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THE ART & SCIENCE OF LEADING SELF
The Power of Detachment

My friend, the breakdown of my entire mindset framework continues.

We’ve been using the analogy of building a house to explore the various elements. The foundation = awareness that Mindset work is a function of Mindfulness, aka M = f(m). The skeletal framing of the home is the subject-object shift that is key to your ability to effect meaningful shifts in your mindset. And the flooring inside the home is detachment.

Last week, we broke down the perspectives that Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity have on detachment. Then, we identified 4 common beliefs across the 3 religious traditions:

• A recognition of the harmful nature of attachments

• Clarity about the craving, ego, and clinging that drive attachments

• A clear position on how attachments: impair your ability to love purely and shape (in unhealthy ways) how you approach your duties

• A warning about how attachments distort your perception, which has clear downstream impacts

Now, we’re moving from the theoretical to the actionable. I want to show you why detachment, this critical element of Mindset, is the flooring in a house.

Attachments Distort Perception 🔍

Let’s explore the example of María, a healthcare executive. Her technical expertise has carried her to the C-Suite. Now, however, in the face of increasing demands on the executive team, she needs to improve her collaboration and delegation.

While she understands she needs to shift her leadership approach, she is attached to “being the expert.” Ultimately, behaving as the expert has been rewarded throughout her career. That sort of positive reinforcement taught her that answers, not questions, earn recognition.

That recognition has opened doors to new opportunities.

So, how could an attachment be harmful if it’s worked?

Consider how attachment to “being the expert” distorts a leader’s perception. It contributes to a mindset that can lead to overvaluing your experience at the expense of frontline insight. This impacts the quality of decision making and erodes trust within your team.

Because when you center your own voice, it’s easy to mistake silence for alignment.

I mean, you are the expert, right?

This attachment shuts down curiosity. This means you may not uncover resistance, better ideas, or even confusion that live beneath silence from your team.

It also stalls innovation.

When your team fears being wrong in front of “the expert,” they avoid taking risks. This results in the leader becoming the clearinghouse for decision making, which quickly shifts the culture from proactive to reactive. This is not the engine for innovation.

Attachments distort your perception, which influences your mindset. Mindset drives decision making. And decisions shape how you lead.

Deconstructing the Mindset Beneath Attachments 🧠

“Being the expert” is a relatable attachment for many executives.

Career experiences socialize you to believe that “You didn’t get to this seat by saying, ‘I don’t know.’”

Let’s deconstruct the beliefs that drive this attachment. Pro tip: they frequently live in the “should’s,” which are red flags 🚩 for attachments.

Here are some of the beliefs that live beneath this attachment:

👉🏽 “As a leader, you should know it all.”

👉🏽 “You should already have the answers to any question you are going to ask.”

👉🏽 “You should never show uncertainty in front of your team.”

These beliefs are rooted in ego and, if you dig a little deeper: a desire to control how others perceive you. But you cannot control how others perceive you.

You can only control how you show up and present yourself.

And this is where the tangle of attachments gets worse.

Deep down, you know you cannot possibly know it all. But the fear of being found out—and how that threatens your ego—leads you to cling more tightly to how important it is to present as the expert.

Do you see the recursive nature of this?

Do you see how it impacts how you lead yourself and your team?

Up Next… 🕰

The mindset framework series continues. 🎉

Next week, I want to present you with a framework for how you can identify attachments.

Because your ability to see the value in practicing detachment hinges on your ability to recognize your attachments.

If we return to the analogy of the house, the flooring (detachment) is what allows you to move with ease through any part of the home. Attachments are like bunched up rugs lining the hallways.

They trip you up wherever you move, even when you know the layout. 😱

EXCELLENCE UNBOUNDED
How I Can Help You

High-performing executive teams don’t happen by chance. They happen by design.

If you’re ready to take action to design an aligned team that is empowered to drive 58% faster revenue growth, is 1.9x more likely to achieve above-average financial performance, and has higher employee engagement, let’s talk.

Book a call to learn more about The Executive Alignment Playbook 🚀, an immersive, experiential leadership program.

Align your leadership team. Accelerate execution. Drive measurable results.

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD 📢

Until next Sunday,

Shawnette