Let's start at the beginning: Carol Dweck, an American scientist found out about the phenomenon of the so-called "growth mindset" when she was doing an experiment with pupils. Whilst one group of students was frustrated when getting confronted with a hard puzzle, other students were excited about the challenge. "I love a challenge" or "This was what I was hoping for: I can learn something."
She concluded that there are 2 kinds of mindsets: a (1) fixed mindset, and a (2) growth mindset.
A growth mindset is not only a mindset, it’s also an attitude. An attitude that says: “I can learn and develop my talents.” It means that you believe that success comes from persistent effort of working on challenges.
The opposite is a fixed mindset, this believes that a persons’ talents or abilities are fixed, and therefore cannot be changed or learned. People who have a fixed mindset see problems as failures and are quick to give up instead of approaching the challenge again from a different direction.*
Let’s have a look how a growth mindset influences the performance of teams:
When working together, teams with growth mindsets have a higher level of trust. They do not view their colleagues as competition and are more likely to share their learnings in a group. They are more open to new ideas and perspectives from their team members and are more willing to cooperate and reach the best performance as a team rather than as an individual.
Teams with a growth mindset also recover better from setbacks. Mistakes happen and will always happen. The question is how you react to them. Instead of viewing mistakes as an outcome of poor skills or performance, teams with a growth mindset see the big potential of learning and adjustments for next time. People with a growth mindset have the ability to turn mistakes into better performance in the future.
The mindset has a big influence on how people respond to feedback. Whereas people with a fixed mindset often have difficulties with accepting feedback, people with a growth mindset see it as an opportunity to grow and improve.
Growth mindset teams take on new challenges and see extra effort as a way to achieve success. They enjoy going the extra mile. That is why they often have a clear performance advantage compared to teams that stick to fixed mindsets.
How can leaders encourage a growth mindset in their team?
The growth mindset leader believes that everyone's true potential is unknown, everything is possible with coaching, learning, and developing. Leaders that encourage a growth mindset will motivate their team to innovate and think out of the box. They will encourage their team members to take risks and develop a culture in which mistakes are allowed and also a good thing in order to improve next time.
They will ask their team members for feedback and encourage a culture in which open and honest communication is valued. As a result, the team members can develop and work in an atmosphere in which they can share problems and trust others.
Leaders with a growth mindset see that growth of their employees means growth of their business. That’s why continuous learning and improvement of their team members is so important for them. They encourage their team members to try something new, innovate and grow as much as possible. The trust in their teams allows them to focus more on the future of the business, instead of micromanaging every task of their employees.
Understanding the importance of mindset is crucial to helping businesses build a high performance culture. When employees and their leaders have a growth mindset, their business environment will be a lot healthier than one with a fixed mindset. People feel valued and trusted, which in turn leads to more innovation and a lower turnover rate. By developing and growing the employees’ skills and abilities, the business will be set for growth and it’s potential will truly be unlimited.
*https://hbr.org/2016/01/what-having-a-growth-mindset-actually-means
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