How to Encourage a Growth Mindset Within Your Organization
While I am sure there is a debate on this, the consensus I’ve found is that you are not born with a mindset; your experiences and the messages received along the way about your efforts have influenced your view. Discussions about mindsets are steadily increasing; there are books for children to cultivate a growth mindset, guiding one to believe that your talents can be developed through solid effort and useful strategies. Adults are signing up for daily growth mindset alerts to remind them that their talents are not innate gifts, which the basis of a fixed mindset, and that there is room for improving your skills and talents is a meaningful way.
What are the benefits of having a Growth mindset culture? According to a Forbes.com article, “With a growth mindset, people focus on improvement instead of worrying about how smart they are. They work hard to learn more and get smarter.” For many businesses, this mindset could improve customer satisfaction, higher ROI, and less employee turnover.
Let’s compare a Growth Mindset and a Fixed Mindset to gauge where your organization is currently at in terms of mindset.
Growth Mindset, with failure, comes growth.
· It’s never too late to learn.”…
· “It’s ok if I fail, at least I learned something.”…
· “I appreciate constructive criticism.”…
· “I can always improve at something if I try.”…
· “I model my work after others who have been successful in the past.”…
· “What can I do better next time to make this work?”
Source: https://www.developgoodhabits.com/growth-mindset-examples/
Fixed Mindset, my failure is directly due to my lack of abilities.
· Either I am Good at Something, or I’m Not. …
· I Can’t Learn Now; It’s Too Late. …
· There’s No Point in Trying if I’m Going to Fail. …
· I Take Feedback as a Personal Attack. …
· I Always Struggle With… …
· I Feel Threatened/Intimidated by the Success of Others.
Source: https://wabisabilearning.com/blogs/mindfulness-wellbeing/fixed-mindset-examples
How Do You as a Leader, Promote a Growth Mindset?
Start with evaluating how you praise employees; do you praise an individual’s process and use of effort, or do you praise intelligence? A growth mindset emphasizes building the bridge to yet, and not expecting the right answers, right now. Using yet and not yet, creates and growth mindset, which leads to greater confidence and perseverance.
The Power of “Yet” in a situation
Do you see the difference? Your job as the leader is the help your employees build that bridge to yet. It starts with you, reframing your praise, your reaction, and offering guidance using the yet approach. You have probably pushed employees out of their comfort zones many times to get a project done on time, now try to push again to have them learn something new. With learning comes stronger connections, and by rewarding the process, you will likely see your employees start to achieve more as their mindset shifts.
What will the future of work look like, we do not yet know what that will be. We can put forth the effort to hone a growth mindset within ourselves and reward our employees for learning with us along the way. It is the connections we need more than ever right now, and knowing we can influence the outcomes through a growth mindset, is a quality we can keep for life.