People who believe their success comes through hard work, learning, training, and perseverance have a growth mindset. I would like to give you five concrete examples of how you can apply this mindset to your work today.
What is Growth Mentality?
Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, has done extensive research on the growth mentality. Her work in the late 1980s was initially focused on school children, but proved to be easily transferable to adults. Dr. Dweck concluded that people have either a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. Growth means that you believe your talents are fluid and constantly evolving, rather than static.
People with a growth mindset are constantly improving their intelligence and ability to learn new skills through hard work, discipline, and perseverance. They believe that learning doesn’t stop when they leave school or college. They accept and even accept failure as a means to move forward. The benefits of this particular way of thinking are significant.
This creates much better relationships between people as they work together as a team with the knowledge they need to learn together. Doing so reduces quick judgment, generates constructive criticism, and reduces stress. Fixed mindsets tend to go where the least resistance is expected. They start with the easy things first.
Growth minded people, however, focus their attention on the hardest part first. They also tend to focus on the big picture and ultimate goal, and are unfazed by (personal) setbacks and failures.
In a world where uncertainty is the new normal and past experience and knowledge are less reliable guides to growth, a growth mindset is essential.
Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset
5 practical examples you can use today
The idea of growth can also be applied to professional life and organizations. I would like to give some concrete and very practical examples of how this idea can be applied to work today.
- Don’t get offended by your manager’s criticism. Instead, use this feedback to improve your work.
- You have a new task to complete and you may be a little unsure about it. In this case, don’t think: “I will never make it,” but rest assured that you will definitely learn the new skills you need.
- If you’re a manager yourself, opt for task rotation, or even job rotation. In this way, employees continuously develop their skills.
- When hiring new employees, pay attention to their learning abilities.
- Think of new tasks, behaviors, tactics, and strategies as experiments that lead to new knowledge rather than success.
I appreciate the growth mindset in my employees because it has often helped me overcome difficult tasks. This mindset saved me every time I felt unprepared to tackle a challenge.
Therefore, I encourage everyone to develop a growth mindset