Mitch Warner: Leadership and Self-Deception

Mitch Warner is a managing partner of the Arbinger Institute. The Institute has authored three best-selling books and helps leaders transform their organizations by enabling the fundamental shift in mindset that leads to exceptional results. Now in its fourth edition, Leadership and Self-Deception: The Secret to Transforming Relationships & Unleashing Results*, is today one of the top fifty best-selling leadership books of all time.

Shifting behavior in a sustainable way requires us to change our mindset. In this conversation, Mitch and I explore how self-deception gets in our way and how we can take the first step by seeing others as people.

Key Points

In many cases, we are the carriers of the very problems we are complaining about. We often resist this reality.

We often assume we aren’t the cause of problems because of our good intentions.

Mindset drives our behaviors and the effectiveness and influence of those behaviors.

Seeing someone as less than a person causes us to see the world in a way that justifies our judgement.

Too often, conflicts manifest as people provoking another’s behavior in order to justify themselves.

Our own justification is an indicator that we may be wrong to begin with.

Viewing others as either better or worse than ourselves creates justification that prevents awareness and change.

Get outside of yourself by meeting to learn about them. If the relationship has been strained, consider meeting to give.

Resources Mentioned

Leadership and Self-Deception: The Secret to Transforming Relationships & Unleashing Results* by The Arbinger Institute

The Arbinger Institute

Interview Notes

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Help Your Team Embrace Growth Mindset, with Eduardo Briceño (episode 644)

The Way to Handle Oblivious Leadership, with Robert Sutton (episode 667)

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