Skills for Success - but not without a Growth Mindset

If you have followed me a while you would have read the articles I wrote about some of the key skills I believe are critical to be successful in business, and life in general. These covered teachability, active listening and resilience. My articles have all offered tips on how to develop these skillsets and make yourself more successful. There is one thing that is, however, very crucial in determining whether any of those tips will work for you, and that is your mindset. 

Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset?

People with a fixed mindset believe that their qualities are fixed, they will always have the same abilities, and no training will change what qualities or talent they are born with. Your abilities are permanent, you either “have it or you don’t”. Someone with a fixed mindset could have, for example, read my article on active listening and just concluded that they are not a great listener, and that's it.

Someone with a growth mindset, on the other hand, believes that you can always develop, learn new skills and become talented with time, feedback, and putting in hard work. If you have a growth mindset you would have perhaps read my active listening article, and started thinking of ways you could implement better listening into your life etc.

What do these mindsets mean in a wider context?

You might have already guessed from the definitions above which mindset is better when trying to learn new skills. In general, when someone with a fixed mindset believes that their talent is inherent they are less likely to put in any effort in learning new skills or trying to change. However, someone with a growth mindset would arguably work harder and put in extra time because they genuinely believe they can improve on their talent. I’m sure we all know the answer any employer would give if asked which one out of the above they would rather hire.

A growth mindset is the winner here. It has been linked with many other benefits, such as higher motivation; greater goal setting; lower stress, anxiety and depression; better work performance; improved relationships; and higher enjoyment and fulfilment of life in general.

When you operate with a fixed mindset, you are more likely to avoid challenging situations, and therefore also miss out on opportunities for development and growth. If you always avoid things because of the fear of embarrassment or failure you will inevitably miss out on a lot of experiences in life.

How can you develop your growth mindset?

There are many ways parents and teachers can help foster growth mindset in children from early on or even accidentally support the development of a fixed mindset by just the wording they use (you can read more here).

But what about us adults who may have had a fixed mindset for a long time?

The growth mindset researcher Carol Dweck said; “Mindsets are just beliefs. They’re powerful beliefs, but they’re just something in your mind, and you can change your mind."

Some of the ways you can try are below;

1.      Understand what growth mindset is and pay attention to your own thoughts

-Just learning about growth mindset can already change how you view yourself and make you notice this shift more. Pay attention to your thoughts in the face of a challenge and change your wording to “I can learn to do this”, rather than “I will fail at this”

2.      Acknowledge and embrace imperfection

-You need to accept that you won’t be an expert in everything but not let that stop you from trying something that you might not be good at right away

3.      Ask for feedback and don’t be afraid of receiving constructive feedback

-In order to learn new skills you will have to appreciate the feedback from experts along the way and use this feedback to propel you forward and not let it demotivate you

4. Be persistent

-The ability to persist and overcome setbacks is part of having a growth mindset (you can read my article on resilience here.) Also, it will take time to change your mindset if you have had a fixed mindset for a long time so being persistent with changing your way of thinking will also be crucial

5.       Choose the difficult tasks and take risks

-Push yourself to learn a new skill or tackle a new task rather than avoid them. This might be uncomfortable at first but stretching yourself can lead to more confidence and curiosity over time

6.       Praise yourself for effort

-Reward your hard work as this will allow you to focus on the benefits of the effort, rather than just concentrate on the achievements and abilities you already naturally had

I believe that you can have both a fixed and growth mindset depending on the aspect of your life. Personally I am convinced I can become a faster runner if I just keep training (even though I was not born fast!). However, I always find myself saying that "I'm bad with excel" instead of focusing on learning skills to become an excel wizard! The key here is to pay attention to your thoughts and remind yourself of these mindset differences.

It's useful for all of us to evaluate which mindset we currently hold (there are numerous quizzes online if you are unsure). I challenge you to find out and start shifting it to the growth side to reap the benefits of learning.

We live in a world that's constantly changing so why not change your mindset in order to change your skillset.