You Majored in What? (11 page)

Why Would an Employer Care About the Reflective Mindset?

• A reflective mindset will help you make sound decisions. By taking the time to reflect, you can avoid errors in judgment or snap decisions made through emotional reasoning.

• The reflective mindset helps you stay calm and relieves stress, making you a more productive and healthier worker.

• The reflective mindset enhances creativity and makes you more likely to produce ideas and innovations.

• The reflective mindset gives you perspective—you won’t jump to conclusions as quickly when you take the time to reflect.

How You Can Develop or Use the Reflective Mindset

• Try using an online meditation site. You can even download a five-minute podcast of meditative music. One of the myths about reflective thinking is that you need lots of time—sometimes five or ten minutes is all you need.

• Try to get into the habit of writing in a journal or creating a portfolio to reflect on your experiences.

• Take a creative writing or rhetoric course where you can write opinion or argument papers that will require you to take some time to reflect on your opinions and thoughts.

• Invite a coworker or fellow student to lunch and talk about what you’re doing at work or what you’re learning in your classes. Use this time to reflect on what has been most valuable or what you’ve enjoyed learning or doing.

• Take up a hobby that allows you solitary time to reflect, such as kayaking on a slow river. Even working a jigsaw puzzle can help relax your mind and reduce stress.

• Here’s an interesting activity: sit in a comfortable place, preferably outdoors on campus or where you can people watch. Sit and observe. Don’t interact. What do you notice? What do you see, hear, smell, or feel? What details are you picking up on? How much activity is going on? Are people interacting? Are they on cell phones? Just observe. Is your mind wandering? Bring it back and keep observing. That’s all you need to do. Just relax and observe. Give your mind a break from all the analyzing and strategizing.

• Take time to reflect on your classes. Ask yourself

• What did I learn?

• How did I add value to something or someone?

• How are things better?

• What did I encounter today that I’d like to think more about?

• What went wrong? What went right?

• What could I do differently next time?

• What do I like about what I’m learning?

• What would be cool to share with someone?

• What is my favorite class so far?

• If I weren’t attending college right now, what would I do instead?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rank your use of the reflective mindset?

If you were going to tell an employer about your strength in reflective thinking, what example(s) would you use?
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MINDSET 9: THE FLEXIBLE/ADAPTIVE MINDSET

A famous Zen story tells of a farmer whose horse runs away. His neighbors come over and say, “How terrible!” He simply replies, “Maybe, maybe not.” The next day the horse returns accompanied by two wild horses. “How wonderful!” the neighbors say. “Maybe, maybe not,” he replies. His son tries to ride one of the wild horses but falls and breaks his leg. “How terrible!” say the neighbors. “Maybe, maybe not,” says the farmer. The next day a military officer shows up to round up the men in the village to fight in a war. But the son can’t join the military because his leg is broken. “How fortunate!” say the neighbors. The farmer replies, “Maybe, maybe not.”

One of the key methods for developing a flexible mindset is to limit judgments and preconceived notions. By detaching yourself from opinions, you are able to listen to information with an open mind and choose your response accordingly. Rigid thinkers often try to place everything in a right or wrong context too quickly and might miss important information.

Flexible thinkers are natural experimenters: curious, alert, and open to change. They don’t allow failure or a setback to end their pursuits. Being flexible and adaptable allows you to experiment and roll with the punches. You’re more likely to take risks if you know you can cope with whatever the outcome might be.

People often misunderstand Darwin’s survival of the fittest theory, assuming that
fittest
means the biggest or the strongest. It actually means the most adaptable. Just consider how the (relatively) small cockroach has survived for millions of years through adaptation, not brute force or size. Or how American car manufacturers have suffered from their inability to be flexible and change with the times.

There is nothing wrong with being organized and having a plan. But the advantage of cultivating a flexible mindset is that you can more easily adapt to changes in your environment and be open to new ideas or opportunities. There’s a Yiddish proverb, “Mann trakht und Gott lakht,” which translates to “Man plans and God laughs.” Like chaos theory, it reminds us that we are not always in control of everything no matter how hard we try, so it’s important to be able to adjust to whatever situation we’re thrown into.

Why Would an Employer Care That You Are Flexible and Adaptable?

• Speed and agility are invaluable in today’s working environment. Organizations need to be able to change and react quickly to such factors as global competitiveness, advanced technology, increasing customer expectations, and the changing needs of employees.

• Change is a constant, and flexible workers can go with the flow in fast-changing environments. They are also great at customer service, which demands flexible thinking.

• Flexible thinkers adapt to both adversity and success because they change their techniques or skills accordingly. They manage change rather than let change manage them.

• Workers who are adaptable and flexible ultimately save the organization both money and time. Just think of a bureaucratic organization (the antithesis of flexibility): how much time and money is wasted by employees and supervisors who continue to do their work the same way it’s been done for twenty years?

How You Can Develop or Use the Flexible/Adaptive Mindset

• Examine your “rules” about things and shake up your routine. Do you always order the same thing at your local coffee shop? Try something different. Or skip the coffee and put your money in a charity donation jar or give it to a homeless person. What changes occur throughout the day when you make that small change?

• Go to a bookstore but wander into sections you never normally visit. Do you traditionally head toward the true crime books? Try the computer book section. Are you a psychology or self-help addict? Visit the mysteries section. A science junkie? Try the art and architecture section. Just pull books off the shelf and look at them. Find anything interesting?

• Select a topic about which you have strong opinions and try arguing for the other side. Better yet, construct arguments for both sides and see if there’s a possible middle ground or compromising point.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rank your use of the flexible/ adaptive mindset?

If you were going to tell an employer about your strength in this area, what example(s) would you use?
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MINDSET 10: THE PROBLEM-SOLVING MINDSET

The problem-solving mindset is closely aligned with action orientation and the positive mindset. True problem solvers are like dogs on bones—not content to stop until they are sure they’ve finished. Problem solvers actively seek solutions—and assume that they will find them. They gain their energy by keeping their focus on the outcome and looking for ways to influence it positively.

An entire counseling system is built around problem solving, aptly titled Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT). Practitioners of this type of therapy are active problem solvers and use several techniques with their clients. One technique is simply refusing to buy the problem. If you think about it, most people who have problems spend a lot of energy convincing you that they have a problem. What if you refused to buy it? What if you simply said, “I’m not buying the problem; I’m going to find a solution.” Another problem-solving technique in SFBT is to empower the person while disempowering the problem. So to help solve a problem, you might focus on times when you didn’t have the problem and try to replicate the behavior present at that moment. For instance, if you have a problem with procrastination, it’s likely that you are more aware of the times when you procrastinate. What if you focused on the times when you didn’t procrastinate and see if you can identify the characteristics of that situation? You might find a solution in your own behavior. SFBT focuses on past successes and, like chaos theory, encourages you to maintain a state of not-knowing. Not-knowing will keep you open-minded to new solutions.

Why Would an Employer Care About a Problem-Solving Mindset?

• Consultants are paid a lot of money to be problem solvers. Problem solving is an everyday skill in the work setting.

• Good problem solvers know how to ask the right questions to find the solution. They are willing to take risks and use an action approach. Problem solving is not a passive activity.

• The problem-solving mindset dovetails with the positive mindset. Problem solvers seldom hear the word
no.

• Problem solvers focus on potential and planning, always helping the organization move forward and preventing it from getting stuck.

How You Can Develop or Use the Problem-Solving Mindset

• Come up with creative solutions. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes: how would you solve their problems? For instance, do you think you could come up with a better solution for alcohol problems on campus than your dean has devised? Do you think you have a better way to run a career center? If you’ve thought these problems through, consider meeting with the dean or the director of your career center and share your insights. After all, your thoughtful perspective as a student might just be what they need to create a successful program that would benefit many students.

• Refuse to hear the word
no.
See if you can find another way around the problem. Reframe it as simply a temporary impediment. Think about how you would handle it if you were working at your all-time best performance level.

• Problem solving is closely related to decision making. Try using one of the many strategies designed by consultants and other professional problem solvers. Research problem-solving tools and techniques
,
such as decision trees, flow charts, SWOT charts, and so forth, to solve problems. You can search any of these terms on the Internet and find lots of examples and ways to use them.