Our beliefs are more powerful than believed

 The human brain is a belief creating machine.

Beliefs derive from our personality, the

environment we are part of, the influence we

receive from others, our heroes and role models,

our life history, books we read and many others.

Let’s be clear. Beliefs have no relationship to

intelligence. That’s the reason we might face highly

intelligent people defending what we consider to be

peculiar beliefs. Once a belief is shaped and

becomes ingrained, the more intelligent people are,

the higher their capacity to rationalize it.

A belief is a proposition which is accepted as truth,

although it can be based on questionable or

unsubstantiated evidence.

According to psychologist Michael Shermer, our

brain filters facts according to the lenses through

which we see the world: paradigms, theories,

prejudices which have been accumulated

throughout our lives. Among all facts, we select the

ones which confirm what we already believe in and

ignore or minimize the ones which contradict our

beliefs.

Our tribal tendencies lead us to make coalitions

with people who think like us and to demonize or

maintain a distance from those who have different

beliefs. Beliefs trigger our actions, so those of us in

a leadership position need to periodically revisit our

people management beliefs in order to assess how

our actions are impacting our direct reports.

As leaders, our mission is to create the conditions

for our team to be successful in achieving expected

results. Also, as a leader, we need to work at the

individual level to ensure that each person is being

developed so as to achieve their career objectives.

Some topics for reflection:

1.     The problem of accepting without questioning

Because of the tribal tendency, leaders can put

up a team where every individual has the same

characteristics, the same worldview and the

same beliefs. That team will miss the

opportunity to bring innovation and find diverse

solutions to complex problems. This happens

because there is no opposite view to force the

team to explore other perspectives and

solutions. Solid solutions come from the healthy

conflict of ideas. As mentioned by a participant

in one of our leadership classes some time ago,

“if everybody agrees with me, one of us should

not be here.”

2.     The nature of work is changing

Every activity that can be translated into an

algorithm will sooner or later be performed by

artificial intelligence. Humans will take care of

the complex tasks which require creativity and

soft skills. If we continue to think that repeating

the old success formula is enough, we will for

sure lose many opportunities, and see our

market value shrink. This is true and applicable

for us and our team members. Bring up this

reflection when coaching your team members’

performance or their careers.

3.     The self-fulfilling prophecy

If a leader believes that a team member can’t

carry out his/her tasks, most probably that

prophecy will end up being confirmed. Not

because the initial judgment was right, but

because the leader did nothing to develop and

encourage the team member. What is really

perverse about this prophecy is that the belief

will be reinforced as the prophecy is confirmed.

Leaders have the development power in their

hands, so when they do not believe in the other

person they will not invest a minute to help the

direct report to succeed. The problem,

therefore, is not with the other person. The

problem lies in our beliefs, which triggers our

actions; which will subconsciously do everything

to confirm the entrenched belief.

To change our beliefs, we need to first understand

how they were established. We need to analyze the

assumptions used to build them. We also need to

ask which other assumptions could have been used

to arrive at different conclusions.

In other words, we need to widen our premises by

adding different perspectives, challenging our most

ingrained truths and being open to understand and

value different worldviews. Acting this way, we

contribute to a richer dialogue and we strengthen ourselves to make a difference.

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