Why the Subconscious Mind is Every Leader’s Secret Weapon

Your subconscious mind is like a background app on your phone—it’s always running, absorbing details from your environment and experiences, and it can shape your actions without you even realizing it. The catch is that it often treats stress or negative reactions as alarms for survival, which can lead to unnecessary stress and hinder your progress toward your goals.

But there’s good news: you can update the software of your subconscious to work for you, not against you. This is especially crucial if you’re in a leadership role or aiming for one. The sooner you start fine-tuning your subconscious, the better.

Here’s why it’s essential for leaders to pay attention to their subconscious mind and how mastering it can elevate your performance to its highest level.

1. Your Subconscious Influences Your Leadership Style

Your subconscious beliefs or unconscious biases likely influence your leadership style. If you can identify these beliefs and biases, you can change them. However, doing so requires tapping into your subconscious. If you can do so, you’ll have better control of your leadership style and be able to adapt it to the needs of your organization.

2. Your Subconscious May Be Causing You Stress or Anxiety

Remember, the subconscious wants to keep you safe. As such, whenever you feel stress or anxiety, your subconscious goes into overdrive, trying to eliminate that stress or anxiety so you can relax again. This can result in poor stress management, anxiety or panic attacks, or unhealthy coping mechanisms.

As you likely know, high-level positions often come with high stress levels. That said, you can train your subconscious not to react harshly to stressors.

3. You’ll Improve Your Productivity

If you learn how to train your subconscious to benefit you, rather than hinder you, you’ll find that your productivity increases, as well as your overall output.

4. You’ll Overcome Negative Habits

Negative habits are often stored deep within the subconscious mind and are frequently linked to your subconscious mind’s idea of survival. For example, if you have a bad habit of overindulging in sugary foods when you’re stressed, it could be because, when you’re stressed, your subconscious mind knows that food will soothe you, at least for a time. As such, whenever you’re stressed, your subconscious mind prompts you to grab a candy bar.

Recognizing these habits, how they work, and what your subconscious mind is trying to achieve can help you overcome them, which can help you feel your best and perform at your peak.

5. You’ll Conserve Energy

Your subconscious mind is often handling repetitive or monotonous tasks on autopilot, freeing up your brain for more important tasks. You can harness this operating style to your benefit, improving your efficiency and optimizing your energy management.

6. You’ll Enhance Your Focus

Similarly, if you can train your subconscious mind to focus on what’s important rather than always being on the lookout for threats, you can be more productive, focused, and proactive.

7. Training the Subconscious Mind Leads to Better Decision Making

As the subconscious mind influences your emotions and actions, it also influences your decisions. How many of your decisions are truly the best, and how many are subconsciously motivated?

You can make choices that align with your long-term best interests rather than short-term gratification by reprogramming your subconscious mind.

8. You’ll Become More Creative

The subconscious mind is often very creative and inspirational. If you tap into that creativity, you may find that you’re surrounded by new, innovative ideas and solutions, helping you solve complex problems and drive your organization forward.

9. Your Subconscious Impacts Your Health and Well–being

If your subconscious mind increases your stress levels, your body is suffering. Reprogramming the subconscious mind to deal with this stress and anxiety can lead to better overall health and well-being.

10. You’ll Be More Likely to Achieve Your Goals

Based on all the above, it’s not surprising that your subconscious mind may be standing in the way of you achieving your goals. Reprogramming your subconscious to align with your goals can make success more likely and easier.

11. You’ll Become More Resilient

Executives must be able to bounce back from setbacks. Learning to program the subconscious mind can foster resilience and adaptability, which are essential for navigating the ever-changing business landscape.

The Bottom Line

For executives, caring about the subconscious mind is about leveraging its power to enhance leadership capabilities, foster a positive organizational culture, and drive companies to greater success.

Fortunately, you can reprogram your subconscious mind to work for you. Leaders can create long-lasting, positive transformations in their organizations by employing strategic approaches to overcome resistance and ingrained habits among team members.

If you need help improving your team’s habits or your own leadership skills, take our quick assessment to determine your strengths and areas for growth.