Being Blind to Bias and the Value of an Outside Perspective

Posted by Vince Poscente on Fri, Sep 09, 2022 @ 06:15 AM

You may think you're the exception. BUT... everyone has Blind Spot Bias.

We each have a tendency to see other people being more biased than we are. In fact, in one study - over 85% of Americans reported they are less biased in their thinking.

People are motivated to see themselves in a positive light while biases are generally seen as undesirable.

Everyone has unconscious patterns and personal ‘factory defects’ if you will. There are things about each of us, we don’t know we have.

Let’s say elbow skin for example.

Roll your sleeve up and give your elbow skin a pinch. There, see that, you have no feeling in your elbow skin. A factory defect you weren’t likely aware of.

Another 'factory defect'... you have a Blind Spot.

Take this quick test. Cover your left eye. Keep your right eye on the + sign while you slowly bring your face closer to the screen. At some point the black spot will disappear then reappear. THAT is your blind spot.

Blind spot bias with Vince Poscente

When it comes to topics you’re passionate about, you also have a combination of blind spots. Blind Spot biases are enhanced by confirmation bias and repetition bias. You recognize data as aligning with your way of seeing the world, and bingo you have reinforced or confirmed your bias. Or, you hear a certain bit of information repeatedly and you are in the sights of repetition bias. 

If you hold your gaze from a fixed position, there is nothing you can do about your optical bias. It is by seeing something from a different angle or position will you then see what you couldn’t see before. The same can be said in life.

If you are posting your bias on social media or arguing your point with a significant other, know, you may have an unconscious bias, A BLIND SPOT that’s a factory defect somewhat like the unfeeling elbow skin of objectivity. 

For leaders and sales folks who are driving forward without an awareness of your blind spot biases... give us a call. The value of an outside perspective can be priceless. 


#Goals #selfawareness #biases #BusinessLeadership #setbacktobreakthrough

Tags: Goals, Sales, Motivational, Business Leadership, Inspirational, Changing Times, CustomerExperience

Rush Toward Chaos - Upstanding vs Bystanding

Posted by Vince Poscente on Wed, Sep 07, 2022 @ 02:28 PM

For the next few paragraphs, I’m going to take my own advice and share a life-altering event in the hopes that this experience may help someone. As an author and speaker, I encourage others to be transparent, vulnerable, and honest so I need to do the same.
 Salman Rushdie piece in Sh Pk News
How do I recount the violent attack on Salman Rushdie while describing my role in protecting him? To be candid, I struggle with this. Friends encouraged me to write what I honestly still can’t grasp.
 
It was a serene August morning on Lake Chautauqua. Arriving early, I took a front-row seat at a literary festival. Peace quickly distorted into chaos as an assailant leaped on stage and repeatedly stabbed Rushdie. * (The grotesque sound of the blade thrust into a vulnerable body is what haunts me as I write this.) I was not alone in realizing Rushdie needed immediate help. 
 
A few steps onto the stage, three of us were able to overpower the assailant. Grabbing his collar with my right hand, I pulled the entire pile of bodies away from Rushdie. The guy on my left secured an arm. A guy on my right repeatedly said, “Pin the knife.” A police officer joined in and cuffed the assailant's wrists.
 
Citizens came to Rushdie’s aid too. Soon I recognized I wasn't needed any longer. The host asked everyone to calmly leave.
 
Sensing a logjam of people, police, and eyewitness reports, I walked toward the exit but stopped to see Rushdie lying in a pool of blood. He was cared for by a doctor and others from the venue.
 
Without any burden of second-guessing, the surreal experience keeps replaying in my mind - and heart.
 
Friends have said words like courageous and brave. That’s what it might look like from the outside. From my perspective, I was simply among those nearest to help.
 
Others have admitted they don't think they would have jumped in. Running toward chaos is an unnerving notion when personal safety is threatened. Meanwhile seeing something, then doing something is the instinct to protect. 
 
It is clear that how quickly we choose to act and what we do matters beyond our comprehension! It is also clear we each have a choice to be a bystander or an upstander. There have been times in my life when I've done one or the other. 
 
My personal earthquake and the aftershocks pale in comparison to what Salman Rushdie will have to recover from. It is Rushdie who is the courageous one. He is a warrior of free speech and will be undaunted by censors or threats.
 
*After being stabbed over ten times, Mr. Rushdie is on the path to recovery. May we all hold his well-being in our thoughts.
 
#chaos #PTSD #Rushdie #freespeech #setbacktobreakthrough
 

Tags: Motivational, Business Leadership, Inspirational, Changing Times, Safety, Radical Safety

Combine Exasperation with Aspiration for Big Goals

Posted by Vince Poscente on Fri, Jul 22, 2022 @ 01:01 PM

Aspirational vision needs a kinetic nudge from intolerable exasperation. In other words, we’re motivated by discomfort over ambition. What follows is magic.

For 22 years, tucked in the corner of our property, a dilapidated greenhouse waited to be restored.

Trivia: We live where Steve Miller grew up. The land’s musical past included Dr. George Miller’s fatherly green thumb. It once bloomed with geraniums and begonias. For 60 years, 🎶 time kept on slipping, slipping, slipping into 🎶 a rundown eyesore.

Why did it years to begin repair? A combination of exasperation and aspiration was needed.

Greenhouse Progress 2022

Some will quote Walt Disney, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” What if the “dream” is overwhelming? What if there are other “To Do’s” that are less daunting? Then, as our human condition is wont to do, “Not Now” rules over months and years.

Far-away goals are realized when we combine a well-defined feeling of discomfort with compelling ambition. The discomfort was A Broken Glass Monstrosity. The aspirational objective was A Sustainability Redo (prioritizing salvaged materials).

Stages included:

  • Months of cleanout. Stuff had to go somewhere
  • A reclaimed shed – disassembled, moved, and rebuilt
  • White Rock Tree Wizards removed a 40’ dying tree hanging over the greenhouse
  • Replace the roof (a tall order given a sustainability project)
  • Covered a 1,000 sqft cracked-concrete floor with 2,500 bricks sourced from the Nextdoor app
  • Resurfaced a double door plus a chandelier from ReStore
  • Piles of nail-filled wood from a White Rock Boat Club renovation
  • Flagstone and 5” posts from local demolitions
  • Timeworn, corrugated tin from farmers
  • Cedar fence slats repurposed for stub walls
  • Make three 26" citrus tree planter cubes and planter boxes made out of leftover salvaged wood
  • Soil from compost.

It all took relentless effort.

Help from family and friends appeared when most needed. Today it’s a vegetable-producing gem plus a work in progress. It’s a reminder of frustration and ambition intersecting.

Magic happens when we combine exasperation with aspiration.

PS Glass Doctor Dallas, expect a call.

#projects #greenhouse #frustration #ambition #setbacktobreakthrough

Tags: Goals, Motivational, Business Leadership, Inspirational

Who's the Architect for Your Dominant Thought and Truth?

Posted by Vince Poscente on Sun, Jun 12, 2022 @ 01:22 PM

So, you like to have your way. Here’s a shortcut. Be the architect of your dominant thought and your truth. But we normally live with our truth and dominant thought that occurs to us. Here’s how to align your thoughts to get the outcomes you seek.

Step One: Align Your Ant and Elephant. 

Think of your conscious mind and subconscious mind as an ant and an elephant. The ant is on the back of the elephant. The conscious decisions you make are equivalent to the ant making decisions as to which direction to walk on the elephant hide. Meanwhile, the elephant is also making decisions on where to go. They (those scientists in white lab coats and thick glasses) call it SUBconscious because those thoughts are BELOW consciousness. 

Let’s say you got a birthday invite a couple of miles west of your home. You reply “Yes.” The day arrives. Your ant made a decision to go west. But your elephant walks east. You intended to be at a party on the west side but ended up at a closed-down gas station on the eastern side of town. 

Imagine this: What if your elephant goes in the same direction as you consciously decided? You aren’t just at the party. You are THE party!

Step Two: Define a Truth with an Elephant Buzz

Emotions drive thoughts. Thoughts drive behavior. Instead of trying to behave differently… Instead of trying to think differently… Focus on the Emotional Quotient. The Emotional Quotient is thought that:

  • Lights you up.
  • Gives you energy.
  • Makes joy course through your veins. 

That is called your Elephant Buzz. A thought that literally has a physical reaction attached to it. It’s the difference between saying to a kid “Let’s go for ice cream” vs “Go clean your room.” 

If your dominant thought is exciting, your elephant will be inspired to run, not walk in the direction of your desired outcome. 

Step Three: Trigger your Dominant Thought to Create a New Truth

Personally, I like to use a Gold Dot as a reminder for my Elephant Buzz. I see a Gold Dot and I silently repeat my Elephant Buzz. For example:

  • When I started ski racing, my Gold Dot statement reminded me of marching in the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games.
  • When I started speaking professionally, my Gold Dot reminded me of accepting the Speaker Hall of Fame Award.
  • When I started writing books my Gold Dot statement reminded me of receiving a phone call that I would be on the New York Times bestsellers list.

What would your Gold Dot represent? Are you ready to tell the world?

If you’d like to know more about how the Ant and Elephant can work wonders in your life, check out the book, The Ant and the Elephant, Leadership for the Self. Order it from www.AntAndElephant.com and I’ll sign it for you personally. Let’s get your ant and elephant going in the direction that you decide.

Tags: Self Development, Motivational, Business Leadership, Inspirational, Money, Changing Times

What if Maslow Was an Event Planner in a Hybrid World?

Posted by Vince Poscente on Sat, Jun 11, 2022 @ 01:06 PM

What if Maslow analyzed your hybrid workforce? The good, bad, and ugly side of work from home folks can be improved with Maslow’s ‘ol hierarchy of needs. Indeed, a hybrid employee’s basic needs may be met but there’s distinct deterioration as we ascend that staffer’s experience triangle. 

The Conference Experience Formula by Vince Poscente copy

Working from home checks psychological and safety boxes. To many, comfort and peace of mind from working at home are profound. It feels good to feel good. Moreover, convenience leads directly to safety. Stay at home, have everything delivered, and your chance of getting in a life-altering car wreck drops to zero. Avoid those virus-carrying masses and you compound the feeling of security. That feels extra good. But this is where the good feelings are throttled.

To seek belonging is as natural as breathing. It’s an itch that needs to be scratched. At home, the TV may be flailing around that need. If it’s on one station, your belonging is reinforced but limited. The belonging isn’t tactile, it’s tribal. Zoom may be functional but it’s not profound. A two-dimensional screen is content-rich, and in-person interaction is rich in experience. If you were only to eat donuts from a donut factory, your human experience may feel full but you’ll be isolated from balanced nourishment. 

Climbing this hierarchy and esteem doesn’t stand a chance when your own bubble of thoughts makes up all sorts of narratives. Reality may land anywhere on the spectrum of:

Enlightenment  <—>  Doubt  <—>  Full-on Negativity

Left alone with our thoughts we lack the touchstone of a more comprehensive, broader awareness. 

Extended isolation without human interaction and self-actualization becomes as fleeting as a feather in the wind. It’s a fantasy to seek fulfillment when belonging and self-esteem are pushed aside. 

Remember, I’m on the front lines of this dynamic. I’m a communicator. A writer who is often asked to give virtual presentations. I live the hybrid life! But I won’t succumb and be limited by stopping at the basics of food, shelter, clothing, and security.

  • Coaching speakers and executives have me actively going to them or welcoming a home visit.
  • Presenting at local conferences or far-away locales is a priority.
  • Helping meeting professionals climb the total human experience is more important than ever. 

Let’s talk. Better yet, let’s meet to build a personal sense of friendship, confidence, and creative problem-solving. Let’s bring Maslow to the party and see how we can bring life to that hybrid workforce of ours.  

 #coaching #experience #workfromhome #eventsindustry #setbacktobreakthrough

Tags: Self Development, Team Building, Motivational, Business Leadership, Changing Times

Kirkus Reviews - The Earthquake

Posted by Vince Poscente on Wed, Apr 20, 2022 @ 04:19 PM

TheEarthquake_3D#5_Shadow

 

 

A group of metaphorical creatures presents lessons about perseverance and mental strength in this guide.

In this follow-up to The Ant and the Elephant (2004), Poscente returns to the two animals who are his stand-ins for the conscious (ant) and subconscious (elephant) minds. Adir the Ant and Elgo the Elephant go everywhere together. Adir has learned how to make sure he and Elgo are working toward the same purpose in pursuit of excellence. Their idyllic existence is interrupted by an earthquake that destroys their home—and Adir’s extensive and highly leveraged real estate enterprise—and the two fall into despondency.

After trying to rebuild as all their animal neighbors leave the area, Adir and Elgo eventually set out on a quest for a safe place to serve as a new home. With periodic advice from Brio the Owl, Adir and Elgo set goals for themselves, find a path through unfamiliar territory, and learn new ways to work together. They also face external challenges: Villains Chromia the Wolf and Valafar the Vulture see Adir and Elgo as potential prey. When Adir and Elgo’s conflicts aren’t driving them further from their goals, the predators are.

By implementing Brio’s lessons (“Adir, criticism is like manure. It stinks but helps you grow”), Adir and Elgo are eventually able to triumph. In the introduction, Poscente writes that the book was inspired by his “own personal earthquake,” a confluence of bad financial decisions coupled with the falloff of his public speaking business during the recession of the late 2000s, which forced him to learn the lessons Adir and Elgo discover in the story.

While the talking animal storyline may not appeal to all readers, it follows the successful path of earlier titles like Spencer Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese? (1998) and Holden Rothgeber and John Kotter’s Our Iceberg Is Melting (2006) and does so equally well. Each chapter ends with a restatement of the pithy lessons taught by the tale, presented as an entry in Adir’s collection of notes to himself. The volume’s insights will be familiar to pop-psychology veterans, but the format is a smooth and persuasive way of concisely presenting them to new audiences.

Talking animals effectively teach readers to move from despair to solutions.
 

Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-953295-71-2

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Matt Holt

Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2021

Review Program: KIRKUS INDIE

Tags: Goals, Self Development, Motivational, Business Leadership, Inspirational, Changing Times

Excellence Redefined During Your Earthquake

Posted by Vince Poscente on Wed, Apr 20, 2022 @ 04:15 PM

There are times when values get tested (or ignored) by personal earthquakes. In particular, the pursuit of excellence can impinge when a massive or painful setback is front-of-mind.

We are all led by certain values that are inherently a filter for how we each interpret our world. Organizations have values that help them and the world they interact with interpret their position and how people see them.

3 Olympic Athlete Vince Poscente The International Olympic Committee has three guiding values of Olympism. Excellence - Friendship - Respect. “They constitute the foundation on which the Olympic Movement builds its activities to promote sport, culture, and education with a view to building a better world.”

As an Olympian in the crosshairs of a financial setback around 2008, my deeply held value of “The Pursuit of Excellence” took a back seat to basic survival. (Yeah, Maslow, I get it.) This experience led me to write The Earthquake as a formula for getting back to ‘thrival’ over survival. The three things we can each do when enmeshed in a personal or interpersonal setback is:

  1. Give Yourself a Break
  2. Give Others a Break
  3. Give it Time

The Earthquake by Vince PoscenteAs you may know, the opening line in the book, The Earthquake is, “There’s no linear way out of chaos.” Given that fact, a path of self-discovery awaits.

Read the book.

Take care.

You’ve got this.

 

 

#wegotthis #TheEarthquake #mindset #setbacks #breakthroughs 

Biography Insights:

Vince Poscente is one of the most in-demand motivational keynote and virtual presenters on the planet. His expertise in resiliency and how to overcome obstacles thrills audiences worldwide. When you bounce back stronger than ever confidence and fun goes up. Vince's client list includes world-class organizations dedicated to being bigger and better. When employees and entrepreneurs handle setbacks, supersede obstacles, and are more focused - record-setting results happen faster than expected. Vince knows first-hand how innovation, persistence fearlessness plays in your future success. He speaks from experience. His foundation is with proven tools. Where does Vince Poscente's “From Setback to Breakthrough” expertise come from? 

  • Recreational skier, Vince to Olympic athlete in just four short years.
  • Award-winning sales and marketing executive with the world's largest real estate investment service.
  • Earned a Masters in Organizational Management while being an award-winning business owner.
  • One of only four people on the planet to be inducted into the USA and Canadian Speaker Halls of Fame.
  • New York Times bestselling author of eight books.
  • Leader and participant on seven Himalayan Expeditions 

What are your teams’ challenges? An uncertain economy? Negative attitudes? Competition? Lower productivity? 

Vince is the #1 go-to guy for taking a team and teaching them how to sell more, lead better, and produce more. Vince will help you move past obstacles and create the success you, and your team, want and deserve. 

Vince Poscente has practical tools to change how your team handles crisis. Problems. Competition. And change. Without understanding resiliency and the absolute importance it plays on everything and everyone—your team will not have the skills they need to overcome the things that will inevitably stand in their way.  #mindset #setbacks #breakthroughs

Tags: Goals, Self Development, Motivational, Business Leadership, Inspirational, Changing Times

How to Eliminate Fear and Create Confidence

Posted by Vince Poscente on Fri, Apr 15, 2022 @ 05:30 PM

There's a universal misunderstanding regarding better results in our personal or professional lives. Ask anyone how to get better results and the answer is pretty consistent. "To change your results, change your actions. For different results, do different actions. For better results, engage in better actions." Seems like great advice... if it was accurate. Dear reader, starting with your actions for better results, only leads to more struggle and frustration. There is a better way.

Then, some well-meaning, self-anointed, TikTok guru comes along and gives the sage advice they saw in a Nike commercial, "Just Do It." 

If you're into 'splitting hairs' (a term from the middle ages as it was thought a hair was too fine to cut in half, ergo, futile) then you might argue that action is better than doing nothing. True. BUT WE'RE NOT DONE YET.

Back to the dynamic of fear, confidence, action, and results. Review this graph to see if you non-hair-splitters agree.

Flip the Gap TIGHT 1

High fear leads to low confidence, which leads to poor performance, which leads to poor results. Or conversely, low confidence leads to high fear, leading to poor performance and poor results. Backing up from simply, "just do it" you can see a dynamic between fear and confidence as the source of better outcomes. 

Let's Take a Closer Look at Fear and Confidence

Fear comes from the unknown.

Confidence comes from experience.

Consider the term, an unknown experience and you have the makings for poor results. Hence, fear and confidence are a precursor to the results you are experiencing. Here's where it gets goofy.

What if you don't have experience with:

  • working in a post-pandemic setting
  • a new job
  • reinventing yourself
  • some sort of loss
  • a new relationship
  • a failed relationship
  • a financial setback
  • a wackadoodle coworker-boss-subordinate-customer-client-relative-neighbor

Without previous experience with any version of the above list, how can you expect to have confidence? Now, what happens? Your confidence is compromised. What happens when confidence is low. Fear goes up. What happens when fear is high and confidence is low? Your actions and how you perform are diminished. Then results are poor. It seems like a no-win situation. (Cue calvary trumpet.) 

Make it Laughable

There is a solution but the optics have gone from 'goofy' to 'laughable' (double entendre intended)

By introducing "fun" to the equation, you will have a shortcut to flipping the gap between fear and confidence.

Flip the Gap TIGHT 2

Simply making the decision to Have Fun before you engage in something new or different will automatically improve confidence and throw shade on those fears. All of a sudden, your performance is improved (despite your lack of experience and the fact that fun is the opposite end of the universe from fear) and your results are optimized. 

This is where the aforementioned hair-splitters can pipe in. Now just do it again, and again, and again. Always start with the decision to have fun and your brain will override the goofy fear/confidence dynamic.  

A Laugh-Worthy Story About Having Fun

Scan ahead in this video to 4:38 and you'll see a one-minute story about having fun as a way to accelerate better results.

Take care and enjoy the journey. It's all about having fun. 

 

 

Tags: Goals, Self Development, Motivational, Business Leadership

"Swifter, Higher, Stronger - Together" the Olympic Way

Posted by Vince Poscente on Mon, Aug 09, 2021 @ 03:35 PM

92 Olympian Competitor MedalFor most athletes retiring and their Olympic sport, these next few months can be a time of feeling lost and alone. Until the closing ceremonies in Tokyo, medalists and qualifiers previously knew what their job was. Now - "What's my purpose?" bounces around in their brain (and body) like a balloon on a windy day.

From personal experience, my post-Olympic experience was a long, insidious slide into feeling lost. Heck, it was only this year, I finally wrote a book to summarize that feeling. While the rest of us carry on with our lives, retiring athletes generally feel some form of being untethered.

In addition, the I.O.C. just upgraded their motto to “Swifter, Higher, Stronger - Together." Ah yes, together. Does this ring true for you too?

Vince at Les Arc Speed Skiing finalsAthletes either have individual pursuits (skiing, gymnastics, pole vault, wrestling) or team pursuits (hockey, water polo, volleyball). In both cases, you're still one athlete trying to get better in your sport. But, when the lady of a larger persuasion sings, there's not team, no organization, no nothing. It's a void of "meh." 

If you know an athlete who competed in the Olympics, or a newly minted army veteran, or a person who retired from their job, reach out and check in with them. Include them in your plans. Co-create a project. Find out what the athlete's passion is and introduce them to that special someone in your network who shares the same values.

Let's remember the pursuit of swifter, higher, stronger excellence is best achieved together!

Tags: Goals, Motivational, Business Leadership, Inspirational

The Truth About Blind Spot Bias

Posted by Vince Poscente on Thu, Jan 14, 2021 @ 12:36 PM

You may think you're the exception. BUT... Everyone has Blind Spot Bias. We each have a tendency to see other people being more biased than we are. In fact, in one study over 85% of Americans reported they are less biased in their thinking. People are motivated to seen themselves in a positive light while biases are generally seen as undesirable.

Everyone has unconscious patterns and personal ‘factory defects’ if you will. There are things about you, you don’t know you have. Let’s say elbow skin for example. Roll your sleeve up and give your elbow skin a pinch. There, see that, you have no feeling in your elbow skin. A factory defect you weren’t aware of. Another 'factory defect'... you have a Blind Spot.

Take this quick test. Cover your left eye. Keep your right eye on the + sign while you slowly bring your face closer to the screen. At some point you the black spot will disappear then reappear. THAT is your blind spot.

Blind Spot Test

When it comes to topics you’re passionate about, you also have any combination of blind spots. Blind Spot biases are enhanced by confirmation bias and repetition bias. You recognize data as aligning with your way of seeing the world, and bingo you have reinforced, or confirmed your bias. Or, you hear a certain bit of information repeatedly and you are in the sights of repetition bias. 

If you hold your gaze from a fixed position, there is nothing you can do about your optical bias. It is by seeing something from a different angle or position will you then see what you couldn’t see before. The same can be said in life.

If you are posting your bias on social media, or arguing your point with a significant other, know, you may have an unconscious bias, A BLIND SPOT that’s a factory defect somewhat like the unfeeling elbow skin of objectivity. 

Tags: Goals, Self Development, Motivational, Business Leadership, Inspirational, Changing Times