When Everyone Leads - Growth Mindset
You have a choice. You can accept the status quo or you can step up and become the leader you are looking for.
Stop waiting and start leading. Leadership is not bestowed. It is not a title. It is earned through action and example.
“Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.”
~ John C. Maxwell ~
This series of articles is not about what your leaders need to do to turn you into a leader. This series is about what you can do for yourself to become a leader in your own right. Wherever you sit within an organisation, you can lead.
Magic happens when everyone leads.
This is the fifth article in this series about everyone’s ability to lead.
If you have read this far, and you are committed to being a leader, then you probably want to learn how to fulfil your potential. You will need a growth mindset.
In this article we will explore the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset and how to move to the former.
Growth mindset
After studying the behaviour of thousands of children, Carol Dweck, Ph.D., coined the terms fixed mindset and growth mindset. These mindsets describe how we view our intelligence and personality. Dweck wrote about these mindsets in her 2007 publication Mindset: The new psychology of success.
With a fixed mindset, you believe you have finite amounts of characteristics: intelligence, personality, morality etc. You feel the need to prove yourself in order to demonstrate that you have these characteristics—and enough of them.
With a growth mindset, you believe you have basic qualities and characteristics. You differ from others in regards to your inherent talents, aptitudes, interests and disposition, but with a growth mindset, you believe that you can change and grow.
Here is an example to demonstrate the difference between a fixed and growth mindset that I used in my 2020 publication “Unleash the Resiliator Within. Resilience: A Handbook for Leaders.”
It’s performance-review time with your boss. Upon reflection, you believe you did really well; however, your boss doesn’t have the same opinion and believes you have areas for self- development. You are upset.
On the way home from work, you get a flat tire and have to call for roadside assistance, which takes forever to arrive and means you arrive home late.
When you get home, you call one of your siblings to discuss your day and your frustration but you feel you are being given the cold shoulder, which makes your day worse.
You can consider the events of your day in two ways. With a fixed mindset, you are likely to tell yourself:
I’m a failure.
I’m stupid.
I’m going nowhere.
I’m on my own.
No-one cares.
With a growth mindset, you are likely to tell yourself:
I need to follow the advice of my boss and work harder in some areas of my development.
I need to get my car serviced more often and get my wheels aligned.
I need to learn how to change a tire myself and check my spare tire is in good condition.
I wonder if my sibling also had a bad day; maybe worse than mine.
So, given that the majority of us would like to operate with a growth mindset: what would be your coping strategies in the above situation?
You could start by:
Working harder on professional development or finding alternative ways of working towards a goal.
Putting in place a development plan.
Calling your sibling to check they are okay.
Schedule time to learn basic car maintenance skills.
People with a growth mindset don’t throw their hands up in despair. They can be get just as upset or frustrated as those with a fixed mindset, but they choose to meet the challenges head on, work at overcoming them, and invest in personal development and growth.
A fixed mindset is about validation. A growth mindset is about development.
You have a choice: just as you can change your mind, you can change your beliefs. You can either believe that your intellect and abilities are static or believe that they can evolve and grow.
The weakness of a fixed mindset
People with a fixed mindset:
Rarely shine
Give up after a couple of failures
Are humiliated by failure
Avoid challenges
Believe that putting in the effort to learn is pointless
Are threatened by the success of others
Are envious of the success of others.
The supremacy of a growth mindset
People with a growth mindset:
Shine
Believe that hard work and commitment enable growth
Want to learn
Embrace challenges
Persevere
Are resilient
Are inspired by the success of others
Embrace hard work and effort
Learn from the success of others
Continually grow
Succeed
Achieve
Are more productive
Have better relationships.
Change your mindset
You can test your mindset to discover if you have a fixed or growth mindset.
Change your mindset using the following steps:
Understand it
Understand how the brain works. The brain is a muscle and the more you practice the stronger that muscle becomes. In 1998, scientists discovered that the brain is plastic (neuroplasticity), and that it changes constantly throughout its life. When we think, act, learn and develop, the brain’s anatomy changes accordingly—it grows new brain cells. So the bottom line is “use it or lose it.”
Recognise it
Recognise when you have a fixed mindset about something.
When you face a challenge, the inner voice of a fixed mindset will say, “Are you sure you can do this?” “What if you fail?” “People will laugh at you.” “Don’t do it and save face.”
When you have a setback, the inner voice of a fixed mindset will say, “I told you so.”
When you face criticism, the inner voice of a fixed mindset will say, “Who do they think they are?”
Change it
Recognise that you can change it. You have a choice. You can keep the fixed mindset and the perils it brings or you can interpret the setbacks, criticism and challenges with a growth mindset. You can see them as signs that you can improve and develop. You can embrace the challenge, propel yourself towards new goals, and rise to the top.
Talk to it
When you hear your fixed mindset saying, “You will fail,” retort
with “The most successful people have had failures.”
When you hear your fixed mindset saying, “I don’t want to fail,” retort with “I will learn through failure and be stronger for it.”
When you hear your fixed mindset saying, “It wasn’t my fault,” retort with “I can only fix it if I take responsibility for it.”
When you hear your fixed mindset saying, “If I had the talent this would have been a breeze,” retort with “That is so wrong. Soccer wasn’t easy for Ronaldinho. Writing wasn’t easy to J.K. Rowling. They both had passion and put in the hard work and effort.”
When you hear your fixed mindset saying, “I can’t do it,” retort with “I can’t do it now but I can learn to do it with time and hard work.”
Act on it
When you hear the fixed mindset talking, you can respond with a growth mindset and determine the actions you need to take to learn and grow.
You can view failure as a learning opportunity.
You can acknowledge your skills and talents.
You can ask others for feedback so you can identify areas for growth.
You can see challenges as opportunities rather than problems.
You can become curious and develop an appetite for learning.
You can choose not to focus on what happened to you but on what is happening to you.
You can recognise that setbacks are temporary and there is another way to get to where you want to go.
You can celebrate the successes of others. Reap what you sow.
You can practice. Moving from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset will take practice.
You can keep on setting goals for growth. Keep seeking out opportunities for learning and development.
You can maintain and continue the growth.
Summary
Developing growth mindset behaviour, will not only improve your ability to manage your personal growth, but also influence others around your and transform yourself as a leader.