“The eyes are useless when the mind is blind” — Mark Venturini. The mind keeps an eye on the body. The mind minds the vision. The mind sees what the eyes do not. What the mind’s eye sees is what it believes.
What one believes is what the mind creates. What the mind creates is what the body follows. If, this is becoming a bit overwhelming then so be it. Day in and day out we see practically all around us, leaders in the same situation, same challenge, same circumstances behaving differently and consequently getting different results. That is not attributable to luck or chance but choice.
The ability of people to find a path in the darkest of situations is attributable to the mind’s eye that chooses to find the light in the dark. Is everybody blessed with this eye? Yes, if we go by medical science, they are. Why do leaders and people not go by this choice? The answer probably is that it is not easy, not visible and not certain.
The challenge is that in today’s world of flux and complexity, visibility and certainty are endangered species. That is why the need to see the unseen.
The age-old perception test of a picture of a woman given to two people getting answers of an old lady and young lady for the same image is still valid. Practically, how many times have we seen markets that according one head of the department are too saturated to sell, while another leader is able to get a huge sales boost from the same market? This is going on all around us internally and externally.
Employees who are low performing under a manager who sees and treats them as “nincompoops” become high performing under another manager who sees and treats them as somebody with “potential”. These practical examples that are seen in companies are testament to the fact that opportunity lies in the eyes of the beholder. In today’s world, flooded by screaming news, the brain is flooded with bad imagery.
Offices are oozing with pressure to perform more with less. Homes are beset with financial and emotional stress. Such an overload of negativity makes the mind’s eye have a visual impairment-called the DMS, i.e., difficulty mindset, where every challenge is an obstacle. What we need to do instead is to rewire our brains to have the OMS, i.e., opportunity mindset. To develop OMS there are some pre-requisites-
Know your mind— Our brains can be changed. We need to accept that our brain needs to be changed and it can be. Our brain has an incredible ability to learn, adopt, adapt and expand. By its nature the brain is plastic and thus is changeable. This is called neuroplasticity, which means the brain’s ability to adapt and evolve over time in structure and function. The brain is overstretched with too much happening. The brain repeats what gets repeated. So if you are constantly thinking and worrying about a certain thing, it will get recorded and repeated till the worry occupies all the brain space. This type of brain wandering produces more cortisol that adds more stress that adds more worry that shrinks the brain domain of positive thinking. It is a vicious cycle. First, be aware. Then beware. And learn how to break this cycle.
Be comfortable with discomfort— We keep thinking that if changing mindsets is so essential and having an opportunity mindset is so much better, why is it so rare? Precisely because it means going into the discomfort zone. It means resisting the deluge of problems that are now on auto reflex in our brain wiring. This means adopting new habits. This means going through the pain of doing things you may have always been reluctant about. For example, opportunity mindset may require you to spend time with the very people whose company you avoid. Opportunity mindset may require you to get up early in the morning and in the terrible hot and humid weather go out for a jog.
Once the above two pre-requisites are met, the OMS can be developed by:
Develop an interest outside your domain— When you just look at the car rear view mirror, to see who is closing up to you, you miss the turns that can take you to your destination. Opportunity windows open for a short time. If you are not looking out for them, they will close on you. Many people and companies are just focusing on learning about their competitors and industry. Everything in the industry is already there. You will end up going into price wars. In OMS mode go to other industries, study them, and see the practices that can be new in your industry. In the UK, one of the biggest children hospitals learned to speed up error-free post-operative care after studying Formula 1’s pit stop change of tires in 6 seconds. With OMS mindset you will say if you are in banking industry how can we covert our branches into Cafés where people sit and enjoy too?
Learn from those closest to the challenge— The problem with leaders is that they are mostly interacting with their next levels only. A leader with an opportunity mindset needs to go down to the last level who are interacting with ground realities and seek their observations. Many a brilliant idea comes when these people closest to action are given the opportunity to contribute.
Back the opportunity cost— The OMS leader has to be courageous. If a new idea is passing the criteria screen then take the responsibility of backing it with resources. Give assurance to the team that you will not let them down by delaying and evading an idea that was well received.
Reward what nearly worked— The Japanese say rewarding success is easy but you must also reward intelligent failure. If an opportunity did not work out due to some uncontrollable it should be appreciated to keep people believing in going for innovation.
The most common buzzword is to think ‘out of the box’. Everybody says this but hardly anybody understands and implements it. Thinking out of the box means going beyond your current domain. It means crossing your industry boundaries. It means doing what you have not done so far. It means treading into completely new territories. This requires the ability to see the light in the dark. It requires the ability to see the beautiful in the awful.
It requires you to change the lens of the mind’s eye. It requires you to go out, to travel the untraveled road and reach the middle. As Einstein said, “In the middle of every difficulty lies the opportunity”.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
The writer is a columnist, consultant, coach, and an analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com