On my last post, we commenced to show you the thinking frames of a multidimensional good thinker. Before proceeding, it is important to clarify the following. All these different manners of thinking are created through specific tasks or activities in a particular role or position. I did not want to segment the mental frames (or in Maxwell terms, thinking frames) by function, because a Presidential candidate may come from different backgrounds, and each background has different segments or functional areas. For example, he or she can be a lawyer, or a doctor (medicine), or an engineer or a professor or a banker or a business leader. And each of his-her past jobs or positions could vary a lot, depending on the candidate´s profession or career or field of specialization. It will be innumerable to show you all the mental frames by function. But know that each function triggers one or more of the mental frames listed.

Let´s see an example, the case of a senior experienced banker. I had the opportunity to meet a Swiss banker who interviewed me and offered me a position at Credit Suisse 18 years ago. When I met him, he was the Head of Credit Suisse Trading and Sales Switzerland and Country Manager, and he had at that time 20 years of experience after he finished his college degree.  Look at his progression and evolution of his experience through at each role he had, which prepared him to become a CEO by the year 2005. See his list of positions below:

If you wish to see this slide in PDF format, click here: Eliescalante a portrait of a Swiss banker.

Someone who starts as a trader in the banking fixed income area will develop a specific mental frame which is so different to a financial analyst in the industrial investment banking group, who develops attention to details and focused thinking but doesn´t have a relationship thinking. The same applies to private banking in comparison to commercial banking vs credit cards vs insurance or financial services marketing divisions. In addition, the only way to lead is by exercise ourselves to lead through various leadership roles, varying industries or companies or sectors.

With the latter example of the Swiss experienced banker, we can see the degree of evolution in his thinking capacity, he was specifically trained to become a CEO of a Swiss global bank after 30 years of experience. He is now 58 years old, and his experience in financial services leadership is golden. Do you think the senior banker would be ready to be the new president of Switzerland? Even with all his banking experience, once we remove him from banking and put him as a candidate for the top public sector position of his country, he will have to make tremendous efforts to construct other mental frames which are needed for such a role. And we can see those same paths for other professions (lawyers, artists, doctors, professors, authors, engineers, consultants, logistics specialists, etc.).

Let´s go to the public sector. In order to become a Nation´s president is so important to hold as many positions as possible with required specific frames and different tasks and situations. Each position triggers the development of diverse mental frames for the Presidential chair. And the candidate will be better off if he has certain exposure to public sector jobs.

Let´s continue with what we started yesterday.

8. POPULAR THINKING

Maxwell doesn´t like popular thinking for leaders. He is certainly correct. The most popular are not usually the good ones. But I wish to share it here because massive social media tools are causing popular thinking to overpass the rest of the good mental frameworks. Popular thinking triggers populism which is a mistake for presidential figures. If you want to become a good thinker, then start preparing yourself to question the acceptance of popular thinking because:

• Popular thinking sometimes means not thinking at all. Good thinking is hard work, so when you consider widespread mental frames, these are usually easy, kind of following a trend because it is fashionable.
• Popular thinking offers false hope: many people look for safety and security in populism. They believe if a lot of people are doing something or saying something, that must be right, or it is a good idea. Nope. Some examples of wrong popular thinking: the earth is flat, surgery did not require clean instruments, women are second level citizens who belong to the man and shouldn´t have the right to vote, Nazis governed Germany and killed millions of Jews and nearly destroyed all the historic places in Europe, get into short term debt now to pay long term debt and pay later, etc.
• Popular thinking is slow to embrace change: it loves the status quo and stops progression and development.
• Popular thinking brings only average results: It brings mediocre outcomes, average, nothing exceeds expectations.

9. SHARED THINKING

Shared thinking accomplishes more than what we could do on our own. It is about consistently including the mental frames of others to think “over our own mental frame” and achieve compounding and multifactorial effects.

• Shared Thinking is faster than solo thinking. Working with others is like giving yourself a shortcut.
• Shared Thinking is more innovative than solo thinking. Innovations occur through collaboration.
• Shared Thinking brings more maturity than solo thinking. We all have blind-spots and areas of inexperience. To overcome our lack of maturity, it is important to work with others who have those strengths.
• Shared Thinking is stronger than solo thinking. Energy and synergy come into play when people think together.
• Shared Thinking returns greater value than solo thinking.
• Shared Thinking is the only way to reach great thinking.

10. UNSELFISH THINKING

Unselfish thinking means to take others into consideration to help them to be better.

• Unselfish thinking brings personal fulfillment: Few things in life bring superior personal rewards than helping others.
• Unselfish thinking adds value to others. When you get outside of yourself and contribute to others, you really begin to live
• Unselfish thinking encourages other virtues, like gratitude, love, respect, kindness, patience, discipline, etc.
• Unselfish thinking increases the quality of life: The spirit of generosity by helping others should be our motto.
• Unselfish thinking makes you part of something greater than yourself
• Unselfish thinking creates a legacy: it is like preparing everything for the next generations to come.

11. BOTTOMLINE THINKING

Think of the bottom line as the takeaway, the ultimate desired outcome.

• Bottom line thinking provides greater clarity
• Bottom line thinking helps you assess every situation
• Bottom line thinking helps you make the best decisions
• Bottom line thinking generates high morale
• Bottom lines thinking ensures your future

This is all with the Maxwell mental frames, tomorrow we will continue with the rest of thinking models or mental frameworks: Adaptive Thinking, Professor Thinking, Commonsense Thinking, Relationship Thinking, Self-Mastery Thinking, Assertive Thinking, Ownership Thinking, Team-building Thinking, God´s centered Thinking.

Thank you and blessings.

Sources of reference utilized for this article:

https://www.johnmaxwell.com/blog/

https://www.amazon.com/How-Successful-People-Think-Thinking/dp/1599951681

Disclaimer: All the presentation slides shown on this blog are prepared by Eleonora Escalante MBA-MEng. Nevertheless, all the pictures or videos shown on this blog are not mine.  I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.

Published by eleonoraescalantestrategy

Corporate Strategy Artist, San Salvador, El Salvador View all posts by eleonoraescalantestrategy