How great leaders help their teams nurture a growth mindset.

Why Growth Mindset Matters

There is a lot of talk in the business world at the moment about adopting a growth mindset and rightly so, because it’s a growth mindset that helps us grow as individuals. It’s where we see our skills, talents, and abilities, not as fixed things, but as things we can expand upon.

It helps us see challenges, not as obstacles, but as opportunities and see change, not as something to push against, but as something to embrace. However, one of the biggest challenges for leaders is how to help their people adopt a growth mindset.

Carol Dweck’s ‘Growth Mindset’

Back in 2007 Carol Dweck, a Stanford University psychologist wrote a book called ‘Mindset’ and sparked a revolution in how we think about and nurture the right mindset. The premise being that we all adopt one of two types of mindsets: either fixed or growth.

If you adopt a fixed mindset you tend to believe your skills talents and abilities are fixed and that you are born with a certain level of smarts. You tend to see things as very black-and-white, and focus on outcomes where you either win or you lose. As a result, you see challenges as insurmountable and tend not to step outside your comfort zone.

If you adopt a growth mindset you believe your skills talents and abilities can be expanded upon and you can learn new things and continually grow. You focus on progress and effort — and if you don’t make your KPIs you ask what did you miss, what can you improve, what can you learn, who can help you? As a result, you see challenges as opportunities.

3 Things Leaders Do to Nurture a Growth Mindset

Great leaders understand that it’s not just about nurturing their own mindset, it’s about finding ways to help their people also adopt and nurture a growth mindset.

First, nurture your own growth mindset. The best way to do that is to go directly to the source and grab a copy of Carol Dweck’s work ‘Mindset’. This should be compulsory on any executive leader’s bookshelf.

Second, understand it’s a process, not a one-off. Help your teams understand that shifting their thinking and adopting a growth mindset isn’t a once-off project. It’s a continual process. And like anything, it’s the little things you do that make the biggest difference.

Third, watch your language. Not just your self-talk, but how you talk to others. Try using ‘yes and’ instead of ‘yes but’. As Dweck suggests, try adding words like ‘yet’ or ‘not yet’ to the end of a sentence — which opens the door to further exploration.