Lessons From the Slum Lifestyle.
Ghetto mindset in the corporate world.
Ghetto is an isolated part of the city due to social, legal or economic pressure. It is associated with scarcity.
People growing up in this part of the city have a scarcity mindset ingrained in them.
They find it hard to adopt the abundance mindset where there is plenty for everyone but instead they believe in a ‘win-lose’ way of life.
Ghetto mentality refers to a type of mindset which is largely informed by poverty and fear. Even though people move out of the ghetto, they are still psychologically stuck in this lifestyle.
This can also be seen in people in leadership positions even if they grew up in rich neighborhoods too.
In this article, I am going to describe the patterns of behavior displayed by the people in leadership positions who still have ghetto mentality.
Leaders with ghetto mentality are always feared.
They lose temper easily and are aggressive. Most of the time, they are able to put on a mask and be friendly with everyone but they all know not to challenge them.
They are stuck in the belief that they should always be perfect.
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They act like they cant break down emotionally. These types of leaders also want to control how others think and behave.
They do not let people in their space who want to know them. They feel the urge to always protect themselves because they might lose their cool.
They live in constant fear.
As much as the ghetto leaders are feared, they also live in tremendous fear within their organization. If it is possible to have security detail following them around, they would.
They plant spies and informants everywhere in their organization.
They find it hard to trust anyone. They see their colleagues in the various departments as rivals and need to be attacked before they attack them.
Their win-lose mentality makes them believe that they might lose what they have worked hard for at any moment.
Leaders with ghetto mindset have hard time understanding the spirit of collaboration and interdependence. They will do anything they can to get that promotion. They do whatever they can to make themselves look good even at the expense of others. They believe that they have to survive at all cost.
They don’t believe in empowering others.
Leaders with a ghetto mindset see everybody as their competitor. This is due to the lack of trust that they don’t like giving out information since they think that it might be used against them. They do not feel any guilt if they steal other peoples ideas and find it hard to engage in coaching and mentoring others.
Leaders with ghetto mindsets are easily addicted to power.
They see power as a form of pleasure. They feel good when they are in control of everything. They don’t like living in uncertainty.
Their team members are always not given any thought when it comes to welfare. They are just concerned with what their members bring to the table and how they should get to the next level of power.
Even if their organization is heading down to failure, they refuse to resign and let other people lead. So status become a drug that they find it hard to let go and admit their weaknesses.
Ghetto mentality is equal to being in prison. You will always need to put your guard on to defend or protect yourself from petty thing that, most of the times, are not such big of a deal. This type of mindset is tiring
Read Also: Ego and Hood Mentality:
What should we do to change our Ghetto Mindset?
First of all, in order to change from the ghetto mindset to abundance mindset, we have to change our belief system. We should believe in humanity, human beings are a resource and they are unique in terms of their creativity, strength, personality and everything that makes them special part of creation.
Once we understand this, we then go ahead and incorporate the spirit of collaboration and being a team player.
The ability to always be ready to learn and stay a student is what will make you thrive in any ecosystem.
There is an old saying that goes like “When you go to Rome, do what Romans do”. Once you adopt all those mindsets that will steer you ahead in life without colliding too much with people, you will leave great legacy as a leader.
