A growth mindset is a new word, a new trend evolving very fast in today’s world. More and more companies are looking for growth mindsets among their employees rather than fixed mindsets to get better outputs.
But do we know what to look for in a growth mindset? Many of us are not sure about it. Many misconceptions may be going on in our minds regarding the growth mindset. Briefly speaking, those individuals who believe that they can develop their talent through hard work, good strategies, and input from others have a growth mindset. In comparison, people with a fixed mindset believe that they have innate talents and don’t need further development or any pieces of advice from anybody.
People with a growth mindset tend to achieve more success than fixed mindset people as they don’t need to worry about looking smart and invest more time in learning and upgrading themselves. Moreover, companies also benefit a lot if they work with growth mindset people, as they will get more empowered and committed employees. At the same time, people with a fixed mindset tend to adopt the wrong path like cheating, deceiving others to achieve their goals selfishly.
Let us look into three common misconceptions we hear about the growth mindset:
- If you are open-minded, having a positive outlook does not necessarily mean that you have a growth mindset. A person cannot have only a growth mindset. It is always a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets. So, accept it and know which one to apply where to get the full benefit.
- Growth mindsets cannot be developed just by praising and rewarding. It is very much important to recognize or reward not just the result but also the effort and the progress. If the outcome was not expected, recognition should also be there for all the efforts.
- You need to implement the system which will encourage a growth mindset like taking risks even it may bring a failure, collaborations among the employees rather than competition among them. The companies should be committed to growth in all the members, not just giving a fake promise. They must continuously encourage the growth mindset with concrete policies.
One more hindrance that might be stopping the growth mindset is the mentality to accept your fault and correct it. It has been found that in most cases, when we are criticized or being challenged by others, we tend to go back to the fixed mindset and tend to fall into defensiveness and insecurity. To continue growing, we must work with all these issues and come out of the fixed mindset that we unknowingly carry with us.
It is a lot of hard work, but companies and individuals can gain a lot by developing this growth mindset and the proper process to put them into practice.