My key takeaways from hearing Ben Crowe at Leadershift

Earlier this week I headed to Sydney for The Growth Faculty’s Leadershift event - and it was exceptional.

A phenomenal line-up of internationally renowned leadership experts (more on them in future newsletters and on my socials), but the person I most wanted to hear was Ben Crowe.

If you don’t know Ben, he was Ash Barty’s mindset coach and has worked with elite athletes, CEOs, coaches and executive teams around the world - helping them strengthen their performance mindset while keeping perspective in their personal lives. His work is about balancing confidence with happiness, achievement with fulfilment.

And yes… I had a complete fan-girl moment.

As my friend and I arrived at the hotel, Ben stepped out of a car at the exact same time. I went straight over, introduced myself, shook his hand and told him we’d made the trip from Port Stephens specifically to hear him speak. Our books were in our luggage and with concierge and he promised he would sign them for us.

The next day, in a theatre of 700 people, he spotted us and gave us a wave. I described him today to a client as such a personable, humble inspiring human being.

But it was his message that really stayed with me.

Ben spoke about how we can change our entire lives simply by changing our perspective.

Within minutes he said, “Adversity is our teacher” which had me in tears and I realised I still had not had my photo with him yet. He talked about turning adversity into possibility. About how our greatest growth often comes from our darkest times. 

He shared what he calls the three mindset muscles:

Agency - You have the freedom to choose. You decide how you interpret and assign meaning to what happens to you - the good and the bad.

Acceptance - Acknowledge that in this moment, “it is what it is.”
Can you change it?
If not, accept it.
If yes, what will you do about it?

He referenced the Serenity Prayer - one I think we should all keep close:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. - Reinhold Niebuhr

And the third muscle:

Appreciation - Focusing on what we have, not what we don’t. Practising gratitude daily.

He also spoke about expectations and the emotional and outcome pressures we place on ourselves - something that deeply impacts how we lead, how we perform, and how we live.

I won’t share all the lessons - I’d genuinely love you to read his book for yourself.

But I will say this:

So much of what he shared reinforced what I believe about practice ownership, leadership and life. We cannot always control circumstances. But we can control our response, our meaning, and our focus.

And that changes everything.