The professional game changer: Growth Mindset

Research pioneered by Stanford University Professor, Carol Dweck, shows that our mindsets have the biggest impact on our development and future success. Essentially, a growth mindset is the belief that our abilities can be cultivated over time. Mistakes, challenges, feedback, and effort are all a part of the process, which helps us to grow and learn. The process towards learning and growing, even when it feels uncomfortable, is a good thing. A fixed mindset is a belief that we are either good at something or not. Mistakes, challenges, feedback, and effort are perceived as threats to our belief in our innate abilities, and therefore, any threat should be avoided.

What does this mean for me?

As a professional, it is massively useful to have a growth mindset because this allows you to adapt and learn throughout your career. If you believe your abilities and interests can be cultivated over time the possibilities for you are endless. If, on the other hand, you believe that your abilities and interests are fixed then you will be stuck doing the same types of things with a limited ceiling for advancement or transition.

STEP 1: SELF AWARENESS

How can you build your growth mindset skills? The first step is growing your self-awareness by identifying the things that trigger a fixed mindset response.

Let's do a simple exercise. Read through the following scenarios and jot down (a) how this makes you feel and (b) what your inner voice says to you.

1. Your job title implies that you are subject matter expert in {insert subject here}. Someone asks you a question about it and you don't have an answer.
2. You are supposed to present to a panel of experts about {insert topic}.
3. You spoke up in a meeting and said the wrong thing.
4. You didn't get the job you interviewed for.
5. You were advised to follow your passion and are struggling with certain tasks.
6. You received critical feedback from your boss or colleague.
7. You gave feedback to a colleague and they reacted badly.

Most of us are not all growth mindset or all fixed mindset. We all operate on a continuum. In some cases, we are fixed and in some cases, we are open to challenges and growth. Much of this is driven by our emotional brain, which is triggered when we feel threatened. If any of those above scenarios triggered a feeling of threat aka the "fight or flight" response you probably had a more fixed mindset reaction.

Here is what a fixed mindset can feel and sound like:

Feelings:

Embarrassed, anxious, defeated, sad, stressed, angry, scared, shame, guilt

Inner Voices:

"I am so dumb and now they know it, too. If I were really an expert I'd know this."

"They all know I'm are a fraud."

"Everyone is judging me! I'm not going to speak up anymore."

"No one is going to hire me. Something is wrong with me."

"This is hard so it must not be my passion. Abandon ship!"

"They hate me. Time to quit."

"I stink at confrontation. Better keep quiet from now on."

"Why even bother? I'm just not good enough."

Do any of those voices sound familiar? You are not alone! We all think and feel this way from time to time. What's important is how we respond to it, not how we hide it.

STEP 2: OPPORTUNITY TO GROW

So now that you have identified some scenarios that make you uncomfortable what else can you do? While our emotional brain triggers our "fight or flight" response, our thinking brain is in charge of language, memory, and reasoning. In step 1, we developed our self-awareness skills and now that we have an idea of what triggers us, we can work on re-routing those emotional responses to our thinking brain using the simple formula of:

Situation + Behavior= Result

Was our behavior productive? If not, let's use this as an opportunity to grow.

Write down one opportunity for learning or growth that you are going to execute TODAY. This is not hypothetical, you will do this. When, where and how will you embrace this opportunity?

Example: "Talking to new people really intimidates me. Today I will introduce myself to one new person who works in a field that interests me. I will ask them what they like about their field and what skills they need to be successful."

STEP 3: LET'S KEEP GROWING

Review today's opportunity to grow.

1. I accomplished my opportunity to grow. Why was I successful? And how can I replicate this in the future? Now let's make a new challenge for tomorrow.
2. I had a roadblock. Based on what I learned today how can I improve my idea for tomorrow? What behaviors that I control got in my way? What is in my control to adjust tomorrow?

CONCLUSION: THIS IS TOUGH WORK, KEEP GOING!

As the above picture so brilliantly illustrates, success and implementing a growth mindset is not linear. You are going to have roadblocks, failures, and mistakes. Accept that this will happen and be confident in the knowledge that you now have a secret weapon--Growth Mindset! Use each opportunity to reflect and grow even if you don't get it right every time.

And finally, have a growth mindset about having a growth mindset! We all have a fixed mindset from time to time. When it shows up invite it on your growth mindset journey. When we try to ignore, suppress or hide our fixed mindset that leads to feelings of guilt, embarrassment, and shame. What's important is how we respond to it, not how we hide it.