Mindset - The Psychology of Business Success

“For 20 years, my research has shown that the view you adopt of yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.”? - Dr. Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology Stanford University.

How you see the world, your mindset, impacts all aspects of your life, work and your relationships.??It stands to reason then, that more than anything else, your mindset has a major impact on the ongoing success of your business.??

So what exactly is mindset, and how can you change yours to optimise business growth?

The Two Mindsets

In her famous book “Mindset, The New Psychology of Success”, Dr. Carol Dweck explains the difference between having a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.??

The Fixed Mindset

People with a Fixed Mindset believe that intelligence is something you are born with and something that you can’t change.??They are often successful early on, but then plateau and never seem to be able to improve further. This unfortunately feeds their belief that they can’t change. Caught in a catch-22, their own thought processes limit their potential.

Fixed mindset people tend to:

• Constantly limit themselves to things they can already do well so they look good
• Avoid challenges to avoid failing (which would negatively impact their self-image)
• Tend to see effort as pointless because they believe “this is who I am”?
• Take criticism as a personal attack. As a result, others don’t offer feedback so the opportunity to learn and grow is lost
• Feel threatened by or resentful of other people’s success and may put that success down to “luck” or “playing unfair” and often bring up the successful person’s failings

The Growth Mindset

People with a Growth Mindset believe that intelligence and ability can be developed which inspires them to keep learning and improving. They may not be successful straight away, but they persevere because they know whatever the result, they will learn something. Their thought processes lead to a positive feedback loop which pushes them to keep learning and improving throughout their lives.? They have the right thought processes to reach their full potential.

Growth Mindset people tend to:

• Embrace challenges because they know they will learn if they fail (First Attempt In Learning)
• See effort as necessary to learn new skills and grow
• Take on criticism as a valuable source of information. Even if they take criticism personally it is seen as a reflection of their current abilities, not them as a person
• See other people’s success as holding valuable lessons and inspiration?

The Role of a Growth Mindset in Business

A Growth Mindset ultimately leads to being more open to innovation.?If something isn’t working out, there may be more than one fix, and when your mind is open to learning, you won’t necessarily fall back on the simplest or safest method.?Being open to creative solutions even if it means more work or a financial investment will help your business skyrocket in the long run.

For example, you may be deciding whether or not to invest in new technology for your business.?A Fixed Mindset view would consider a $10,000 investment in a new software system as too expensive.? They might think “It’s all marketing hype” or “It’s always worked fine the way I’m doing it so why waste my money?”.

A Growth Mindset view would consider all the benefits the investment would bring to the business.??For example, the new technology might give better insights into the state of the sales pipeline, give a clearer picture of customer lifetime value, help forecast financial results and so help with strategic planning, track communications and even monitor individual team member performance so you know who to support.??The initial investment would not only be covered by the time saved, but ultimately more revenue would be generated as a result of the initial outlay.??This level of risk and reward decision takes a Growth Mindset.

Which Mindset Do You Have??

Self-awareness may be seen as new-age, or “soft science” but to identify your mindset, it is necessary to take a step back and look at your thinking.?By becoming self-aware, you can identify what motivates you and your decision making process.

You can identify your mindset by:

• Taking a personality test such as the Myers-Briggs or the StrengthsFinder .? By recognising your strengths and weaknesses you can begin to intentionally improve your decision making and begin changing your mindset.
• Writing down what you expect to happen once you make a decision on something.? Later, you can compare the actual results with what you predicted would happen to either prove or disprove your initial thinking.?

An additional benefit of self-awareness is effective team building.? By knowing your own strengths and weaknesses, you can build a team whose strengths compliment and balance yours.?

Fixed Mindset Checklist?

There’s no better time to catch the thoughts keeping you stuck in a fixed mindset, than when something challenging happens or you have a big decision to make.??

Take a little time when you get home, or when you are somewhere quiet and you can reflect on the situation, to check in with this Fixed Mindset checklist, to see if any of your habitual thinking errors can be identified.?

• Black-and-white thinking:? Seeing things as good or bad with no in-between
• Over generalising: Drawing negative conclusions about ourselves, others, and situations based on limited evidence.
• Personalising: ?Feeling responsible for things that aren’t your fault or taking other people’s responses to something personally
• Filtering:? Negative attitudes we learn from our family or friends about ourselves, others and the world can influence how we perceive an experience
• Jumping to (negative) conclusions:? In spite of limited evidence
• Mind reading:? Jumping to conclusions based on the assumption we know what others are thinking
• Blaming:? When others let us down, we blame them for their faults which creates resentment but doesn’t solve the problem
• Labelling:? We all make mistakes.? Calling yourself stupid or useless, a loser or incompetent ignores the fact we are all human.?
• Catastrophizing: Habitually focusing on negative possibilities i.e “What if?”
• Comparing: ?Can make us feel inadequate or bitter as there is always someone smarter or more successful.

Eventually you’ll start recognising these Fixed Mindset habits at the exact moment they come up and you can make a different choice, one of a Growth Mindset.? The first step is to recognise them.

I’ve Recognised My Fixed Thinking, Now What?

Socratic Questioning is an ancient and incredibly effective way of debunking our faulty thoughts.

The aim is to hold our thinking errors up to logical scrutiny, identify evidence that discredits them and replace it with a Growth Mindset perspective.

1. What are the actual facts of the situation, and what are my subjective assumptions?
2. What evidence supports my assumptions?
3. What evidence contradicts my assumptions?
4. Am I making any thinking errors from the Fixed Mindset Checklist?
5. What is a better way to perceive this situation?

In time, this reassessment will become a habit and your old Fixed Mindset will begin to be replaced with a more productive choice almost immediately as the old thinking arises.

Be Your Own Coach

By monitoring your self-talk and challenging your? thinking, you can retrain your mind. Just as a computer has a hard drive running in the background, your brain is constantly reassessing your beliefs, memories and thoughts in your subconscious mind.??By taking stock of how you are thinking, you can start to pull limiting thinking habits into line.?

How to Level Up to a Growth Mindset

The good news is you can change your mindset from a self-limiting Fixed Mindset to a Growth one. The first step is self-awareness, the next is knowing you have a choice.?Once you recognise that your thinking is that of a Fixed Mindset view, you can make the choice to put in the effort required to change it and watch your business skyrocket as a result.

In every business, there will always be setbacks, fluctuations in cash flow, decisions to make about investments and client and employee relationships to navigate. ?

A Growth Mindset is paramount to give you the strong and resilient foundation you need to deal with anything that inevitably comes your way.