Creating A Beginners Mind: The Knowing Manager

New managers often obtain
their position based on their
level of expertise. The ability
to act on what you know
with great success is usually
what moved you into a
management position.

However, not all of your
know-how, smarts or
systems will solve all your
new and different problems.
The issues you face as a
manager are different. You
are now responsible for
employee development,
conflict management,
strategic planning and
budgets.

Knowledge and learning
As your expertise moved you
into management, what you
know has also allowed you
to achieve throughout life.
From the time you entered
the school system until you
graduated from college,
success is determined by
what you learned.
How did you learn in the
past? How did you become
the knower and expert you
are today? In school, you
were forced to learn or a
teacher would fail you. You
are still responsible for
learning but there isn’t a
teacher to tell you what to
do. So now what? As odd as
it may sound, you must
begin to let go of being the
knower and having answers
to all the problems, because
you don’t.

A beginners mind
The key to learning at this
stage is creating and
cultivating a beginners mind
by allowing yourself to not
know the answer and open
your mind to asking
questions, listening and
learning.
“But wait, knowing the
answers is what got me
here…”
That is true, you must retain
some answers and
knowledge but there is now
a broad management space
where you don’t have the
answers. To fake knowing
the answers or to only use
your existing abilities will
cause you difficulty and
stress and you won’t be
managing for long.

Eight steps to cultivating a
beginners mind
These eight steps to
cultivating a beginners mind
will give you the basic tools
you need to begin learning
again:
1. Acknowledge that you
do not have the
answers
2. Don’t hold so tight to
your beliefs and
mental models
3. Seek out people,
books and classes
4. Be curious and ask a
lot questions (none
are stupid)
5. Be present, listen
intently for
information and ask
some more questions
6. Begin to process, test
and practice
7. Allow yourself to fail
as you are a beginner
8. Practice to gain
competence
Just as when you were in
school, you learned
multiplication, practiced
math problems, got some
wrong and then practiced
some more until you got
them right. For a manager
this may be trying out
different methods of conflict
resolution until you find one
that works.
It is about being open,
accepting ignorance,
listening, learning and
practicing until you become
competent and start gaining
success. Being a manager is
about using your existing
skill set and allowing yourself
to be a beginner and learn
the new skills necessary to
succeed.