What your mindset can do for you..#GrowthMindset

It was some months ago when I attended a meeting at my children’s school and the topic of conversation that was discussed was mindset: and how we should all try to adopt and encourage a growth mindset.

Forever intrigued by matters of the mind I decided to explore the background behind the theory and the benefits. Not just for educational purposes but also to discover how it can be applied in our daily lives both at home and within the workplace.

A deeply discussed and researched subject forever evolving and with particular expertise offered by the likes of Carol Dweck and also similarly talked of but within differing parameters and defined as ‘grit’ by Angela Duckworth.

What is a growth mindset?

Carol Dweck says, ‘Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies and input from others) have a growth mindset.’

What was discovered when adopting a growth mindset?

Through implementing a growth mindset culture within classrooms in America (putting aside location and ability) dramatic rises were seen both in performance and achievement in those classrooms. Children were all seen as equals and were given equal opportunities in their climb to improvement.

They were given the belief that they could achieve all tasks with the right support and guidance-and they did just that.

Convert this theory into your relationships, your workplace and your own mind and imagine the results?

When faced with a challenge what would be your default mode?

You're set a task and you don’t do as well as you thought you might. You struggle- it’s a new area that you’ve not worked on before, perhaps in a different pay grade or usually a higher position individual would tackle such a project.

Do you see your defeat and give up or do you decide that you will persist and find out how you can get it right in time? Do you seek the support from leaders and peers? Or do you give up and decide it’s not for you?

How adopting a growth mindset can impact and influence your workplace culture?

You can apply this theory to yourself but also to positively affect those around you. Having a growth mindset can have an instrumental impact on the culture within your workplace too. Imagine if we all decided that with effort, guidance and strength to adopt a growth mindset how that could influence productivity and motivation?

Confidence would increase and therefore when we feel confident we can show resilience and perseverance and create a path that may not otherwise have existed.

If employees and leaders all choose this mindset by default then the possibilities are limitless.

In an article published by Harvard Business review about workplace culture it discusses the influence of a performance based culture versus that of a growth culture. It finds, ‘By contrast, a performance-drive culture, often exacerbates people’s fears by creating up a zero-sum game in which people are either succeeding or failing and “winners” quickly get weeded out from “losers.”  Results also matter in growth cultures, but in addition to rewarding success, they also treat failures and shortcomings as critical opportunities for learning and improving, individually and collectively.’

The benefits of a growth mindset

Through creating a supportive environment and offering guidance: by choosing a growth mindset you can;

·     Enhance your professional possibilities and your relationships

·     Gain further belief in your own abilities and that of others and what you can achieve

·     Understand that there is always room for growth

·     Have greater production through new found confidence and motivation

·     Boost confidence

·     Increase yours and others motivation

To conclude

We can choose our path, we can choose our attitude and we can choose how we react to success and indeed failure. Mindset is fluid and triggers can set our minds on certain responses in particular circumstances.

By adopting a mindset that allows us to be resilient through change and difficulties then our successes will be greater and our learnings will increase and our boundaries become limitless.

Correlate the mindset with business strategy and productivity alongside motivation and you can see how this has the potential to have a real business impact.

If you haven't achieved your goals rephrase it to: you haven't 'yet' achieved your goals.

As Carol Dweck says in her TedTalk -choose ‘yet’.

You may not have achieved it ‘yet’ - but you will.

How does your mindset impact you in your daily life? Or within the workplace? What is your workplace culture?

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You can follow me on LinkedIn Amber L Smith, Twitter @Simplyamberlou and find all of my articles on my wordpress site

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