The ContraMind Code
Introduction
Welcome to The ContraMind Code.
The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.
The newsletter shares the source code through quick snapshots for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.
The Code helps you reboot and reimagine your thinking by learning from the best and enables you to draw a blueprint on what it takes to get extraordinary things done. Please share your valuable thoughts and comments and start a conversation.
Take a journey to www.contraminds.com. Listen and watch some great minds talking to us about their journey of discovery of what went into making them craftsmen of their profession to drive peak performance.
An Illustrated Guide To Succeeding Where So Many Leaders Fail.
This is a brilliant article from Kellogg Insights on Leadership and Failure. Success is easy for leaders to talk about, but failure is not easy to talk about. The article highlights what failure does and what leaders can learn from it. The illustration-based explanation is simply phenomenal. It arrests your attention and leaves a lasting imprint on your brain.
Here are some key highlights to think about:
The courage to acknowledge failures and the humility to learn from them is essential for top executives.
“If everything is going fine, something is wrong” - Think about this statement.
Key Insights from this article are:
Don’t hesitate to make tough calls.
Communicate with people at an individual level.
Create an environment where people can thrive.
Don’t forget to look out of the window.
Move from a “Seduction of More” to the “Wisdom of Less”.
Read the article here.
Making Education Engaging: A Journey Of Discovery.
This is a conversation with Brandon Hendrickson, Founder of Science is Weird, on what it takes to make education engaging. Kieran Egan’s perspective on education resonated deeply with Brandon, emphasising the importance of making learning emotionally engaging and relevant.
Here are some key takeaways from this conversation:
Why is education today broken?
The need for personalised education
Connecting education to real-world problem-solving
Making concepts and ideas matter to children
You can listen to the entire episode on:
Apple Podcast | YouTube | Contraminds Website
How To Keep Your Brain Healthy - Dr. Wendy Suzuki.
Dr Wendy Suzuki is a professor of neural science and psychology at New York University, and she shares her thoughts on “What does it take to keep your brain healthy?”
Here are some key learnings that you can take back from this video:
Why people need to look after their brains
What are the worst habits for your brain?
What to do about social media and phone addiction
What's causing dementia & Alzheimer's
The effects of coffee on our brains
The best diets for an optimal brain
You can click on the above link to watch this video.
What Makes It Difficult For Leaders To Accept Failure?
To answer this question, it is important to trace the path of how one becomes a leader.
The path to becoming a leader is always rooted in the success one achieves over a period of time in anything that one takes up and accomplishes. It starts, maybe even at an early age, where success is celebrated and failure is abhorred. It could be the grades one gets in school or college, and the competitions one represents at school or college or the first job that one takes up after graduation and as one grows in a company, etc., where one is considered successful only if one is a topper or a top performer. Hence, as one moves to the top, making a mistake or failing becomes hard to accept as it is not seen as a sign of a successful leader.
Success is addictive. Hence, it becomes very hard for leaders to accept failure, as they feel it dents their image. People around them also prop them up, giving leaders the feeling they can do no wrong. In addition, people around them expect leaders to have answers to every problem. They soon start thinking they know it all or have a solution for every problem. When something goes wrong, for example, it could be a decision they make or a strategic initiative they lead, etc., it becomes tough for them to take it as it affects them personally. Hence, the reason why leaders are not able to accept failure starts very early in their life rather than when they take up the leadership mantle!
Therefore, what does it take for a leader to handle failure very well?
It is essential for a leader to accept that things can go wrong. Hence, they should develop the ability to try new things, make decisions, and be ready to accept that the odds of them going wrong are something they should get comfortable with. Being mature enough to accept failure and move on is a crucial skill needed to be a successful leader.
They must learn to delineate ‘Professional Failure’ from ‘Personal Failure’, which is vital.
Taking the help of the right people around them by telling them “I don’t know” must not construed as a sign of weakness but as a sign of intellectual honesty to deal fairly with situations they cannot fully comprehend.
Being grounded and having their ears on the ground can make a big difference. They often live in their own ‘stereo chambers’ where people frequently tell them what they want to hear.
Need to practice humility. The notion of power and position often gets into leaders’ heads. They tend to think of themselves as larger-than-life, and they develop an ego unknowingly or knowingly till a failure hits them hard. That’s when they are not just able to take it.
Learn from history. Great leaders can withstand failure, and they can withstand continuous failures many times over. Yet they don’t give up and keep trying. They have the strength to handle failure and rise from the ashes. That requires a different DNA, and developing this quality is vital.
Junk the entitlement feeling—Leaders develop a sense of entitlement, which slowly starts to creep into their lives. Hence, leaders tend to create shortcuts to encourage unwanted hierarchy and privileges, which they lose when they fail or lose their position. When they lose the entitlements they may be getting, it starts to affect their behaviour and personally.
Taking people along—This is a tough one because leaders need to be tough but also empower the team around them. Knowing when to be tough and when to empower is a skill and an art that leaders need to deploy continuously. They must also keenly observe their failures or mistakes when things do not work and change the course by being tough and decisive. This is easier said than done. They need to work on this continuously as they can encounter a lot of failures in this process. Hence, they often avoid taking people along, empowering them, or not trusting them enough. Being comfortable with letting others try and fail but owing others’ failure is a tough act to practice. Great leaders do this with grace and ease.
Handling failure and not fearing to own it differentiates the best leaders from the average.
Some lessons we learnt from this week’s missions:
It’s not easy for leaders to talk about their failures. Top executives need to acknowledge failures and be humble enough to learn from them.
We need to connect education with real-world problem-solving to make it emotionally engaging.
Find the right exercises and methods to maintain your brain fitness.