Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Second Edition

by Joseph Grenny

many of the stories Henry has been carrying in his head since he was a young man may be equally wrong. When his mother once told him that he wasn’t exactly a gifted speaker and later when his father suggested that leadership “wasn’t his thing,” Henry believed that he hadn’t been born with “the right stuff.” He wasn’t born to be an elite athlete; that’s for certain. Later he learned that music wasn’t his thing, and his interpersonal skills weren’t all that strong. Later still he discovered that spending in excess, getting hooked on video games, and gorging on Swiss chocolate were his thing. But none of this is going to change because Henry, like all humans, can’t fight genetics. Fortunately, Henry is dead wrong. Henry is trapped in what Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford, calls a “fixed mindset.” If he believes he can’t improve, then he won’t even try, and he’ll create a self-fulfilling prophecy. But Henry is in luck. Genes don’t play the fatalistic role scholars once assumed they played in determining physical prowess, mental agility, and yes, even self-discipline. Characteristics that had long been described by scholars and philosophers alike as genetic gifts or lifelong personality traits appear to be learned, much the same way one learns to walk, talk, or whistle. That means that Henry doesn’t need to accept his current status. He can adopt what Dweck refers to as a “growth mindset.” Henry simply needs to learn how to develop a set of high-level learning skills and...