Some of us have set ourselves some audacious goals and objectives for the year ahead. In order to sustain the effort of achieving them, you need to cultivate a growth mindset.
In my practice as a coach, I am encouraged to “develop and maintain a mindset that is open, curious, flexible” and to be engaged “in ongoing learning and development” as well as “ongoing reflective practice.” (ICF)
You can also apply the same principles in your learning and development journey. So, take a moment to reflect on how you’re embodying a learning and development mindset. And how do you know when you’re not?
Carol Dweck, researcher and author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success outlines two approaches to learning based on her extensive research:
- Fixed mindset:
Dweck states, “Believing that your qualities are carved in stone—the fixed mindset—creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral character—well then you’d better prove that you have a healthy dose of them. It simply wouldn’t do to look or feel deficient in these most basic characteristics” (p. 6). From this perspective, it’s easy to let ego be your motivator and to shy away from challenges for fear of failure or appearing “less than.” Who wants to feel embarrassed or humiliated in front of others? Yet these fears or concerns can lead to avoidance of challenges and new experiences that could support growth and development. - Growth mindset:
The growth mindset is “based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way—in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments—everyone can change and grow through application and experience” (p. 6-7). From this perspective, new skills and competencies can be learned through effort and determination; wisdom and intelligence can be developed with each new experience; and ideas, beliefs and ways of being can evolve. We are human beings after all. In my coaching practice, I adopt a posture of a growth mindset with my clients – one that they (and myself) can cultivate. In adopting a growth mindset, I engage with clients in supporting them to reframe what it means to “fail.” The aim of the mantra popularised in the agile space of Silicon Valley’s start-ups—”fail fast, fail often”—is not to fail, but rather to be iterative. But we need a psychologically safe space for deliberate reflective, creative and critical thinking, otherwise learning through the iterative process can’t take place. Often what happens when there’s a time element involved, especially a requirement to “get a product to market”, is that the learning piece gets missed. Yet “failing” in the positive sense is all about learning and growth—learning from mistakes as you tweak, recalibrate and redo as required.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had quite a few of these moments over the last number of months. I have positioned some questions below for your to consider:
- What might be possible if you gave yourself permission and the opportunity, to learn through an “epic fail”? What epic learning could you then access?
- How could you lean into Brené Brown’s “normalisation of discomfort and uncertainty, embracing vulnerability” and put yourself out there to learn all along the way?
- What if, instead of “fail fast, fail often” the approach became “learn fast, learn often”?
I position below some ways in which you can actively cultivate a growth mindset. Give them a go!
- Learn fast, learn often. Make it a habit to engage in reflective practice to learn from, and through, your experiences.
- Shift your thinking by embracing the concept of yet. For example, what do you notice shifting in yourself when you reframe “I can’t do this” as “I can’t do this—yet”? Or “I don’t know _______” to “I don’t know _______ yet”?
- Embrace the concept of ‘beginner’s mind’—a term from Japanese Zen philosophy that refers to young children whose minds are open to all possibilities. Children are learning new things daily. Try channelling your inner child’s curiosity by asking yourself “I wonder what could be possible if I _______?”
- Become more aware of when you “should all over yourself”. This is when you say something like “I should be able to _______”. Such a stance is evaluative and somewhat fixed.
- Shift your focus from challenges to benefits. This means focusing on how you will benefit from less appealing tasks as a way to increase your motivation to do less appealing things.
- Regularly challenge your biases, assumptions and beliefs.
- Acknowledge and embrace imperfection. We each have flaws, weirdness and peculiarities that make us uniquely us.
In conclusion:
A growth mindset requires openness, aspiration (a hope or ambition of achieving something), self-awareness, curiosity, and vulnerability.
Action: What is one thing that you can do more purposefully to cultivate your growth mindset?
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References:
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Ballantine Books.
Brené Brown, March 20, 2020. Unlocking Us podcast: Brené on FFTs. https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-on-ffts/