How To Find Out If You Are Open-Minded?
If You Want To Be Successful: Have An Open Mind
Wisdom From Great Leaders. Part 5.
In his book “Principles: Life and Work”, Ray Dalio talks about how to get around the two biggest barriers to good decision making — your ego and your blind spots. If we are like most people, we don’t know how other people see things and we are not good at trying to understand what they are thinking. This is because we are closed-minded: we are too focused on telling other people what we think is right.
How do we find out if we are closed-minded? He offered seven clues to find out whether we or others are being closed-minded:
- Closed-minded people don’t want their ideas challenged.
2. Closed-minded people are more likely to make statements than ask questions.
3. Closed-minded people focus much more on being understood than on understanding others.
4. Closed-minded people say things like “I could be wrong … but here’s my opinion.”
5. Closed-minded people block others from speaking.
6. Closed-minded people have trouble holding two thoughts simultaneously in their minds. They allow their own view to crowd out those of others.
