 Being open-minded at work, in my view, is a critical career success factor for any professional or managerial role. You get a ton of fantastic personal benefits that will make you a lot more successful and a lot happier at work. Some being, firstly, you'll be a faster learner, which makes you more relevant and more valuable to any employer and it usually means faster career progress. Secondly, a better problem solver as you are more creative and flexible when designing solutions to overcome issues. Third, you'll be a better decision maker as you'll use a greater range of data, opinions and insights and be less influenced by your own biases. Fourth, colleagues will enjoy working with you more as you'll be more empathetic and willing to listen to them. Fifth, you'll find it easier to fit in with a greater range of teams, working environments and cultures, which makes your working life a lot more enjoyable. Whether you consider yourself having an open mindset or not right now, with a little bit of effort, you can create habits that will help you become even more open-minded. Do so and you gain more of the amazing personal and professional benefits that come with being open-minded. To give you techniques to be open-minded at work, we are covering. Firstly, being right is the enemy of learning. Secondly, others have a lot to offer and open mindset harnesses more of their value. Third, stop, consider, evaluate and then decide. Fourth, create the habit of asking and listening. If you're aiming to be or are already managing others, being open-minded is essential to being an effective and admired manager. When you are open-minded, you listen more, value colleagues more, show a lot more empathy, create better solutions, work in a team better. In short, you'll have better, more open relationships with more motivated and valued team members, which will massively help you drive higher team performance as a manager. My name is Jess Coles and if you're new here, Enhance.Training shares people management expertise, resources and courses teaching you how to build higher performing teams. I've included links to additional videos and resources in the description below as well as the video timestamps so do take a look at these. And if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. The first way to be open-minded at work is continuously remembering being right is the enemy of learning. Our brains love patterns because using patterns saves a lot of energy. We see a pattern based on what we've already experienced. Our brains leaped the same conclusion it reached the last time. While extremely useful in many situations, this natural tendency leads us to being closed-minded. We see a pattern we think we know and believe we have the right answer. The first step to breaking this pattern is being aware when you are following established patterns, without challenging yourself to stay open-minded. Secondly, be aware of your own biases. Take the time to reflect on how past experiences have shaped you as an individual and shaped your thinking. Get to know your own biases. Learn what they are and what events or actions trigger you to jumping to conclusions. When you are in a situation you feel you recognize, make the time to dig a little deeper and check that what you have in front of you is really the same as past experiences. Third, even when you are sure you know the right answer or right approach, make the time to understand what is really going on. Ask a lot of questions, listen to what you are being told, seek opinions and views, look at the facts. Ask how well do all of these really fit the pattern I think I see. From my personal experience I know that when you really start looking you will find differences. They might be small or they might be much larger than you thought. When you find the differences you can start learning. The more you learn the better the outcome you and others create. Remember thinking I am right kills learning and finding an even better approach. The second way to be open-minded at work is believing others have a lot to offer. An open mindset harnesses more of their value. The best managers supercharge creativity and collaboration in their teams which in turn results in great innovation and solution building. A managers ability to get the best from others starts with an open mindset and attitude. Great managers know that each team member has a lot to offer and they proactively seek out how they can maximize team members strengths. Rather than allowing themselves to have the attitude along the lines of I know more than my team members or I am better or I am the manager therefore I am right. They constantly remind themselves of the strengths and positive aspects of each person in their team. They keep asking themselves what can I learn from this team member today. When you maintain a positive attitude and an open mindset towards team members you value their contribution a lot more. This open mindset comes out in your attitude, how enthusiastically you listen to them, how you act on what they tell you and how you praise them. The managers actions, behaviors and decisions all scream I value what you have to teach me or tell me. This is hugely motivating for team members. They feel valued, appreciated and respected. Our brains are brilliant filters. If we look for the great stuff our team members do we will find it if we don't our brains filter us out. Take an empty notebook and spend five minutes at the end of each day noting down the great things your team members have done, the good ideas they've had, the good behaviors they've displayed and the actions they have taken. Add your thoughts as to how you can get more of this greatness from them. The act of thinking of and writing the positives down day in day out will focus you on all the good things they do. This is a brilliant way for how to be more open minded. Don't forget to keep looking back over your notes and mentally appreciating each team member. This positive thinking is a powerful motivator for your team. Don't forget to practically and specifically praise all the great stuff going on in your team. The third way to be more open minded at work is to stop, consider, evaluate and then decide. It is so easy to make a decision too quickly. There are times when you need to make quick decisions. Usually you have the time to stop, consider and evaluate before making a decision or taking a course of action. A critical discipline of open minded people is making the time to understand different points of view and think through different solutions offered by others. Even when you already have a solution in mind. Equally important is keeping open the possibility that you could change your mind as you learn new or more about the circumstances, facts or situation. Jumping to conclusions based on what we already know is very easy to do. Confirmation bias is a cognitive tendency to only pay attention to what confirms our current beliefs and filter out what doesn't fit. Being aware of our tendency to do this is one of the most important ways of combating this tendency and remaining open minded. When you catch yourself dismissing information or opinions, stop yourself. Consider the new information, insights or opinions and evaluate it in light of the situation you face. Delay making your mind up to give yourself time to consider other options. It won't be long before you create a habit of evaluating information that doesn't fit established patterns. You might reconfirm your original solution as the best one or you might find that thinking in a different way will create a much better solution. With practice there is a lot that can be achieved with a good amount of self awareness and a few minutes of thinking time. Being open minded will give you a lot more insights, drive personal and professional growth, increase your mental strength, increase your optimism and you'll learn a lot more in the process. Being open minded opens a lot of doors for you personally and in terms of your relationships with your team. The fourth way to be open minded at work is to create the habit of asking and listening. Even after 25 years of managing others I continue to be amazed at the benefits of being curious, asking a lot of questions and really listening to what you're being told. Firstly staff members really appreciate you being truly interested in their world and having the chance to show off what they are doing at more than a superficial level. The more you listen the more they feel compelled to talk and the more you'll learn about what is really happening in the team and the business. Better understanding means that you are able to sidestep more issues, reacts more quickly to brewing problems before they really become an issue, respond intelligently to questions that you are being asked and to manage expectations of all those around you a lot better. Practice being open minded and stay interested in what is happening around you. You'll receive a wealth of information, ideas, opinions, insights and solutions from those that you work with. It all starts with asking questions and listening. Choose a specific area a team member looks after and keep asking questions until you really feel you understand what is happening and why it is happening. Each day or each week choose another specific area and repeat this process. Staff love the opportunity to showcase what they are doing when you ask diplomatically and with their interests at heart. Create the habit of asking questions and listening and you demonstrate the critical skill of being open minded to your team each day. So in summary every job at every level there is a ton of things you need to learn to enable you to perform well. The more open minded you are the quicker and easier you will learn and understand what is really happening. The more open minded you keep yourself the easier you will find getting great ideas and solutions to solve the toughest problems you and your team face. I 100% believe that all successful managers and leaders have learnt how to be open minded at work and maintain their open mindedness. Given the increasing pace of change in businesses today being open minded continues to increase in importance. When you have an open mindset you learn and adapt a lot quicker and easier to the increasing pace of change. Putting the time to create the habits to be open minded. The four ways to be open minded at work are firstly being right is the enemy of learning. Secondly others have a lot to offer proactively harness their value. Third stop consider evaluate and then decide. And fourth create the habit of asking and listening. If you have any questions about four ways to be open minded at work a critical career success factor please leave them in the comments below and I'll get back to you. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.