In last week’s post, I shared the key points from Liz Wiseman’s new book, Impact Players: How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger and Multiply Your Impact. Impact Players are top performers who excel and play a bigger role in their organizations because they’re not afraid to step up and lead when called and because they do the work that’s required, even if it’s outside the scope of their role. They "see everyday challenges through an opportunity lens while others view the same challenges through a threat lens." This difference in mindset is foundational for Impact Players.

In this week’s post, I will share a few ways you can lean into adopting an Impact Player mindset. It’s near the end of the year, after all, and you want to be sure you position yourself for 2022 with the right mindset habits.

To strengthen your Impact Player skills here are a few key points.

1.     Change your Perspective

As with so many things related to mindset, it’s all about shifting your perspective. "To increase our impact we must know what is valuable to others. We must train our minds to view situations through others' eyes. We must see through the eyes of those who benefit from our work."

Tips to change your perspective:

a. Zoom out: View the situation at hand from a greater perspective than your own. Consider, what do others need from me to be successful? Who is affected by my role? Who benefits most when my impact is solid?

b. Change seats: Look at the situation from someone else’s perspective, who has a stake in the game.

c. Listen Longer: Curiosity, empathy, and good listening are critical leadership traits. How can you listen longer before you rush to action or advice?

2.     Change your lens

Effective leaders need to be comfortable with uncertainty, to see change and ambiguity as challenges to conquer not threats. This skill of seeing uncertainty through the lens of opportunity is a key differentiator of Impact Players compared to their peers, and it has a significant effect on helping them manage stressful situations.

When you see obstacles, uncertainty, messy situations, or moving targets as threats, your mind sees those as any of the following:

• A distraction

• A reason to defer to leadership

• A hassle

• A detour from your strengths

• A reason to seek help

All these make you focus on doing your job, waiting for direction, escalating issues, digging your heels in, and adding to the burden of the crisis or situation.

In contrast, when you see threats as opportunities, as Impact Players do, here’s what happens in your mind. You see:

• A chance to be useful and engage your strengths

• An opportunity to lead

• A chance to do it better

• A reason to build new skills

• A need to collaborate

This view makes you do all the things Impact players are known for: doing the job that’s needed, stepping up and back finishing stronger, asking and adjusting, and making work lighter.

Reframing threats as opportunities takes much practice but it literally helps you change your perspective, so you become more impactful in your role. The help of a coach or therapist can be beneficial to move you forward here.

Impact Players are treasured in organizations and rewarded for the value they add. Managers recognize these top performers and understand their worth. Leaders depend on them, so they are privy to high-profile assignments which allows them to shine even more. Their colleagues recognize their value too and see the impact of their influence on the team and organization.

If you know you can have a greater impact but are struggling, I highly recommend reading this book. Shifting your behaviors will take much work, but the reward of being able to serve your sphere excellently in ways that matter to them, that not only elevates you, but improves the functioning of your team, business unit, or organization is absolutely worth it!