What is Growth Mindset?
Growth Mindset Definition
Growth mindset is your belief in your ability to improve and get “smarter”. It comes from Carol Dweck who discovered the phenomena when studying school children and their subsequent performance in school. Children who believe they can “get smarter” would put in more effort and perform better. Children who believed their abilities were “fixed” would not put in more effort and would subsequently have lower performance**. This phenomena is also true for adults. Your belief about your ability in a certain area will dictate how much effort you put forth, and therefore, influence how successful you are in that area. Your mindset can be influenced by those around you through their speech and actions.
One of the exciting things about Growth Mindset is that it can be used in organizations***, in families and other groups. It impacts both adults and children alike. Growth Mindset always refers to an individual’s belief, but those in leadership and influence positions can do things to induce Growth Mindset. To summarize, Growth Mindset is a belief you have about yourself in a particular ability, it can vary in different areas of your life, it can be influenced by others and ultimately influences how much effort you put out, which can determine success. Read on to find out more about Growth versus Fixed Mindset, myths about Growth Mindset, how to change your mindset, how to develop a Growth Mindset, why Growth Mindset is important for leaders and Growth Mindset examples.
The opposite of Growth Mindset is Fixed Mindset. Fixed Mindset is the belief that your ability is “fixed” or static - that nothing you do will change the outcome. This is a distant cousin of hopelessness, but smartly disguised. It can pop up as avoidance, fear, procrastination or even denial. It might sound like, “I am bad at this and that will never change” or “You are who you are and you can’t change that”. Fixed mindset causes you to think that effort won’t matter, or it will be too much effort to be worth putting in the effort in the first place. Fixed mindset can cause you to overlook resources that would help you.
Growth mindset will help you embrace challenges, persist to overcome obstacles, put in more effort, learn from criticism and find lessons and inspiration in the success of others. This is a loop that builds confidence, makes you feel like you can make a difference and propels you to higher levels of achievement. Fixed mindset will cause you to avoid challenges, give up when encountering an obstacle, believe effort means you lack the natural ability, ignore useful feedback and feel threatened by the success of others. This loop confirms for you that you were not born with talent, decreases your effort and may cause you to achieve less than your full potential. It’s important to remember that we are each a mix of Growth and Fixed mindsets.
Growth Mindset versus Fixed Mindset
Myths about Growth Mindset
Growth Mindset is such a popular topic, that it can easily be used to mean something else, other than it’s original definition. Carol Dweck has detailed here in Harvard Business Review how it has been used in businesses incorrectly. It has been mistaken for being flexible, open-minded, or having a positive outlook. It has been mistaken as praising and rewarding effort. Lastly, it has been mistaken as something you can say or commit to in a vision statement, and good things will happen.
When organizations are going through change, they want their employees to be flexible, open-minded and have a positive outlook. This is a valuable skill and necessary to deal with change in a positive manner. But it is not having a growth mindset. Having a growth mindset would be related to one’s ability - and in organizations, this often translates to one’s ability in one’s job. An organizational change may or may not touch on that ability. If the job is changing and the ability needs to grow, it could relate to Growth Mindset. If the change involves more work, less flexibility and poor communication, then Growth Mindset isn’t going to matter much. Growth Mindset isn’t a buzzword to help employees do more with less. In addition, organizations will need to drop a perfectionistic culture. This is the antithesis of Growth Mindset. There has to be room for learning, experimentation and making mistakes while striving toward something better. This isn’t making mistakes in routine work, but rather experimenting with a new way of doing work and it not quite hitting the mark. But learning occured. And that is the hallmark of Growth Mindset.
Growth Mindset is also not blind optimism. You still need research, planning and project management to see a goal to fruition. One of the key elements to pair with Growth Mindset, especially when you are working toward a goal, is Psychological Capital.
How to Change Your Mindset
You are probably here because you want to change your mindset, or increase your Growth Mindset, covered next. In order to change your mindset, the key skill is recognizing Fixed Mindset. Remember, we are all a mix of Growth Mindset and Fixed Mindset - no one is all, pure Growth Mindset. Some areas of our life may not need to be Growth Mindset. However, if you find there is an area of your life that is causing you discomfort or keeping you from where you want to be, it may be time to examine for Fixed Mindset.
One quick way to discover a Fixed Mindset is to think about an area in your life where you doubt you could learn or improve. Another way is to think of a sore spot in your life. Where do you continue to get developmental feedback? Is there an area that continues to be a problem for you? Any of these might indicate that you need to learn a skill or improve on a skill, but you don’t believe you can learn or improve in this area. If you are feeling stuck trying to find your Fixed Mindset, take some time to journal on areas in your life that are problems, or you would like to improve. What is the ability that would help?
How to Develop a Growth Mindset
Once you have identified an area that you want to develop a Growth Mindset, there are several quick steps to begin your journey. The first is to develop an attitude of curiosity, toward yourself for having this limiting belief, and also what it would look like if you believed in your ability. Second, begin to reflect on your life and discover when you had Growth Mindset, what that felt like, and see some parallels for how you can apply it to this area. Reflect on past strategies that have led to success and how you can apply them now. Third, begin to ask learner questions such as
“What works?”
”What can I learn?”
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“What is the best first step?”
Growth Mindset and Leadership
Growth Mindset is especially important for leaders whether you are leading a team, a department or a family. Leaders have three tasks here. First, they need to be aware of when someone is in Growth or Fixed Mindset. Learning about all the information so far, understanding Learner Questions and recognizing signs of Fixed Mindset, such as lack of effort, can aid the leader in diagnosis. Remember, lack of effort doesn’t necessarily mean Fixed Mindset, it could also mean lack of interest.
Second, they need to understand that their language can induce Growth or Fixed mindset. Praising and recognizing ability can lead to Fixed Mindset. Examples of this are “You are so smart!” or “You are so talented!”. Praising and recognizing successful effort, strategy and persistence can lead to Growth Mindset. Examples of this are “You worked really hard and did not give up” or “I see you tried several different strategies until you found one that worked”.
Third, they need to consistently work to create a culture of learning, not perfectionism, which ultimately stifles learning and creativity. This can be the leader talking about their own mistakes and what they learned. It could the leader then asks others to share mistakes that helped them learn. This effectively models learning and experimentation which will create a learning culture and learning organization/team.
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References
*Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2020). What Can Be Learned From Growth Mindset Controversies? The American Psychologist, 75(9), 1269–1284. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000794
** Dweck, C. S. (1999). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Taylor and Francis/Psychology Press.
*** Canning, E. A., Murphy, M. C., Emerson, K. T. U., Chatman, J. A., Dweck, C. S., & Kray, L. J. (2020). Cultures of Genius at Work: Organizational Mindsets Predict Cultural Norms, Trust, and Commitment. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 46(4), 626–642. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219872473