In business, fixed and growth mindsets are often discussed as hurdles or springboards to success. These ways of thinking are all about how you see potential. Adopting a growth mindset allows you to see your knowledge and skills as susceptible to being nurtured and developed.
Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford, spent decades studying the mechanics of mindset, and how it can impact our personal growth. She notes: “For some people, failure is the end of the world—but for others, it’s this exciting new opportunity.” Dweck defines the ultimate difference between a fixed and growth mindset as follows:
A growth mindset is “the belief that an individual’s most basic abilities and skills can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point.”
A fixed mindset is “the belief that an individual’s basic abilities and skills, their intelligence and their talents, are just fixed traits.”
One of the main essential steps for nurturing a growth mindset is to rewire your perspective on failure. Starting to see failures as learning opportunities, rather than as setbacks, will enable you to feel confident in taking calculated risks, that might help your company reach its true potential.
And being prepared for failure by accepting it as part of your journey will help you to build resilience to weather you through the tougher times your business may face.
Those with a growth mindset often succeed because they are consistently finding avenues for growth and not settling into complacency. Set targeted, focused goals based on where you want to get to and create a roadmap detailing exactly how you are going to get there, taking into account how you’re going to overcome obstacles on the way.
You are the only one who can nurture your mindset. If you want to have a growth mindset, you need to be intentional and proactive about it. You can do this by reading books or articles about topics around your goals, listening to podcasts or content, and attending training workshops or seminars to grow your skills.
Accountability is key to growth, so be 100% accountable. If you’re not willing to accept responsibility, you’ll never grow within your role. As you start to be more accountable to yourself, you’ll also start demonstrating its importance to your team. And as they see you modeling this behavior, it will become part of your company’s culture.
If you want to learn more about how to cultivate a growth mindset, I recommend reading the following books: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck and The Growth Mindset Play
