The importance of Mindset

Dweck is a Professor of Psychology who has spent decades researching the theory that “the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life” and in 2006 published “Mindset”. Her notion is that people have one of two mindsets. Someone with a fixed mindset believes that our abilities are set in stone – that we’re given certain talents and intelligence, and that’s it. Someone with a growth mindset believes that the hand we are dealt is just a starting point for development, and that our basic abilities can be cultivated through effort.

The importance of understanding this in a leadership context can't be underestimated, and it's also incredibly valuable to understand how we motivate ourselves. Dweck’s book is divided into sections that demonstrate the impact of different mindsets in different settings (sports, business, relationships and parenting / teaching). There are too many examples for me to summarise here, but a couple that demonstrate the difference between a Fixed and Growth mindset are:

· John McEnroe who had a fixed mindset. He believed talent was all, and did not thrive on challenges. When the going got tough, he often crumbled. His talent was so great that he was Number One for years, but he couldn’t bear failure. As an example, in 1979 he played mixed doubles at Wimbledon but lost in 3 straight sets – he didn’t play mixed doubles again for 20 years. He now admits that he didn’t really fulfil his potential, that he lacked confidence and self-esteem (which he covered up with aggressive behaviour), and rather than reflecting on his failures and trying to work out how to improve, he blamed others.

· Michael Jordan, on the other hand, had a growth mindset. He struggled, and admits to being only human, not inherently better than others. He was cut from the high school team and wasn’t recruited by the college he wanted to play for, or the first two NBS teams that he approached. His mother told him to go back and discipline himself, so he worked constantly to practise and improve. He’s been described as “a genius who constantly wants to upgrade his genius”, even at the height of his career. People look at him and see physical perfection that lead to greatness, but for him, his mental toughness and dedication made him stronger than his physical advantages.

Dweck gives us other examples of individuals that we now think of as incredibly successful but weren't always that way - except they had a growth mindset: apparently Einstein was called the dummy in his family; and Jay-Z was rejected by so many record labels that he had to start his own.

She also gives the example of Enron when describing the downsides of a fixed mindset. She explains how in the ‘90s the corporate world valued “talent” – the mindset being that there were “naturals” in business - and Enron went about recruiting this big talent. Nothing wrong with this per se, but it created a culture that worshipped talent, therefore forcing employees into a fixed mindset (if I don’t succeed every time, I am not talented). It also meant that when things started going wrong, no-one would stand up and admit it or self-correct. And we all know where that ended.

To me, the difference in these mindsets ties in to Imposter Syndrome (something I come across regularly in my work). As Dweck says, the growth mindset notion (that cherished qualities can be developed) creates a passion for learning, allowing people to thrive during some of their most challenging times (I won’t hide my deficiencies, I will overcome them!) and if more of us had this mindset it would surely help to overcome Imposter Syndrome – the focus wouldn’t be on hiding what I think I might not be very good at, pretending to be something I don’t think I am, but to concentrate on becoming the best I can be. [see here if you want to read more about how to manage imposter syndrome]

Impact of a Growth Mindset

Dweck shares a powerful example of the positive impact of a growth mindset when telling the story of two psychologists, Robert Wood & Albert Bandura, who in 1989 created a simulation for management students. They gave the students tough management tasks (allocating workers, motivating them, acting on feedback) and divided them into two groups – fixed mindset and growth mindset. The fixed mindsetters were told that the tasks measured their basic underlying abilities. The growth mindsetters were told that their management skills were developed through practice and that the task would give them an opportunity to cultivate those skills.

What do you think happened? Those that were told that it was a learning experience (the growth mindset):

· Learned more

· Looked at their mistakes

· Used feedback and altered their strategies accordingly

· Enjoyed the task more

· Were more productive

What do we learn from this?

· Those with a fixed mindset believe intelligence, talents and skills are inherent and unchangeable. Some people are superior, and others are inferior. A leader with a fixed mindset will do everything they can to affirm their own superiority, always needing to be the smartest in the room. They don’t like trying new things because the risk of failure looms large.

· In contrast, those with a growth mindset don’t see intelligence, talents and skills as fixed or stable. Rather, they see themselves, and others, as having potential. They are therefore more resilient and happier, as well as being successful.

What does a leader with a growth mindset look like?

Throughout her book Dweck gives us many examples of how those with a growth mindset will act. From these, I’ve pulled out some tips of how to be a leader with a growth mindset, and how to encourage it in those we manage:

· Listen to others, encourage discourse and debate, nurturing the opinions of others.

· Challenge hierarchy: it’s not just the select few that have something to offer i.e. encourage “wethink” as opposed to “groupthink” (where everyone agrees with “the boss”, and no-one challenges).

· When developing others, don’t just praise performance – praise initiative, seeing a difficult task through, struggling and learning something new, being undaunted by a setback, or being open to and acting on criticism.

· Talk about growth mindset – present skills as learnable, value learning and perseverance, not just ready-made genius or talent, give feedback in a way that promotes learning.

Do you recognise these qualities in yourself, or anyone around you? In case you weren’t already aware, the mindset you have when facing challenges is key to your success! Have a think about what your mindset is – it’s ok if you think you have a fixed mindset – the key is whether that’s what you WANT to have…. because you don’t have to stay with that.

How do we change?

Of course it’s great to think we want to change – but how do we go about that? Sometimes our fixed mindset stands in the way of change. As Dweck explains, a fixed mindset creates an internal monologue that’s focused on judging (a “judge-and-be-judged” framework) – and someone holding on to this fixed mindset usually does so because it's served some purpose (telling them who they were or wanted to be, and how to get there). A growth mindset is more compassionate (a “learn-and-help-learn” framework) (that ties into another book I’m reading – Resilience – more on that in due course) but it’s also hard work recognising that change might be needed – and then thinking about how to go about it.

Dweck talks about how she changed her own mindset from fixed to growth, but also acknowledges that someone’s fixed mindset might tell them all sorts of things that keep them in that mindset (e.g. if you’re strong and have willpower you can do it, if you’re weak and don’t have willpower, you can’t – Dweck points out that even willpower needs help and strategies).

The point linked to this is that change requires effort – as Dweck notes, this isn’t about making New Year’s resolutions and waiting to see if you stick to them. It requires planning and thinking, including how you will cope with setbacks. What concrete plans will you develop? When, where and how will you follow through on your plan? These are the steps that need visualising.

As a final point on this, it’s worth noting that our brains are extremely effective in tenaciously maintaining the status quo. Mount Eliza Business School carried out a study on change initiatives and found that 70% fail because of people resistance – not because they weren’t good business ideas. But the science of neuroplasticity tells us that we CAN change our behaviour IF we put awareness, effort and commitment into making it happen. It is unlikely to happen if we just hope it will.

Luckily there are strategies we can use to get our brains to help us rather than hinder us (such as the when, where and how planning mentioned by Dweck) – and yet there might still be a voice inside chattering away that challenges us. That's where coaching can come in - helping you identify the when, where and how you will make change, and identifying and learning to manage the barriers we might put up in the process.

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