5 fascinating insights for parents (and managers) to fulfill potential

What makes people different from each other? Why are some people successful and some aren’t? That is the question that intrigued Dr. Dweck, a renowned Stanford University psychologist, and it soon became her obsession that culminated in her outstanding book, Mindset.

Broadly, Dr. Dweck believes that people can be categorized between those who have a ‘fixed’ mindset and those who have a ‘growth’ mindset. Fixed-mindset people tend to pass out a chance to learn. They tend to feel labeled by a failure, and get discouraged when something requires significant effort. On the other hand, growth-mindset people make sure they take on challenges and learn from failures. The growth-mindset is based on the belief that talent can be cultivated through efforts.

We have all observed these two extremes mindsets in our homes (and our workplace) and many greys in between. Here are some great takeaways for parents (and managers) to bring a growth mindset at home (and at the workplace).

1) Focus your teaching on what it takes to be successful. There are four principles to be successful: Effort, focus, belief and training. 

2) Don’t label. Positive and negative labels can mess with your mind. Positive labels can stop people taking risks because they fear failure. Negative labels are another way of encouraging ‘fixed’ mindsets as they discourage people to put effort and take charge of their own success.

3) Help people converting setbacks into future successes. In a growth-mindset content, setbacks are motivating, informative and a wake-up call.

4) Make learners welcome criticism. If you are oriented towards learning, you need accurate information about your current abilities in order to learn effectively so in the growth-mindset context, criticism is not openly welcome it is sought after. 

5) Change the conversation. It is not about being ‘fast’, ‘perfect’, ‘good’ or ‘bad’, these are fixed-mindset conversations and reinforces the wrong learning context. Talk about efforts and choices and reinforce the learning journey.

Benjamin Barber, political theorist and author categorized the world between ‘learners’ and ‘non learners’, and it has been this distinction what determines success. As an educator (parent or manager), don’t judge, teach. After all, it is a learning process.

Learning extracts from Dr. Dweck’s book, Mindset – Psychology of Success.

This article is only an excerpt of complete article published in People Matters. To read complete piece click https://www.peoplematters.in/article/2015/05/02/culture/5-powerful-ways-transform-mindset/11145