How To Adopt a Growth Mindset

When faced with a challenge we either choose to pursue it and learn and grow from the encounter — or avoid it because we perceive it as too risky, scary or hard. Doing the latter can prove detrimental to career growth. However, with deliberate practice and understanding the “fixed” aspects of our mindsets, we can take steps to develop a growth mindset.

By Helen Harris?

Think about how you approach a challenge. Do you embrace the obstacle ahead of you, seeing it as an opportunity to grow, and treat each failure as a way to eventually work your way to success? Or do you find it hard to stay motivated, and easily say, “I quit,” and go back to your comfort zone??

If you are someone who embraces challenges and even seeks them out, you have a growth mindset.?

But if you struggle with personal and professional obstacles, and choose to avoid them, you likely have a fixed mindset.?

The good news is that regardless of where your mindset is currently, you can change it and strengthen it to be one of growth.?

What Is a Growth Mindset??

Harvard Business Review (HBR) defines a growth mindset as when an individual believes their talents can be developed through hard work, good strategies and input from others. This is in opposition to those who have a fixed mindset, which is when someone believes their talents are innate gifts that cannot be developed any further.?

HBR shares that those with growth mindsets worry less about looking smart and put more energy into learning.?

Gina Riley, career coach, creator of Career Velocity, talent selection trainer, executive search consultant for Talence Group and YouMap coach, believes a growth mindset is a fundamental belief in your ability to learn and develop yourself combined with the determination to seek out ways that will help you achieve your short- and long-term goals.?

“I also think there is a certain level of positivity, too,” said Riley. “People who imagine what could be versus [those] being stuck in the here and now.”

To take individual growth mindset a step further and amplify it across an entire company, HBR reports that the results can be remarkable: “When entire companies embrace a growth mindset, their employees report feeling far more empowered and committed; they also receive greater organizational support for collaboration and innovation.”

This is in stark contrast to companies that are fixed in nature, where there is often deception between employees and leadership to get ahead in the talent and status race.??

Why a Growth Mindset Is Vital To a Successful Career??

“When it comes to the best candidates interviewing for a job, curious learners stack up on top because they don’t allow themselves to stagnate,” said Riley. “They are always striving to add something new to their toolkit, whether that is a class, reading books, certifications or even finding growth opportunities through volunteer work.”

People who have an openness to learn and grow will methodically accumulate experiences that give them greater chances to be successful and realize their dream, she shares.

This “dream” could be that internal promotion you want, the career shift you hope to achieve or the pay raise you hope to get by proving your skills and worth in your role.??

“There are growth opportunities all around us,” said Riley. “People can leverage both short- and long-term goals to help themselves both personally and professionally.”

International Institute for Management Development (IMD) states that leaders with a fixed versus a growth mindset will be trapped by the fear of humiliation, uncertainty, rejection or other threats.

An example of an internal thought from this type of leader might be something along the lines of, “I can’t make this any better. This is too hard. I can’t afford to make any mistakes.”

But, IMD notes, a leader with a growth mindset thinks big: They think along the lines of, “I can improve. This may just take some time. Mistakes are part of learning.”

Why is this way of thinking so important? Because these leaders are empowered by the willingness to say yes and ask for what they need to thrive, make a genuine effort and keep going when things get tough.

Ways To Develop a Growth Mindset?

“I think having a growth mindset is grounded in humility,” said Riley. “The first thing I would recommend is to be open to feedback. While feedback is a gift, you don’t have to take it all to heart. But if you can accept different viewpoints then your aperture widens, and you’ll be more aware of opportunities to grow.”

You should strive to ask questions and work on your listening skills so you can flexibly adapt, change, modify and integrate new information, says Riley.

You can deliberately practice developing your growth mindset. IMD explains that this involves making the time to deal with the demons of defensiveness and defeat, listening to your fixed mindset, and talking back.

Forbes, which reports that mindset stems from your own set of powerful beliefs and that a growth mentality assumes your views can be changed when they no longer allow you to achieve your goals, adds a few ways to help you foster a growth mindset:

• Don’t be discouraged by failure. Embrace it, analyze it and dissect what happened to help move you toward your next success. This will help you see the positive in each circumstance rather than the negative as you “fail your way to success.” Everyone has setbacks; use them to your advantage.?
• Seek feedback. It’s normal to feel nervous or uneasy when you know you’re about to get feedback from your peers or a manager. But once you realize you are responsible for your own growth, you will have the confidence to ask for feedback and learn from it.?

In fact, if you want to develop and challenge yourself, you will continue to seek their advice and opinions as you continue on your path of the growth mindset.?

• Embrace the changing world: This means brushing up on your digital literacy skills, being open to learning new technology, asking questions and listening all the time to the news around you. The roles in companies are constantly changing, and it is your job to be nimble and curious — or get left behind.?
• Pursue challenges and lifelong learning: A growth mindset is not a course you can complete or something you can achieve in a month or year. It’s something you commit to for a lifetime, and it’s done by challenging yourself constantly and stepping out of your comfort zone. What are you interested in — but makes you a bit uncomfortable? That’s what you need to pursue to continue building your growth mindset.?

Forbes finds that people with a growth mindset actively seek learning opportunities, which result in more career success.

“Be curious about everything,” Forbes writes. “Research shows that while less successful people read mostly for entertainment, those at the top are avid readers of self-improvement books.”?

It states that 85% of successful people read two or more self-improvement or educational books per month.?

Achieving a growth mindset can be done; by identifying what a fixed mindset is and steadily moving away from that way of thinking, you will propel yourself toward personal and professional growth. You will embrace the challenges, collaborate with more people and take your skills to new levels.?

Top Takeaways?

How To Adopt a Growth Mindset

• A growth mindset is when an individual believes their talents can be developed through hard work, good strategies and input from others.
• A fixed mindset is when someone believes their talents are innate gifts that cannot be developed any further.?
• A growth mindset helps with your ability to learn, develop personally and professionally, and can inspire the confidence to achieve your short- and long-term goals.?
• Having a growth mindset is grounded in humility and being open to feedback so you can accept those different viewpoints and take them as opportunities to grow.?
• “Be curious about everything. … Research shows that while less successful people read mostly for entertainment, those at the top are avid readers of self-improvement books.”?
• You can deliberately practice developing your growth mindset — but this starts by first acknowledging your fixed mindset.???