This article was co-authored with Mathew Lehnig, retired Navy SEAL officer and VP of Programs at Taking Point Leadership, and written from his perspective.
“When we can overcome mental strongholds, we alleviate entrenched beliefs and perceptions that rule your emotions and control your decisions.”
— Mathew Lehnig
Mental strongholds are mental fortresses that are built on past experiences. These thoughts, ideas, emotions, and belief patterns can cause friction between employees, peers, and senior leaders, resulting in a lack of engagement, credibility, and trust. This may become problematic as we try to grow as leaders for our teams and within our organization. Strongholds keep us from moving forward. They hold us back because of uncertainty in our roles and responsibilities, lack of mission or vision, misaligned values within the company, and fear of the unknown.
It is always good to remind ourselves that we were not born with these strongholds; They are picked up along the way through various influences, positive or negative experiences, and how we choose to interpret them throughout our lives. In the SEAL Teams, everyone must have the mental fortitude and ability to triumph over these strongholds to ensure optimal synergy within the team to complete the mission.
Strongholds are usually looked at through the lens of thoughts, ideas, emotions, and patterns of belief. Take thoughts, for instance; leaders can fall into the trap of thinking everything is about them. They begin to identify so strongly with their role that they forget they are there to serve others, not to be served. Keeping sight of your leadership role as you pursue your goals is essential. Change your mindset; Empower your team and encourage them to think outside the box. In Naval Special Warfare, outside-of-the-box thinking is encouraged and is designed to give your team the autonomy to enhance internal dynamics and move your team to the next level in training and on the battlefield.
Ideas are reasonable; however, believing your ideas are always the best can be troublesome. First, perfection doesn’t exist; we must listen to others, filter what they say, and see where we can find common ground and alignment. We must speak with others, get different perspectives, and validate our ideas through similar experiences. Lastly, get your team’s feedback and be open to constructive criticism. As individuals, we are flawed, but as a team, we are unstoppable.
We must recognize that strongholds tend to elicit strong emotional responses. Realizing, identifying, and controlling these emotions can help you remain calm and smile in almost every situation as a leader. Acknowledging others’ feelings builds interpersonal trust, strengthens connections, improves emotional health, and builds empathy. As leaders, emotional intelligence must be prevalent in our decision-making process to ensure decisions are made strategically and without emotions.
Understanding that similar beliefs are critical for strong, cohesive teams, we must also recognize that beliefs are deep-rooted in personal experiences, culture, social norms, and what others say. There are several reasons for one’s beliefs, but all come from a continuous pattern until you accept a belief as truth and are willing to defend it. Self-awareness and critical insight into one’s beliefs lead to rational choices and desirable outcomes.
We can build mental fortitude and renew our minds regardless of upbringing. We do not need to conform to the patterns we learned over time. We build and develop mental fortitude over time; you must choose to make mental development a priority.
The 4 C’s of Overcoming Mental Strongholds. By using the 4 C’s, an individual will have the courage to confront stressors, pressures, challenges, and any other blockages with composure and consistency to break debilitating strongholds.
- Courage: Have the self-belief in our abilities to overcome strongholds. Courage isn’t the abscess of fear, difficulties, or hardships but the inherent desire to overcome them and become a courageous leader. A courageous leader overcomes strongholds and leads individuals, teams, and organizations while guiding employees with the confidence, determination, and bravery to drive the desired results at both an individual and organizational level.
- Confront: Strongholds must be confronted; as leaders, we must embrace change, reflect, learn, and see growth opportunities. In the SEAL Teams, we are taught to confront things head-on; this builds mental fortitude within each person, which leads to the determination and the willingness to engage in conflict resolution and take decisive action when needed to accomplish the mission.
- Composed – Have a good sense of who you are, believe you can do it, and be in control of your emotions. Composed individuals recognize their own emotions and those of others. This also helps discern strongholds by labeling different feelings appropriately, using emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, and managing and/or adjusting emotions to adapt to environments or to achieve one’s goal(s).
- Consistent – Continually enhancing your cognitive ability can be the primary factor in defeating strongholds. Consistent individuals understand that it takes perseverance to dig deep into personal perceptions of their behavior to identify why these strongholds took effect in the first place. Consistency and incremental wins, personally and professionally, will help you persevere, thrive in adversity, break down barriers, and push forward in your pursuit of conquering these strongholds while building mental fortitude.
Strongholds are not defeated overnight. It takes time and hard work. However, understanding your thoughts, ideas, emotions, and patterns of beliefs and implementing the 4 C’s to overcome mental strongholds will give you a way forward. With time, you will see an overwhelming desire to tackle any situation and find that your strong mental outlook can change how you perceive things in the future.
Mathew Lehnig is the VP of Programs at TakingPoint Leadership, a former Navy SEAL Officer & Combat Proven Veteran, Author, Keynote Speaker, and an Expert in leadership development, organizational transformation, and building high-performance teams.
TakingPoint Leadership is a progressive Change Leadership management consulting firm focused on building alignment, accountability, resilience, and adaptability in every organization we partner with.
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