How to Implement A Growth Mindset
“Bah-Humbug”, said the ruthless businessman amidst the holiday cheer. A growth mindset isn’t installed overnight, but rather with the right tools. In the beginning of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Ebenzer Scrooge was a scornful, lonely, man, without an ounce of compassion and a severe distaste for the holidays. By the end of the book, he was a generous, reflective man, who sat around the Christmas dinner table surrounded by loved ones. How did he accomplish this in simply a week? Perhaps it was the Christmas spirit, or perhaps, it was a killer growth mindset!
Implementing A Growth Mindset
It’s easy to fall and stay on the ground, and far harder to get back up. So how does one fail forward? A growth mindset is hardly the ability to succeed every time, but rather acknowledging the difficulties ahead and accepting opportunities for improvement. Below are some ways you can inspire your team to implement a growth mindset. We hope these can guide you on your path to a better year.
Pursue challenges. Saying yes to new challenges leads to growth. While this takes us out of our comfort zone, it allows us to build new capabilities and explore new opportunities. Who knows, this could lead to a whole new career or business!
Praise effort, not abilities. Natural intelligence and abilities are great to have, but hard work is learned and this results in new capabilities. Not every employee will be born with a hard work ethic and a keen sense of determination. Therefore, when you see an employee with grit, take time to applaud them on their sharp sense of responsibility and willingness to try.
Seek feedback and ask questions. Your growth mindset as a team also relies on how well you can adopt one as the leader. Understanding your faults and aspects where you might have a fixed mindset is key for driving growth. How does one achieve this? By asking your employees. They have as much to teach you as you have to teach them. Feedback is not just a practice, it’s a development tool.
Embrace failure. Lastly, we need to be realistic. Just as one should pursue challenges and grow, these can also lead to failure at times. By acknowledging your failures with a growth mindset we treat failure as a learning opportunity to pilot and test new strategies and behaviors.
As we close out 2023 and move into 2024, let’s all reflect on what we have learned and how we can pursue new challenges with a growth mindset. As a team, our bucket is full and we are grateful. We have great success this year helping our clients grow their capabilities and mindsets, while implementing new strategies. Let us help you in 2024.
