Benefits of a growth mindset

“In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. So rather than thinking, oh, I'm going to reveal my weaknesses, you say, wow, here's a chance to grow.” Carol S. Dweck

Carol is a prominent psychologist at Stanford and pioneered mindset and motivational research that lead to the concept of Growth Mindsets versus Fixed Mindsets. Her work is widely adopted and applied in the early education sector and is now being more widely applied in business to support professionals going through change.

I first came across Growth Mindset when working with the southern hemisphere’s largest cohort of school psychologists in the Department of Education in Australia’s largest state – New South Wales. I was able to use it to support the school psychologists and school counsellors through a major project to move to online student counselling records. This was a monumental change for them, so we applied the concepts of a Growth Mindset from Education and Motivation Interviewing from Psychology to support them in their adoption of the changed processes and new systems. I’ve been an advocate ever since.

Lawyers often struggle with feeling or looking less than an expert. That’s because they have spent so long gaining top grades to get into law school and then studying hard to become a lawyer. It can be confronting to realise that you need more than ‘black letter’ legal expertise to be successful. And then how do you go about gaining skills in legal project management and legal operations without appearing less than capable to your clients. It’s a challenging situation that has led to many lawyers having very fixed mindsets, and this, in turn, holds them back from having flourishing careers and feeling happy.

Characteristics of a growth mindset

A growth mindset is the belief that a person's capacities and talents can be improved over time, and it can unlock reserves of resilience, learning, adaptability, and improvement.

A fixed mindset is characterised by the limiting belief that the capacity to learn and improve cannot be meaningfully developed.

People with a growth mindset will be more oriented toward self-improvement and more likely to persist in the face of challenges and failures. They will treat obstacles as opportunities to grow rather than signs of their abilities being inadequate.

Benefits of lifelong learning

According to the research, there are many benefits that come from the commitment to lifelong learning that goes with a growth mindset, including –

1. Improves short and long term memory

2. Protects the brain against ageing

3. Improves brain neuroplasticity

4. Increases resilience and mental wellbeing

5. Increases happiness

6. Boosts confidence and self-esteem

7. Improves energy and immunity

8. Engages mind and body

9. Keeps you healthy

10. Increases social connectedness

I’ve found that many lawyers that I work with are similarly interested in mastery and certification. One critical element often holds them back. Often, they lack a growth mindset and sufficient resilience to keep going through the learning ups and downs. I figure this is because lawyers have to work so hard at school and then at university to excel that they’ve sometimes run out of energy.

Simple steps to master new skills

We all know how challenging it can be to learn and master new skills. This will apply equally to the concepts in The POSITIVE Lawyer as it does to learning a new sport.

These 4 simple steps draw on the best experience from high-performance coaching models for elite athletes, performers and executives.

1. Immersion – this is all about concentrated effort over a short period of time to establish the foundation skills

2. Practice – then it’s about putting in the time to gradually improve. Unless you’re a prodigy then changes, or new skills will not happen overnight.

3. Coaching – no elite sports team would ever go without a coach so if you want to be a top performer then it is useful to engage a coach or find a mentor who is a positive role model. The best coaches pick you up when you’re down and ensure you are fit to play another day.

4. Joy – it’s important to celebrate improvements along the way and probably more important to acknowledge the incremental changes as these provide the motivation to keep going

Spotlight on Therese Linton

I’m a lifelong learner and absolutely love the process of learning a new skill…there is that moment of absolute JOY when you achieve the level of mastery you were aiming for! I love learning and mastering new skills and becoming certified as a recognised expert. I’ve had two parallel paths – one sporting and one academic.

On the sports side, it all started when I realised that I could earn money by becoming an umpire instead of playing sports at school, so I became an A grade umpire for hockey and netball in my teens.

I then went on to become a personal trainer and ended up teaching Certificate 3 in personal training, after this I became a ski instructor and obtained certifications in Canada and Australia.

Recently, I was getting bored with skiing after doing it most of my life, so I decided to take up snowboarding and this is all about enjoyment and mastery rather than certification. It was particularly challenging and painful for the first few seasons as I did the bare minimum to obtain foundation skills and then kept going back to my skis.

This last snow season I committed to my snowboarding, and I have gone from a beginner to an advanced intermediate due to almost 50 days of snowboarding. I accessed coaching in the form of a few lessons early in the season, and then several days spent with a good friend who is also a snowboard instructor in the middle of the season. This was critical to helping to highlight the improvements and ensure that I didn’t consolidate bad habits.

On the academic side, my intellect and bravery have led to many amazing educational opportunities -

? Being in the top 3 of Year 6 before I moved to high school

? Topping all my subjects during high school and being the Dux on graduation

? Obtaining my Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Information Technology, and being one of two people in my year to be awarded our degrees with Merit

? Being sent to Harvard Business School by an employer as part of my bonus so that I could do my executive masters

? Being selected to do my Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification

? Obtaining my Advanced Diploma in Project Management

? Obtaining my Certificate of Training and Education

? Being invited to develop the first higher education Project Management certificate and diploma courses run in Australia

? Becoming a Unit of Study Coordinator and Lecturer in Sydney University’s esteemed Master of Project Management

? Developing the first units in Sustainable Project Management for the first Bachelor of Project Management program offered in Australia

? Being asked to write a textbook Project Management Essentials

? Having my proposal accepted by LexisNexis to write a practice book on Legal Project Management

? Lecturing for several years at The College of Law, Sydney

Just for fun!

For me it was never about competing with others or about winning or losing, it was about a love of learning and wanting to do my best. Most of the time I had no idea that I was so academically gifted, and I’d never collected all the achievements together before.

So, before I felt sufficiently confident to launch The POSITIVE Lawyer? program, I sought out certification to support myself and my clients. That’s why I became a certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming practitioner and Timeline Therapist.

And then I decided to do some education completely for the love of it. Something aligned with my interests rather than my profession, so I obtained my international wine certification WSET Level 2 from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. I love wine and really enjoyed learning a formal approach to appreciating it. Next, I’ll be doing my WSET Level 3 and the Diploma of Positive Psychology.

Just for fun, I’ve decided to work as a part-time ski instructor this season – yes, we get skiable snow down here in the Southern Hemisphere and I live at the base of My Kosciusko just 30 minutes from two major ski areas. So, I’m busy refreshing my skills progression knowledge with online learning and then I’ll be doing a full refresher day later in June.

I’ve found time and time again, that when you are an expert and you take the time to teach others, you pass on invaluable knowledge and improve your skills as well. ’

Find out more…

Growth mindset and the benefits of lifelong learning are covered in detail in Module 2 of The POSITIVE Lawyer? program. OR book a discovery call with Therese Linton here ???

Interested in more information, download a detailed brochure here

I help experienced lawyers and legal professionals build flourishing legal careers, optimise performance, and live happier, more fulfilling lives!

I transform legal mindsets and ways of working!