Why Having a Growth Mindset is the Key to Upskilling.

“Security today no longer lies in the old psychological contract of lifetime employment. Security lies in the ability to continue producing what the marketplace wants, and those wants are constantly changing. Unless people learn, grow, and progress to accommodate the market, there can be no security. Our personal development should be relevant to the economy, the industry, the company, and our current assignment.” - Stephen R. Covey in his book Primary Greatness.

The area of growth in our careers has always been a fascinating topic for me. Because I’ve been a firm believer that we all have the ability to grow and do new things, even after being in the same job for years. For many of us, the ambition for change is real, but the path to new heights can sometimes be cluttered with misinformation disguised as a popular workplace trend (ahem, quiet quitting). It’s more helpful when we get researched data that provides a legitimate strategic approach to career change. Asking the right questions is imperative. What specific jobs are on the rise? What related skills are in high demand now and in the near future? How should we begin thinking about the shift we need to make when it comes to a career change or evolving in our current roles?

Luckily, LinkedIn provided us with a head start to kick off 2024.?

Last month, LinkedIn released its annual list of the top 20 fastest-growing jobs over the past 5 years and other trends that define the future of work in the Canadian workplace. From the rise in roles in cybersecurity to new opportunities in diversity and sustainability, the rankings provide details on where the workforce is heading and actionable insights to help professionals prepare for their next best professional move. According to the research, data shows that skills needed for jobs have changed by 25% since 2015. That’s not all. The data predicts that skills will shift by 65% by 2025. With the implementation of AI technology becoming more commonplace, this means upskilling should be on our ‘to-do’ list sooner than later.

Reading about trending skills and jobs in the workforce and the ever-expanding possibilities of generative AI, it’s easy to have anxiety about our ability to adapt. Is there room for us to grow in this ever-changing work landscape? Is it too late to develop a strategy for personal and professional growth? While it can be tempting to keep things status quo, we should actually embrace a growth mindset. Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck coined the term growth mindset to describe the belief that intelligence and ability can grow with effort. If we believe the brain is a muscle that must be exercised, we’re more likely to interpret challenges as opportunities to learn and improve.?

Simply put, a growth mindset is when we believe our talents aren’t innate and can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and input from others. We end up achieving more than those with a ‘fixed mindset’ because we believe the key to success is in our ability to learn and grow after experiencing setbacks. With a growth mindset, any experience, whether good or bad, can be used for learning, whereas with a fixed mindset, we accept limiting beliefs about our ability to acquire new skills. Having a growth mindset is one of the most underrated skills to develop, but it’s probably the most important as we start to recreate our professional selves. And recreating ourselves starts with removing limiting beliefs (fixed mindset) and start thinking about new lines of work that might excite us and how to increase our professional value in the job market.

The next step is to dedicate ourselves to the process. The actual work of learning and doing. Which comes with the inevitable “ups and downs” of becoming the new version of ourselves. Olympic Tennis Champion Matthew Syed from Great Britain talked about this process in an interview with Maclean’s magazine: “When we’re beginners, creating the neural framework for any kind of complex task—hitting a golf ball or kicking a football or singing or dancing—we have to exert conscious control to learn the skill because it’s unfamiliar. Neuroscientists have discovered that as you’re building up a skill, your prefrontal cortex is very activated. But over many hours of practice, the skill becomes encoded in implicit memory.” He also added that research has shown the difference between extraordinary performers and everyone else is that they practice more. Not just any practice, but purposeful practice with the right level of focus. When we extend past our personal limitations and receive training with rigorous feedback, we will get the desired results in career advancement.

As mentioned earlier, Dweck is the godmother of the growth mindset concept, and sums up the necessity of pushing through in her book Mindset: “The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”?

There’s one method that PositivePsychology.com co-founder Seph Fontane Pennock believes can help us be resilient during this time. And that’s thinking, journaling, or telling a story of when we felt the most motivated or performed at our best. What factors kept us driven, and how did we stay on course to achieve success? This kind of self-storytelling leads us to picture ourselves at peak performance. It instills self-belief and helps us identify what to focus on or put in place. This increases our chances of experiencing peak performance and develops a system we can consistently draw from.

With the ever-shifting conditions of the job market, we can’t just leave it up to the organizations we work for to provide guidance on how to forge ahead. By fostering a growth mindset, we can stay on top of the changing trends for in-demand skills and technology, and combine it with our purpose and passion to eventually create a career we’re excited to wake up to each day.

Sheldon Barrocks is passionate about personal career well-being, positive psychology, and helping teams find joy in their work. His engaging Smile! It’s Monday newsletter inspires professionals to unleash their full potential by creating purposeful career goals and encourages leaders to build a culture that inspires for organizational success. As an award-winning Supply Chain professional, he's provided creative solutions for major brands like Mars, Kelloggs, General Mills, Conagra, B&G Foods, Ingredion, Henkel and others. Check out his book Unstuck Mondays and join his mailing list to level up in your creativity and career!