Beliefs are assumptions we hold to be true, or an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists. We incorporate or create them throughout our lives, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously. Some beliefs serve us very well. Some don’t. As a leader in life and business, we have to be very aware of how our beliefs and thoughts impact our performance and the reality around us.
For example, let’s say you have a belief that planning things ahead of time is not worth it. You may think that it restricts your spontaneity, it’s too much work for something that will probably have to be reworked again in the future, or you may feel it creates too many rules and tasks to follow precisely. This belief could affect your performance and how people perceive you. You might try to “wing things” frequently, since you don’t like to plan, and you might look less professional and prepared. Or you might overspend a budget because you didn’t think about things ahead of time, making you look either frivolous or disorganized.
In Coaching Expatriates® onboarding training, we talk about the 5 drivers of our personal power. Our beliefs affect all 5 drivers of our personal power to some degree or level. Which means beliefs can either increase our personal power or jeopardize it. And that’s because beliefs affect how we see things, how strongly we engage with things and people, and how we let certain things hold us back. They also affect how we do NOT respond to things. Or how we avoid them and procrastinate.
Beliefs are crucial in our life and career because, as Susan Chritton says, “beliefs are part of your personal brand.” Your beliefs are translated into how you show up in your life and in your career. In other words, if we identify that our performance and outcomes are not showing up according to our expectations, the root cause might be in our beliefs.
Let’s review another fictional example to illustrate this idea.
- Maria was an expatriate who believed that because she was a person with greater cultural awareness and language literacy, she had an advantage over other co-workers in terms of being considered for a promotion. She was very engaged in all projects and worked hard to see her promotion happen as soon as possible.
- John was an expatriate who believed he would never be promoted in a foreign country, as preference would always be given to “locals.” So he slacked off and did the bare minimum for every new project he got, since the extra effort would not make any difference anyway, in his perception.
Both John and Maria had the same background, position, and were given the same opportunities, but Maria clearly outshined everyone else since she was always energetic, engaging, and positive. And because her attitude was not forced, she was consistently showing up this way through time. The main difference between them was what they believed in. And these beliefs affected the way they were behaving.
This is a fictional example, but surely you also saw similar things around you. With 2 different co-workers, with your kids, with your direct reports, with your parents, even with your friends. We all have beliefs that either pump us to move forward or hold us back somehow. Indeed John also wanted to be promoted, but his beliefs were holding him back.
How can you improve the quality of your beliefs to increase your performance and outcomes?
1- Evaluate what your values and beliefs are
The first step into these waters is making sure you know what your beliefs are in regards to your performance or desired outcome. It seems simple enough. However, certain beliefs can be so insidious that they might be harming us without us even knowing it. These are usually the beliefs that were incorporated when we were younger or reverberated by those we have as authoritative or respected figures.
Finding what these beliefs are and repurposing them is essential for anyone to change their mindset and improve their performance and outcomes. Although values and beliefs are different concepts, we can use similar strategizes to find them out. I shared in a previous post 3 strategies to uncover your core values, and you can use them also to reveal what your beliefs are.
2- Find out which beliefs are holding you back
Some beliefs, like Maria’s, improve our personal power, which leads us to better results. You want to keep these beliefs, of course. However, once you find those that are holding you back, you will have to either get rid of them or repurpose them. Depending on the belief, it isn’t easy to simply get rid of it. Like with bad habits, changing a limiting belief can be arduous, requiring a lot of persistence and discipline.
3- Get an accountability partner to help you put limiting beliefs in check
Once we find what beliefs and assumptions are holding us back, we need to create strategies to change these ideas in our heads into something that serves us better. We need to make sure our mindset is aligned with how we want to perform and the outcomes we want to achieve. Like in the example with John, he could change the way he thinks about the whole thing to help him move from a slacker attitude into a doer attitude. Maybe a “Maria mindset” would be impossible for him. Still, perhaps he could make himself understand that he could make the most out of the current experience and then apply to a better position in a company founded by someone from his original nation, even if it was in another country or his current country. Whatever way he decides to repurpose his belief, this exercise aims to make sure your personal power is the highest possible, and closest to its potential, in everything you do.
Having an accountability partner is helpful in this endeavor. An accountability partner is a person who helps you keep a particular commitment until you reach a specific goal. This sort of partner is important because changing beliefs has ups and downs, and your accountability partner will help you get through the “downs,” making sure you don’t lose sight of your commitments and goals.
4- Hire a professional coach or strategist
We once had a client who came to us because she was having trouble completing her degree. She was procrastinating and avoiding certain tasks, to the point that she was falling way behind. She really wanted to complete the degree, and she was very upset about that fact that she was procrastinating so much. It took us several sessions to figure out what was the root cause belief that was holding her back, but once we did, we became accountability partners, and she was coached through creating and adjusting strategies for her to complete her program. Her first impression, before she started the program, was that it was an efficiency problem, when, in fact, was rooted in her beliefs. She was happy that she got her degree and didn’t throw her tuition down the toilet, but I was fascinated because I saw a brilliant woman finally shine through her immense personal power.
Sometimes it sounds counterintuitive to hire and invest in help when we already have spent so much on something. But hiring the right professionals can make you obtain intangible benefits, otherwise never expected.
Final remarks
One final point that we’d like to highlight is how much limiting beliefs add up to our stress levels. Because they limit us, we perform poorly. Because we perform poorly, we become more upset and stressed. And this only fuels even further our limiting beliefs and its resulting behaviors, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And stress, like any other distraction, limits our outcomes because it decreases our performance and progress. Managing stress is an important factor when considering high-performance strategies. Performance and progress can be expressed through a simple formula, which might make it more tangible and objective to understand:
Like with any formula, if you want the result of the equation – P (for progress) – to be high, you want the highest values possible in the numerator (the top piece of the equation) and the lowest values possible in the denominator (the bottom portion). This means you want the distractions (like stress, pain, etc.) to be as few as possible or the least distracting as possible.
For example, let’s say you are a dancer. You hurt your back, and every time you make certain moves, that pain becomes quite distracting and limits your moves. You will dance with your highest engagement and the greatest effort possible, but it might not be sufficient to counter the distracting and obnoxious pain. Your performance will suffer. Imagine how stressed you will be if you have this pain and a championship is coming up?
Since stress is a distraction that also can be caused by limiting beliefs that are holding us back, it makes complete sense that we would want to get rid of these beliefs, on top of managing the stress. You are going for the root cause, the head of the snake. Kudos to you!
Facing limiting beliefs and transforming them into something that serves you better is a huge feat. And by doing so, the amount of personal power that can be released and utilized is quite empowering. Once you choose to do it, you’d better be prepared for all the things you are setting into motion! Make sure your beliefs, values, and mindset are all favoring your success, growth, and performance, then make a nice plan to take action, execute it, and reap all your rewards.
If you enjoyed this post, share it with your co-workers, your company, your HR, other leaders, and get their perspective on the subject. What do you think is the most common limiting beliefs out there? Oh! And real quick: consider subscribing to our newsletter. We mail only once per week, and we focus on content for global leaders in productivity, habits and mindset, and leadership skills. If that sounds great, use the form below to subscribe.
