labeling it with the following statements:

• I need to manage my stakeholders more strategically. 
• I need to develop my influencing skills.
• I need to do so with authenticity.

This framing allowed her to get more specific regarding exactly what she needed to be doing and where to focus her time and attention. 

 Through my coaching work, I have learned that systematizing the way we think about a behavior, problem, or mindset—what I call “linking and labeling”—immediately opens space and creates a course of action for next steps to take. By recognizing our mindset and patterns, we can understand how a particular mindset leads to a particular result.

Whether with my clients or in my personal life, I’m always trying to identify patterns and themes. The McGuckin Group has become known for this ability. Because we are uniquely positioned to speak with many women across a broad swath of industries and have access to substantial amounts of data, we can very quickly get to patterns and themes. Once we can see a pattern, we are able to name it, highlight it, and ultimately change it.

Learning to Reframe

In my book, I address how you can reframe and start to create different results in your life. It will help you name your own limiting mindsets and offer tools to reconnect with power and possibility. By naming what you’ve been feeling in your gut and your heart that you weren’t previously able to name, you can address it and, in the process, become empowered. 

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