The Can-Do Mindset: How to Make Things Happen with Denise Gabel
Want to unlock the door to powerful action, even when it's not easy? In this episode, discover the power of a "can-do" mindset. Harness your inner motivation to break barriers and take action-- even when you don't feel like it. Learn how to cultivate an inspiring team culture that encourages fresh thinking, innovation, and positive change.
In This Episode, You Will Learn About:
Responding to resistance
Encourage fresh thinking
Can-do mindset for higher performance
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About our guest:
Denise Gabel is an international bestselling author, professional speaker, and mentor on the power of change. During her tenure as the Chief Innovation Officer of the Filene Research Institute, she led the prestigious i3 (ideas, innovation, implementation) program throughout the United States and Canada. Most recently, Denise served as Chief Operating Officer at the Northwest Credit Union Association. Throughout her professional career, she has embraced—and inspired others to embrace—living with a can-do mindset. This can-do mindset has helped her and the teams she has led get the right things done with enthusiasm.
As with most Can-doers, Denise finds joy in empowering others to embrace the power of can like she has. In fact, she’s made it her life’s work to do so. She encourages everyone she meets to stand in their authentic power, realize that they can generate their own happiness, and supports leaders and organizations in creating a vibe that attracts Can-doers and retains them. Denise can’t harbor the can-do mindset for herself only. She has to share it. Well, she can share it, and she does. And in doing so, she’s built a passionate community of Can-doers.
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The Can-Do Approach
I've had some great corporate jobs, and with a corporate job, you gotta ask for a good title. Chief Innovation Officer is one that I actually asked. I think the job was posted as a director of innovation. I thought, oh no, I, I need to be a chief. It's time to have a chief. Basically, that was for a think tank that serves the US and Canadian credit unions. And just a wonderful opportunity to bring together people and possibilities.
It is just a great opportunity to bring together people and possibilities, which basically, took innovation competency. They introduced it to groups of volunteers, set them free to create some ideas, and then put them in a lab to see if they could actually survive and scale to reach consumers. I think my job as a chief innovation officer was really to understand the methodology for innovation, where creativity comes from, and how to keep it nurtured.
And I learned so much there about the power of volunteers, and what volunteers really can do. That was a fun job being a Chief Innovation Officer. And then I realized my gift has been given and, that's a chapter in the Can-Do Mindset book. It's a chapter about when it's time to fire your own ego. Your gift has been given. You know it. This is not the time that you wait for somebody to tap you on the shoulder. You get out of the way. You allow others to stretch and grow, and then you continue to stretch and grow. I think your second part of that question was how did I become a can-do-ologist?
I wanna know how because you've had the opportunity to, as you said, observe this think tank and watch people flourish and create ideas and innovation. And what did you learn from your observations that led you into creating this framework for this can-do approach?
I think it was learning that if you just model and show people what we can do and stretch each other, there's a lot more that's possible. It's thinking more in gratitude. It's thinking more in abundance that if there's abundance, we really just have to prioritize the opportunities. And for all those people that say, oh yeah, we tried that and it didn't work. Okay, well, a good response to them is: is it bad to try and improve service? Are we wrong to make it a better place to work? Comments like that, shake people where they have to say, no. Then why can't we try? What can we do? Now the word can-do-ologist and this notion of can-do-ology that I'm releasing to the universe so we can all own it and put more can in this world, less cannot.
Looking at What I Can Do
I actually was challenged to write my obituary. Have you done that, Danielle
I have done that exercise. It's actually an exercise that I do encourage some of the clients that I'm working with or in some of the programs I work with, but I wanna hear your experience when you wrote your obituary
It was very impactful. First of all, I will tell you and your listeners, the timing wasn't great.
My soulmate of 38 years, Dennis and Denise. Yep. Dennis and Denise, but Dennis developed a brain bleed and passed away. About six months later, I'm working with Mark Levy, my branding coach, and Mark said, Denise, I wanna give you this assignment. I want you to write your obituary. And I said, oh, yeah, that timing is not good. And then I almost immediately said, I can try and if I can't do it, I'll just tell you I can't do it, or I'll just stop, but I'll try. It was through that process that I was writing, and I don't know if I misunderstood the assignment, but I used it going forward and said, oh, Denise went on to inspire millions of people, and her love for people and possibilities, her love for bling and leopard manifested itself into an accessory line for your home and your person.
And then I remembered this letter and an excerpt of this letter that, Karina wrote me when I left my last corporate job. I thought, yeah, I should put an excerpt in my obituary. In her words, she said, Denise, your guts, your can-do, your commitment to leadership, particularly women, is so inspiring. Thank you for living your brand, Denise, so I could live mine and that has meant the world to me. I put it in the obituary, then I put that I'm gonna die at the age of 102, surrounded by my nieces and nephews. I will still be in good mental and physical health. I'll still have my humor. And finally, my driver's license will match my real weight.
I'm reading this to my branding coach, and when I said the words out loud, Denise, you're a can-do. I was, I just stopped and I said, that's it. I'm a can-doer. I don't know anything else, and I've been preparing for this my entire life. I can look back and all the times that nobody else would raise their hand to the Tasty Dog and the Hometown Parade. That goes a ways back, but I did. I thought, well, somebody needs to do it, I can. It was at that moment that I blurted out, I'm a can-doer. I'm a can-do-ologist and can-do-cology is a thing. It is the art and science of getting the right things done, not things right, the right things done despite the circumstances. And that's really how it was born, is just through this exercise and you've done it too. And if others haven’t done it, it is so powerful to think about what are your fingerprints, footprints, and voice, when you leave this earth.
I did that exercise and it was powerful and I did it from two different types of perspectives. One from my kid's perspective and it was right after I had lost my mom and I said, I wrote the obituary, said, if my kids are going to be celebrating my life, what do I want them to say about me? Any time that I am questioning my approach to parenting or getting down on myself or just kind of wanna recheck myself, I always go back to that obituary and say again, what do I want my kids to say about me when they're celebrating my life?
And ultimately that's, to me, it's always come back. You have that can do. My word that came out of both the obituary for my kids as well as the I wrote one from an employee's perspective, like my team's perspective. What came out of that was the word impact. I wanna make an impact on people's lives, whether I've met them or not.
Whether it's through speaking or programs through one-on-one consulting, whether it's through sharing content on LinkedIn, social media, or a podcast, no matter what it is, it's about making a positive impact in their lives. So that's what came out of that exercise. And I do agree with you and if other people haven't done it, I get it, It's uncomfortable. It's a unique approach to identifying what your core values are, but it's obviously very powerful, very powerful.
I found it more encouraging, and more clarity around my purpose. Didn't you? I mean then more than a lot of things, or an exercise specifically to define the purpose, I thought, well, no, this is a good look back and when you are touched in your life by grief and it hits a little closer to home, the further we go down the journey, you do realize, oh my gosh, what is my purpose and am I living on purpose and am I living quickly? We're all online, we just don't know when. It helped me immensely. And that's really when I thought, oh my gosh, can-do-ology, more, can in this universe less, cannot.
Dealing with a Resistant Mentality
What was uncovered from this purpose of yours, from doing this exercise was this can-do methodology, this can-do-ologist.
What have you found if somebody's running into that roadblock? Cause I've heard those phrases exactly what you said. We've always done this. It doesn't work, and that's resistant. And resistant happens, whether it's professionally or personally. What advice would you give to those who are saying, I don't know. Maybe I've got somebody on my team that just does not have that mindset, don't, not sure even how to approach it, or I find myself continuously hitting this roadblock of saying those phrases that we exactly just said. What advice would you give to them to adopt this can-do mindset?
First, let's tackle the first part: a coworker or someone in your work environment, someone in your community. You're not talking about you, but you're talking about someone else. They might tend to be a little more of an eor, Okay. Well, can-do, and a can-do mindset is not gonna save a true eor, you cannot, and so sometimes the best thing you can do for that person, yourself, and your organization is to part ways because there's a beautiful fit for everyone in this universe. Sometimes we don't always land that first one is not our true place, our true purpose. You should realize that sometimes you are not gonna change the DNA of a person.
You may have to just say goodbye. Here's something you can do. You don't even need a pen. Listeners don't even need a pen to write this down because we'll practice it three times over. This is what you say to that person. What can we do? You're basically giving them a lashing of can do. You're gonna say it over and over and over for that person. Like, no, we tried that. We can't do it, no. Years ago we had this guy. Right? You just keep repeating, well, what can we do? You're going to rock them out of that rhythm. Where they enable something to say, well, I guess that was 10 years ago. I guess we could try it again. Wonderful, right? You're gonna break that or you're gonna head down a path of departure. That's my advice for others. For me, I think about my can-do mindset. It is with me all the time. It isn't always as active as it should be. When I run into those walls, I get stuck, and I get frustrated. I'm overcome with grief I'm overwhelmed with something.
What I do and recommend is that you shift to a neutral one. It is unlikely that people shift from a positive well, I think you can shift quickly from a positive to a negative. Unfortunately, I don't think you can shift as easily from negative to positive, I recommend you find your neutral, like what brings you joy? I can go out and go shopping. I can take a nap, I can take a bath. I can go out and buy three new colored pens to feed my pen fetish, and suddenly I found my neutral where I can be re-energized or I can kind of reset myself, or I can find some safety and then I can shift myself over into an active can-do mindset. I've always got it, it's a matter of how much I decide and when to activate it. Does that help?
Communicating on What Can We Do
What I first heard you say when you were talking about when you run into a situation where somebody else is in that cannot attitude. We've already done this before. By asking them what can we do. You're encouraging them to come up with a solution. Not necessarily what's not working, why is this not working? You're encouraging them, inviting them to the conversation, and saying, okay, what can we do? And encouraging them to come up with a solution. I like that. It's okay for people to say, and you want that transparency with one another, " hey, I gotta say this doesn't work. This isn't working." Thank you for calling it out. That's not bad, that's actually very, good and healthy and you wanna make that turn into solutions. No one has unlimited resources, haven't met anybody yet. That's got unlimited time and unlimited money.
It's like, we only have two weeks and $500 for the project. That's a fact. What can we do? And in the world of innovation, that's actually better because those constraints make us more creative. You're creating that think tank. Where full circle, you created the think take the full circle. You gotta get creative.
Trust and Accountability
One thing I remember about that job too, that applies to can-do-ology is, trust and account. Two hard stop standards for can-doers and can-do-ologists. We have to have trust in ourselves, very deep trust in ourselves and our accountability, and then we expect that of others, trust and accountability.
And then based on that, when we have that, imagine this conversation, and you've probably had it with people that you deeply trust or your listeners have. Imagine saying to someone that's all you got, is that your best work? That was one of my favorite parts of that chief job, whether it was the chief innovation or the chief operating officer.
We had developed relationships with one another that you can say, is this your best work? Someone would be honest and say, well, it's good to work. It is good to work. And you need to take it up a notch. You're fully capable and just challenge each other. I love it when people challenge me.
What can I do better? What can I do differently?
Communicating is Everything
And when you asked, I wanna hone in on this too, when you said, it's not all you got. Come on. Like what I'm seeing, communication is everything from the words we use, the tone of voice we use to the body language. So I know that some are not actually seeing what I'm seeing.
She's tilting her head, she's leaning into the conversation, and she's smiling. I'm seeing this bright, beautiful, radiant smile and it's that influx in the voice that's higher. It's very different if I had said, is that all you can do? And it's like a drop in the tone of voice versus Yes. Is that all you can do? And that higher inflection changes the outcome of the perception of what we're communicating.
That's a great point that I'm reflecting back on now that you're saying that because it's like reaching higher. That's actually what you're trying to say. Reach deeper, reach higher, and reach to your full potential.
Stretch yourself, and you're right. If your voice drops up, that's it. That's what you got. I do not feel motivated to try and do my best work. I just feel like I got beat up and you're not grateful. voice inflection, full communication with everything you've got, depending on your medium is what you wanna be using. Great point.
The Can-Do Mindset
I loved how you said, whether you are leading a team or whether it's yourself individually, these are some steps that we can take to adopt. This can-do mindset is this approach in our everyday.
Here's the other thing about this can-do mindset, my dream was to create a book that was very conversational, and I had to work at it.I initially started a boring leadership book, Denise's definition. I really did. I could feel it wasn't really my voice. I didn't also know how to fix it. I, I just thought, for some reason, I started in the five key principles when leading a team, and then I thought, oh gosh, Denise. Denise, that's so not you. I can understand this a hundred percent. You really, when you're writing a book, you gotta dig deep into how you let your personality shine through words.
in my case, I don't know how you have done it, Danielle, but once again, this is a new phrase, a can-duet. You form partnerships that can help you and you ask for help, which can be foreign.
And I asked for help and I said, I know this is a boring leadership book in its tone, and the person said, you're right. what I did to shake myself out of that is I'm very good at case studies and live questions. Just ask me a question. I love the live audience, what do you get? What would you like?
I had another colleague write me case studies, X, Y, and Z companies, mid-size manager, who leaves a new manager, comes in, and says, he's all about teamwork. And in fact just the opposite. What do I do? And I just started writing and answering the question. Once I got my muscle built a little bit better on just answering and it just happened to be words, or I did a lot of speech-to-text also because it was easier for me to just, speak my personality, my authenticity, and then have it transcribed.
Once I got the rhythm, I thought, oh, good. Now I have a book in my voice that's conversational, it'll just ooze my enthusiasm for people and possibilities. And I'll put tools in the book that people can use right here, right now. I have to tell you, a couple of weeks ago I was on the video with a group of, people in Pennsylvania that decided to do an around this book. Oh, I'm so honored. I popped in and they're on chapter nine and we just had a conversation. I don't recall what chapter nine was. Terrible. I don't wanna pull my book out. Chapter nine. Anyway, we were having this wonderful conversation and they did a real-life case study.
How do you get some improvements, like a project management process? Because you get in corporate or small entrepreneur, small business, you have all these goals, everything sounds good, the world's ticking along, and you get to November and you're like, who did this? Who set this many priorities? And then you have to look at yourself or your leadership team and say, we did We did it to ourselves. How can we make some improvements? Anyway, we're going through this and what we discovered together, me and this wonderful group of colleagues in Pennsylvania on their book club journey, we discovered that what we came up with took no training. It's the way they're going to approach the project.
They're gonna be very clear. They're gonna say, good morning, we're kicking off a project. To remodel our project management system. They didn't say, we're gonna review our project management system, just that one verb. We're gonna remodel, we're gonna pick three items, we're gonna get those items by doing this, we're gonna be clear on that, and at the end of that conversation together about how can-do tools would help them, I asked them: do you need a week or a month to teach this to everyone in your organization? And they all had funny looks on their faces and said “No.” And I said that's the beauty of the can-do mindset. This is not something that you have to slow down, and train people around you because you're gonna start to use can-do language.
It doesn't need any training. It needs a habit to be more built-in in some than others. It needs to be harnessed. But the beauty of it is you don't have to stop the bus and do a massive training program so that next year you can have an organization with a better can-do mindset. No, get started.
You taught them how to be very concise laser focused and talk about, also the goal and the outcome not always caught up in the how. For so often when people get into these presentations, well, our goal is X, Y, Z and this is how we're gonna do it. I remember our national sales meetings, my team would come back with probably, here are the 20 initiatives that we're gonna do and so I'd say, okay, our first team call, we're gonna sit down and we're gonna say, what are the top three? And do all of these initiatives apply to your specific territory? Because in sales, every territory was different. What are the overarching where it makes sense to implement these initiatives, across the board?
And could we maybe customize some or take some, then apply it to one territory that we may not apply as much to the other territory? But if you're given 20 initiatives to do, and this is how you do it, you create overwhelm. Often what would happen when people would leave a national sales meeting? It's about being laser-focused, and concise. This is the ultimate goal, this is what we're going to do, and then working together in that think tank.
And who's responsible? And then, get out of the way, and there's a framework for that. It's in the book, it's called the 3D model for communication. define design, deliver.
Don't skip those steps, but they don't have to be complicated. if your only thing is a leader in the budget, $5,000. no crockpots because we had a fire last time, then that's it. You really don't want more how outlined than that because that just shuts down the opportunity for people to use their gift and their creativity.
You inadvertently think you're helping the team, but in a sense, you're actually shutting it down. I agree with you. And coming back with a list of 27 action items. that's not energizing to me. No. It creates more overwhelming than anything.
