Page 104 - Fearless Leadership

Victim Mentality and Playing Small 91

2. You vacillate between playing small and playing big depending
on how you interpret a given situation.
3. Your personal context shrinks when you are unwilling to
confront your blind spots, your need to be right, and your
victim mentality.

Let’s start by defining the broader term context and how it defines both
the game and how it is played. Think of context as the whole—the frame-
work surrounding a situation that provides the background and helps
define meaning. Context helps you make sense out of a situation by
reducing ambiguity and uncertainty and by providing clarity.
In the same way you can change how a picture looks by merely chang-
ing the frame, you can change what you and others focus on by altering
the context. The context is the frame; it defines what people pay atten-
tion to and notice. When you alter the frame or context, you change
the game.
As a leader, you provide organizational context every time you speak
about the purpose of the organization and what you want to achieve. You
set up this framework by answering questions such as “What is our com-
pany up to?” “Who do we want to be?” “What contribution do we want
to make?” and “What are we up to creating and generating?”

When leaders play small, the organization can only play small.
When leaders play big, the organization can transform.

Similarly, your personal context is the framework for how you relate
to the organization, other leaders, and colleagues. If your personal con-
text is small—“I cannot influence change”—then your focus, choices,
and possibilities are limited. When it is big—“I have the power to take
action and influence change”—you dramatically expand what you
notice and, as a result, what is possible. A small personal context limits
you, while a big context gives you access to a new domain of thinking
and the power to break down barriers and shape the future.
Taken together, organizational and personal context define the poten-
tial of the enterprise to excel by powerfully connecting people to its strate-
gic objectives. Your challenge is to ensure that organizational and