March 5, 2026

“What you think about, you bring about.”

Mary Kay Ash

How you bring your best self to your leadership practice is seen in your worldview, your lens for how you think before you act. Henry Ford often said,” If you think you are right or think you are wrong … You’re right”. Mindset is our lens, and a leadership mindset shapes every decision, relationship, and response to pressure. It is the prime driver, and as Carol Dweck noted in her seminal book on mindset, a leader’s mindset can be intentionally changed rather than left to chance. This Thursday’s Leadership Insight describes how developing or enhancing one’s leadership mindset is crucial to bringing one’s best self to one’s leadership practice. A leadership mindset will be described as part of the leadership core, defined using the leadership mindset example from Savannah Bananas’ 5 E’s, and how they embody the core elements of a leadership mindset, as well as five specific strategies to cultivate one’s leadership practice.

What Is a Leadership Mindset?

A leadership mindset is more than positive thinking or self-mastery; it is a mental framework for approaching decisions, problem-solving, challenges, and relationships. It integrates a leader’s values, experiences, and discipline into a coherent internal compass, helping them stay grounded in purpose and resilient under pressure while maintaining clarity even in chaotic situations. Leaders with the right mindset focus on serving their team and creating value through others, rather than pursuing ego or personal success. A UC Berkley ExecEd blog notes, “Cultivating a strong leadership mindset can help you and your team rise above almost any challenge. What separates a great leader from a good one or an effective leader from someone who struggles in the role? What it comes down to most often, as with many other things in life, is one’s mindset.”

Research shows that mindset drives how leaders show up—shaping their opinions, decisions, actions, and the impact they have on people and culture. When leadership qualities and mindsets are distributed broadly, teams can see performance gains of up to 27%, along with higher engagement and ownership.

Growth vs. Closed Mindset: Necessary but Not Enough

Carol Dweck’s work on fixed and growth mindsets has profoundly influenced how we think about learning and performance. A growth mindset assumes that abilities can be developed through effort, learning, and feedback; leaders with this mindset embrace challenges, persist through setbacks, and see mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow. A closed or fixed mindset, by contrast, assumes abilities are static, leading leaders to avoid risks, resist feedback, and protect their image rather than pursue growth. In leadership, a growth mindset supports resilience, innovation, and continuous improvement, but it is only one part of a broader leadership mindset that also includes values, purpose, and motive. Without those deeper anchors, even a growth-oriented leader can grow in the wrong direction, becoming more skilled but not more grounded, ethical, or service-focused.

Why Leadership Mindset Matters

Mindset is a leader’s lens that shapes their vision and directs everything they do. That leadership mindset drives every opinion a leader holds, every decision you make, and every action you take; it shapes how you influence others and the culture you create. Studies in leadership development show that when leaders intentionally cultivate mindsets, such as promotion, learning, and deliberative mindsets, they become more open to change, more persistent in the face of challenges, and more accurate in their decision-making. Organizations that develop leadership mindsets at all levels report higher performance, greater agility, and increased innovation because people take ownership rather than waiting for direction. Leaders with a growth-oriented mindset are more likely to encourage learning, support experimentation, and frame setbacks as learning opportunities, which boosts morale and engagement and customer service, creating what Jesse Cole, founder of The Savannah Bananas in Fans First calls “Raving Fans” In contrast, leaders with closed or fear-based mindsets often create risk-averse, low-trust environments where people hide mistakes and avoid new ideas.

The Core of a Leadership Mindset: Values, Purpose, Motive

A leadership mindset is not neutral; it is formed and focused by the other three core components: values, purpose, and motive.

1. Values: What You Stand On Your values are the non-negotiable principles that guide your choices when trade-offs are real and costly. They inform how you treat people, how you respond under pressure, and what you are willing (and unwilling) to do to achieve results. When values are clear and consistently lived, your mindset becomes more stable. Leaders then interpret challenges through the lens of integrity, service, and respect rather than fear or ego.

2. Purpose: Why You Are Leading Purpose answers the question, “What is the mission beyond my role, title, or success?” Leaders with a strong sense of purpose align their mindset around contribution—creating value for students, staff, customers, congregations, or communities they serve. Purpose-focused leaders are more resilient because they see difficulties as part of a larger story, not as personal attacks or random obstacles.

3. Motive: Who Your Leadership Is Really For Motive is the often-unspoken driver behind your leadership—whether you are primarily serving self or serving others. A self-centered motive pushes leaders toward control, image management, and credit-seeking, even if they talk about growth and collaboration. A service-centered motive reframes leadership as “the value you bring to the world through others,” aligning closely with a servant-leadership philosophy. When values, purpose, and motive are aligned around service, your leadership mindset becomes mission-focused, team-centered, and grounded in clarity rather than ego.

Together, values, purpose, and motive, combined with a growth-oriented orientation to learning, form the core of a leadership mindset that is both effective and ethical.

How Mindset Shows Up in Practice at Grayson Stadium and around the U.S.

A leadership mindset comes to life in Savannah, Georgia, and around the U.S. Jesse Cole, founder of the Savannah Bananas, embodies a bold, service-focused way of thinking that rewrites the rules to create unforgettable value for others. His “Fans First” philosophy and Five E’s show how mindset becomes a culture, not just a personal attitude.

Jesse Cole’s Leadership Mindset

Jesse Cole leads with a clear internal compass: serve fans first, create joy, and never stop learning and experimenting. He has taken a struggling team and, through this mindset, transformed it into a phenomenon with sold-out ballparks, millions of followers, and a massive waitlist. At the heart of his leadership mindset are:

• A vision that is bigger than baseball: “Fans First, Entertain Always.”
• A bias toward learning and experimentation, where every game includes multiple “experiments” to see what delights fans.
• A service-focused motive: he prioritizes creating stories and joy for fans and empowering staff, not maximizing short-term profit.

This mindset shapes how he makes decisions, hires people, designs experiences, and responds to mistakes (for example, turning a major email error into a live, face-to-face apology moment with thousands of fans).

The Five E’s That Define His Leadership Mindset

Cole’s Five E’s—Eliminate, Entertain, Experiment, Engage, Empower—describe how his mindset operates in practice for him and the Savannah Bananas organization.

1. Eliminate (Friction and Frustration)

“Eliminate” reflects the part of his mindset that relentlessly seeks and removes barriers to joy. Jesse and his team map the entire fan journey, identify points of frustration, hidden fees, confusing parking, and long lines, and redesign them.

• They eliminated hidden fees by creating an all-inclusive ticket price that covers food, drinks, and taxes, so there are no unpleasant surprises.
• They even rewrite invoices and on-hold messages to make paying and waiting fun, turning mundane moments into delightful ones.

This shows a leadership mindset that sees details through the lens of service: if something creates friction, it must be rethought.

2. Entertain (Delight and Joy as a Duty)

“Entertain” reveals a mindset that treats joy and delight as responsibilities rather than afterthoughts. Cole believes every game should feel like the greatest show, not just another sporting event.

• Players dance, grandmothers form the “Banana Nanas” dance team, and even the parking team (“Parking Penguins”) greet fans with fun touches.
• The organization scripts moments before, during, and after games so that even rain delays become some of the most memorable experiences fans have ever had.

Underneath the fun is a mindset: people remember how you make them feel, so making experiences enjoyable is serious leadership work.

3. Experiment (Always Be Learning and Innovating)

“Experiment” reflects a leadership mindset that refuses to settle for “how it’s always been done.” Jesse talks about working the “idea muscle,” asking “What If,” and encourages his team to generate new ideas daily.

• Every game includes multiple new experiments; some fail, others become iconic features of Banana Ball.
• His philosophy is “Whatever is normal, do the exact opposite,” turning either a success or a story into a learning experience.

This shows a leadership mindset that sees risk as necessary for growth, treats failure as data, and normalizes innovation as everyone’s job.

4. Engage (Deep, Personal Connection)

“Engage” highlights a mindset that values deep, personal connection over shallow metrics. Cole often uses the phrase, “Do for one what you wish you could do for many.”

• Staff is empowered to create personalized moments, call every early ticket buyer, deliver surprise videos, and offer one-on-one experiences that turn customers into lifelong fans.
• Team members sometimes go undercover to experience the ballpark as fans and report back on what needs to improve.

This shows a leadership mindset that pays attention, listens, and treats every interaction as a chance to create a story people will tell.

5. Empower (Trust and Ownership for the Team)

“Empower” demonstrates that Jesse’s leadership mindset is not about control; it is about giving others the authority and confidence to act in alignment with the vision.

• Every staff member is empowered to create “Fans First” moments, from redesigning tiny details like drain covers to crafting surprise thank-you experiences for fans.
• When the team plays in large stadiums, staff write personal thank-you notes to fans in the farthest seats, reinforcing that everyone has permission to create magic.

This empowerment reflects a mindset grounded in trust, a clear vision, and the belief that leadership multiplies when others are free to lead from where they are.

“Customers are transactional, they come and go, Raving Fans stay foreverand bring their friends .”

Jesse Cole Fans First

How the Five E’s Reveal a Leadership Mindset

Looking at Jesse Cole and the Savannah Bananas, the Five E’s function as a practical framework for a leadership mindset that is:

• Value-driven: Fans First, long-term loyalty over short-term profit.
• Purpose-centered: Redefine what a baseball game can be—joyful, inclusive, unforgettable.
• Service-focused: Every decision is filtered through its impact on fans and team members. Cole in Fans First refers to this as “Plusing.” Plusing means always finding ways to make the fans’ experience better, doing one more thing to have fans say, “You would’t believe they ….
• Growth-oriented: Constant experimentation, learning from mistakes, and “plusing” the experience. Jesse  notes in Fan’s First in the “extra Chapter, after the conclusion that he and the organization always ask, What If, as they innovate with 10- 15 new ideas in a tightly scripted game plan every game, knowing only two or three ideas work, like serenading early leavers, not so good, too expensive. The next game, they shifted to smaller ones, too messy and dangerous to be Banana-flavored Moon Pies.

Plusing means always finding ways to make the fans’ experience better, doing one more thing to have fans say, “You would’t believe they ….”

Jesse Cole  Fans First

The Five E’s are not just customer service tactics; they are windows into a leadership mindset that any school, church, nonprofit, or business can adapt: remove friction, create joy, keep learning, build real relationships, and release people to lead. In fact, Jesse Cole refers to his customers as Raving Fans, noting that “customers are transactional, they come and go, Raving Fans stay forever.”

Five Ways to Develop or Enhance Your Leadership Mindset

These five practices are designed to help leaders at any level bring their best selves to their leadership practice.

1. Clarify and Codify Your Values

·       Write down your top five leadership values and define what each looks like in daily behavior (e.g., what “respect” looks like in meetings, feedback, and conflict).

·       Ask trusted colleagues or team members where they see alignment—and misalignment—between your stated values and your actual behaviors. This reflection begins to rewire your mindset around integrity and congruence, not convenience.

2. Re-anchor in Purpose Daily

·       Start your day by revisiting a simple purpose statement: who you serve, why it matters, and what “a win” looks like for them—not just for you.

·       Before key meetings or decisions, pause and ask, “How does this support the mission and the people we serve?” This keeps your mindset mission-first rather than agenda-first.

3. Shift Your Inner Dialogue from Fixed to Growth

·       Notice “fixed” self-talk (“I’m just not good at this,” “They’ll never change”) and intentionally replace it with growth-oriented language (“I can learn this,” “We haven’t figured out how—yet”).

·       After setbacks, debrief with three questions: “What happened? What did we learn? What will we do differently next time?” This trains your mindset to see learning, not just loss.

4. Practice Service-First Decision Making

·       In difficult decisions, explicitly name who will be served and how, and check for blind spots where ego or convenience might be driving the choice.

·       Involve others in diagnosing problems and designing solutions; shared ownership builds both a collective leadership mindset and stronger outcomes. This reinforces the belief that leadership is about creating value through others, not controlling them. always ask “what if and concentrate on plusing

5. Build Mindset Habits into Your Calendar

·       Schedule recurring “mindset reviews”—15–30 minutes weekly to reflect on your decisions, reactions, and relationships through the lens of values, purpose, and motive.

·       Use key events (1:1s, team meetings, tough conversations) as “mindset reps,” where you practice curiosity, listening, and learning-focused questions rather than rushing to answers or defending your position. Over time, these micro-practices become your default mental framework.

A Leader can’t always control circumstances. A leader can intentionally shape the mindset they bring to any situation. Research and practice are clear: when leaders cultivate a healthy leadership mindset anchored in values, purpose, and service-oriented motives, they foster a culture of leadership, teams perform better, engagement rises, and people experience more meaning in their work.

The leadership questions for you then are

1.  Will you choose one or two of the strategies above—clarifying your values, re-anchoring in purpose, shifting your inner dialogue, practicing service-first decisions, or building mindset habits into your calendar and commit to them for the next 30 days?

2. Will you reflect on how your mindset shifts, how your reactions change, and how those you lead respond differently as you bring your best self more consistently into your leadership?

3. Will you choose one way to use plusing in your leadership practice and ask What if?