Have you ever jumped to a conclusion that was dead wrong? Or assumed that everyone else on your team was seeing the world in the same way as you, but then found out that they saw things very differently?

 

My guests Gaurav Bhatnagar and Mark Minukas are co-authors of Unfear: Transform Your Organization to Create Breakthrough Performance and Employee Well-Being. They  explain how the failure to separate what we've actually observed from what is merely our interpretation of the situation often gets us in trouble. They share how we can communicate in a way that recognizes that other people's perceptions, assumptions and reality are different from our own. 

 

Gaurav describes himself as a former “fear addict” who had to overturn his two-pronged paradigm that life is a competition and that you either succeed, or you are nothing.

 

He says that becoming aware of the story he told himself was the very first step he had to take in order to shed those limiting beliefs and undergo a total mindset transformation—and it is precisely this principle that he and Mark expound on in their book, Unfear.

 

Likewise, Mark grew up believing that you had to “check your emotions at the door”. He had to rewire his mind and realize that improving how you show up in the world depends on your ability to dig deep and get in touch with your authentic, emotional self.

 

“Separate what you observe from what you interpret,” Gaurav and Mark teach. This way, you can separate your subjectivity from the objective and be on the same page with the people you’re interacting or working with. Start by simply and literally noting what you observe, and from there you may begin to draw conclusions based on the facts.

 

If you find yourself having to navigate a fear-based organization, it may be worth it to hear what the resident “troublemaker” has to say—the staff member who isn’t afraid to speak their mind and challenge the restrictive status quo. They may just vocalize the same concerns that everyone else in the organization is too afraid to bring up.

 

These organizations—and, really, all organizations—can foster greater collaboration between team members when the leader improves their storytelling ability, as there is no better way to touch your team on the human, emotional level than by communicating via stories.

 

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