Be Your Own Chief Reminding Officer
By: Cal Walters
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.” Proverbs 23:7
In 2016, I was a news junkie.
I had a 45-minute commute to and from work, and I spent most of that 90 minutes in the car each day listening to the news.
Being informed is not a bad thing, and I genuinely enjoy keeping up with politics and current events. But soon I started to realize spending so much time focusing on the news was impacting the way I viewed the world. I found myself dwelling on things that had little direct effect on my life. I also started to notice that what I was listening to and consuming became what I thought about, and what I thought about became what I talked about. The doom, gloom, and negativity that makes for good headlines, if dwelled upon, leads to a negative way of viewing the world.
The interesting thing about this is that I didn’t realize how much my daily consumption was affecting my thought life. The changes were gradual, but the effects were real.
I started to think more about what I was thinking about. And I wondered, if consistently consuming news that was filled with negativity brought about negative emotions and thought patterns, what if I filled my 90 minutes a day in the car with positive information?
Around January 2017, I made a shift. I discovered podcasts and became committed to audio books. As a general rule, I only consumed podcasts or books that were positive and helped me grow in my life or leadership.
My go-to podcasts to begin this shift were the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast and the Your Move Podcast by Andy Stanley. I’ve now listened to nearly every episode of those podcasts, many of them two or three times. I also listened to dozens of other uplifting, thought-provoking books. I noticed that my entire state was far more positive as I repeatedly consumed positive content in the morning before work and in the afternoon before returning home to my family.
Even if I woke up in a bad mood, listening to a podcast on leadership, for example, on the way into work shifted my mindset. It was as if I needed to be repeatedly reminded of what was important.
I needed to put leadership on the forefront of my mind to be a better leader.
Winning the Battle in Your Mind
This is actually how our brain works, and we should take advantage of it to lead ourselves and our teams.
Let me share some bad news first.
Without deliberate effort, our minds often tend towards the negative. We have what psychologists call a negativity bias. The circumstances of life lead us to focus on fear, lies, anxiety, comparison, and victimhood. Organizations and teams--because they are made up of human beings just like you and me--also tend towards the negative without an involved leader creating a different culture. Unfortunately, if left alone, the default direction of most teams is dysfunction.
This probably doesn’t surprise you. But hopefully it highlights why we have to take intentional steps each day to inject positive, true, thoughts into our life and leadership.
“People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” Samuel Johnson, English author, critic, and lexicographer (1709-1784)
This quote from Samuel Johnson is one of Patrick Lencioni’s favorite quotes. Lencioni is the Founder and President of the Table Group, a “firm dedicated to making companies more successful and work more fulfilling.” In his view, the CEO should also be the CRO, the Chief Reminding Officer.
In my view, we should become the Chief Reminding Officer of our own lives and in the lives of our teams.
Repeated thoughts create paths in our brains. Just like a big truck driving down a dirt road, our thoughts create ruts in our brains. These ruts become more entrenched by a collection of nerves at the base of our brain stem known as the reticular activating system (RAS).
This is why many of our thought patterns are so deeply entrenched. If you think you’re a failure, you may convince yourself that you are destined for more failures. You create a failure rut. These thoughts repeat themselves over and over again in your mind. You begin training your brain to look for evidence which supports that belief and to filter out evidence which doesn’t. Our brains are designed to create neurological pathways to help us keep thinking the things we keep thinking.
As leaders, we should harness the power of the RAS for self-leadership and keeping our teams inspired.
Here are three practical things you can begin doing to maximize the power of the RAS:
1. Inject positive content into your daily life.
We ultimately become what we repeatedly think about. We’ve all heard the phrase, “garbage in, garbage out.” Maybe your mom said that growing up. It’s true. Each time I was listening to the news on my drive into work and my drive home (90 minutes a day!) I was creating paths in my brain. When we combine negative news with our inherent negativity bias, we can easily create a life full of negativity. But injecting positive, inspiring content into our lives helps us fight our negativity bias and creates new brain paths that serve us far better in our life and leadership.
2. Remind yourself daily who you are.
Not every thought that comes into our brains is true. In fact, many of the thoughts we think on a regular basis are lies, and we have the power to redirect those thoughts towards the truth. In his book, Winning the War in your Mind, Pastor Craig Groeschel recommends we adopt personal declarations to remind us of the truth. As he puts it, “The goal of a declaration is to have it become my new neural pathway, my intentionally dug trench of truth.” When dealing with money, Groeschel often begins to fear he will not have enough. Here is the declaration he has adopted to deal with this mental rut:
“Money is not and never will be a problem for me.
My God is an abundant provider who meets every need.
Because I am blessed, I will always be a blessing.
I will lead the way with irrational generosity, because
I know it’s truly more blessed to give than to receive.”
On the Intentional Leader podcast, Brigadier General Pat Work also emphasized the importance of personal mantras. Adopting declarations helps us become our own Chief Reminding Officer. What do you need to remind yourself of daily? Here are a few simple declarations I have adopted in my life as key reminders:
I am loved by God. My identity is firmly rooted in God and his love.
I am grateful. I will commit to intentionally giving thanks for the blessings in my life.
I am a person of integrity. I choose the harder right over the easier wrong.
I will give my very best today. What I do today matters.
I will genuinely listen to the people I am with. I am present and ready to make a positive impact on anyone I come in contact with.
I will not be discouraged by setbacks. These are opportunities to learn and grow.
3. Remind your team who they are and what they stand for.
Some leaders don’t like the idea of repeating themselves. But the reality is people need to hear things more than we think to become deeply rooted in their way of thinking. On your average Monday morning, your team doesn’t walk in the door focused on your values, vision, and priorities. You have to remind them of these things. That’s actually your job as a leader. Create the neurological paths you know will serve your team and the culture you want to create. For example, when my team gets together at our Monday morning meetings, I remind them what it takes to be a successful team. I talk about the importance of trust, true humility, relying on each other, leaning into conflict around ideas, accountability, and why what we do matters. Maybe they roll their eyes some Mondays, but repeating this over and over again creates the culture I want to create.
Remember, what we think about is ultimately who we become. The same is true for our team. If you feel like you’re repeating yourself, you’re on the right track.
Commit to being the Chief Reminding Officer for yourself and your team.
Let’s go make it count!
Questions for Reflection
1. What are you currently consuming (books, TV, social media, podcasts)?
2. Of the things you are currently consuming, which ones are creating positive thought patterns and which ones are creating negative thought patterns?
3. What are some lies you find yourself routinely believing?
4. What declarations can you adopt to remind yourself of daily?
5. What should you be repeating on a consistent basis for your team?
Cal is the Founder and Host of the Intentional Leader podcast. He is also a major in the US Army and currently serves as the Chief of Criminal Law at the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, NC.
Cal is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Campbell Law School, US Army Ranger School, and the US Army Airborne School. Prior to attending law school, Cal served as an infantry officer in the US Army where he led a rifle platoon, served as the second in command of an infantry company, deployed to Iraq, and served as an aide-de-camp for an Army general.
He is passionate about helping leaders grow and hopes every interaction you have with Intentional Leader helps you grow in your life and leadership.
Cal and his wife, Natalie, have one daughter.