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🕶️ 6 Mindsets That Stunt Team Growth (And What to Do Instead)
The Leader's Lens Perspective Shift Issue
Raymond White
February 10, 2025
Welcome to the Leader’s Lens: The Perspective Shift issue!
This issue offers a fresh perspective and actionable tips to enhance your leadership this week.
Send me an email and let me know how you plan on implementing this perspective shift in your leadership!
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The Leadership Growth Trap
As a mid-level leader, you play a crucial role in shaping your team’s culture and effectiveness. Your ability to foster growth—or unknowingly stunt it—depends on the mindset you bring to leadership.
If you’re not intentional about how you lead, you risk creating an environment of burnout, disengagement, and stagnation.
If we do not have a handle on our perception, we will fall into the trap stunting our team’s capabilities to be better.
Gif by mossify on Giphy
A Leadership Lesson From Houseplants
In my household, my wife is the plant expert.
We have greenery everywhere—plants of all types, each with unique needs. Some require daily watering, others only once a month.
Some need to be repositioned to get the right amount of sunlight to grow.
When I neglected a small succulent in my office, my wife took over its care. Now, that once-forgotten plant has taken over an entire table!
Leadership works the same way. Each team member has unique needs.
If we, as leaders, fail to provide the right level of support, we risk stunting their growth. But with intentional care and leadership, our teams can flourish just like that thriving plant.
What do we do about that?
Let’s explore six mindsets that can hold your team back and what you should do instead to create a thriving, high-performing culture.
1. Self-Focus → Shift to Servant Leadership
Mindset That Stunts Growth: Prioritizing Your Own Success
Some leaders focus more on their achievements than on empowering their teams. They seek recognition, push their own initiatives, and prioritize their image over the team's development. This creates resentment and disengagement.
The Shift: Adopt a Servant Leadership Mindset
Instead of focusing on your own success, shift your focus to developing your team. Provide them with the resources, recognition, and support they need to grow. True leadership isn’t about taking the spotlight—it’s about making sure your team shines.
A leader’s ego will be the downfall of any strong team.
2. Maintaining the Status Quo → Constructively Challenging the Norm
Mindset That Stunts Growth: Avoiding Change to Keep the Peace
It’s easy to go along with outdated processes and avoid challenging the norm. But refusing to question ineffective systems stifles innovation and prevents necessary change.
The Shift: Be a Constructive Challenger
Instead of keeping things the way they’ve always been, encourage critical thinking and constructive feedback. Foster a team culture where it’s safe to ask, “Is this the best way?” and explore innovative solutions.
Leaders have to remember to also not have their identity wrapped into the work itself but know that a dynamic, effective team requires the ability to navigate change.
3. Passing the Blame → Taking Ownership
Mindset That Stunts Growth: Shifting Responsibility to Others
When things go wrong, do you take responsibility—or do you pass the blame? Leaders who deflect accountability erode trust within their teams, making employees hesitant to take risks or innovate.
The Shift: Own Your Role in the Outcome
Great leaders take responsibility for their actions and outcomes, even when things go wrong. When mistakes happen, focus on learning and improving rather than blaming others.
4. Micro-Focus → Balancing the Big Picture
Mindset That Stunts Growth: Being Too Narrowly Focused
Focusing solely on a single task or initiative without considering the bigger picture creates silos and misses potential opportunities. Leaders who only concentrate on their own work fail to see how it affects the broader organization.
The Shift: Develop a Strategic View
While deep focus is valuable, it’s crucial to zoom out and consider how your work impacts the organization as a whole. Help your team understand their role in the larger system and ensure collaboration across departments.
If you like carousels, here’s a visual representation of this topic too!
5. Team Independence → One Team, One Dream
Mindset That Stunts Growth: Operating in Silos
Some leaders take a lone-wolf approach, thinking they must push initiatives forward on their own. However, this creates division and limits the team's collective potential.
The Shift: Foster Collaboration and Connection
Encourage a “One Team, One Dream” mentality. Recognize how different departments and individuals contribute to the bigger mission. Build bridges across teams and foster a sense of collective ownership.
Even though we have different functions, our team needs to see the shared dynamic of how our work relates.
6. Apathy → Leading with Empathy
Mindset That Stunts Growth: Indifference to Your Team’s Challenges
When leaders don’t show care for their team’s struggles, engagement and morale decline. If you respond to concerns with indifference, your team will eventually mirror that attitude, leading to disengagement and underperformance.
The Shift: Lead with Empathy
Empathy builds trust, engagement, and resilience. Show your team that you see, hear, and value their contributions. By prioritizing their well-being, you create a culture where people feel safe, motivated, and supported.
If we want our teams to grow, we need to be selfless, relational, empowering, and global thinking.
For our teams to flourish within our leadership, avoid these six mindsets that stifle growth:
✅ Shift from self-focus to servant leadership.
✅ Constructively challenge rather than maintain the status quo.
✅ Take ownership instead of passing blame.
✅ Balance micro-focus with big-picture thinking.
✅ Build a team culture rather than operating independently.
✅ Lead with empathy, not apathy.
While it is a daunting task, it has a high reward when we practice actions that encourages others to work towards a greater vision than themselves.
It starts with us building a healthy culture of our teams. Let’s model what we want our company cultures to look like so our teams can be effective in their work!
Q&A: Question and Action
Reflect on these questions and give your feedback in the comments!
Which one do you find the most common in your workplace?
What are other ways leaders can increase a team’s growth?
What resources do you use to help build your leadership capabilities?
You can do it and you can lead your team well!
Ray
Whenever you are ready, here are ways you can work with me:
🎤Speaking - As a Speaker and Facilitator, I will engage your team on how belonging and inclusivity can increase your team dynamics! Book Ray Now
🤝Coaching - As a Coach, I will help you enhance the power of inclusivity and empathy to be an effective leader through an equity lens! Book a Call Now
📘Consulting - As a Consultant, I will help strengthen your organizational culture to increase the employee experience and retention! Book a Consultation Now
P.S. - Thank you to those who have filled out the survey letting me know more about your leadership journey! I am excited to dive into the results over the next couple of weeks to provide you with resources and content that will support your leadership! If you haven’t filled it out yet, do so by clicking the link here!
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