The rapidly increasing complexities of modern
business mean that if we are not effective at learning we will flounder and our
team or our business may fail. Some of
the biggest brands have disappeared from our high streets because too many of
their leaders and managers had the wrong mindset. Is your mindset helping or hindering your
performance or the performance of your business?
Dr. Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology at
Stanford University, is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of learning
and motivation. She and her team have conducted numerous experiments that
demonstrate the dangers of fixed thinking and how many difficult situations can
be overcome when people adopt a ‘Growth Mindset’.
The
Mixed Power Of Praise
In one of her experiments Dweck selected 400
children from across the US, gave them a simple test and praised them in two
ways. One group was praised for their
intelligence and told “Well done, you must be really smart at this”. The other group were praised for their effort
and told “Well done, you must have worked really hard at this”. The results that these subtly different
approaches produced were remarkable.
The next stage of the experiment gave both
groups of children a choice for the next test. For the first option they were
told it would be a harder version giving them a great opportunity to learn and
grow. The second option was explained as
an easy version similar to the first and they were told that they will surely
do well at it. 67% of the group that was
praised for their intelligence chose the easier option while 92% of the
children who were praised for their effort chose the harder version. This is significant and Dweck explains “the adult or child hears: Oh, you think I’m
brilliant and talented. That’s why you
value me. I better not do anything that
will disprove this evaluation. As a
result they enter a fixed mindset, they play it safe in the future and they
limit the growth of their talents”.
She goes on to say “focusing on
the strategies they use, the way they are stretching themselves and taking on
hard tasks, or the intense practice they are doing, says to a child or adult ‘it’s
about the process of growth’. As a result they don’t think ‘if I make a mistake
you won’t think I’m talented’, they think ‘if I don’t take on hard things and
stick to them I’m not going to grow’”.
They then gave all the children a very
difficult test to see how they would approach it. The group praised for effort, worked harder,
longer and actually enjoyed the test.
The group praised for intelligence got very frustrated with the test and
had a tendency to give up early. Finally,
after artificially creating a setback for the children with the very difficult
test, they gave them a last test that was as easy as the very first one.
The results of this last test were very
surprising and they tell us about the dangers of adopting a fixed mindset. The group praised for their intelligence
actually dropped their average scores by 20% from their original scores. The group praised for their effort increased
their average score by 30%. This is a
massive 50% difference in performance caused by a subtle difference in the way
they were praised.
Those of you who have young children may need
to think about how you praise your children, but what insights does this
provide for the world of work, leadership and management?
Identifying
Our Mindset
We can easily adopt a fixed mindset in the
way we approach our work by saying that others are naturally good at something
and ‘I’ll never be able to do that’ or any attitude that says ‘you need to be
born with it’, or ‘this is just the way I am’. Do any of these sound familiar?
The neuroscientists are discovering that the
brain, and even intelligence, is far from fixed. It is actually very malleable and we can grow
new neurons and new connections in our brain that make us more
intelligent. But it takes significant
effort. A growth mindset enjoys this
effort and takes action on a regular basis to activate it. Just like if you want to improve your health
you need to exercise the key muscle groups in your body with a variety of
exercises that stretch you to the limit of your current ability, if you want to
improve your intelligence you need to exercise your brain by thinking in new
ways, taking some risks and making some mistakes. If you ask any successful person about the
mistakes they have made they will probably recount hundreds of them because
they tend to have made many more mistakes than unsuccessful people. The key thing is that they recovered from
them, leant the lesson and moved on with new understanding and growth.
Studies show that people who hold a grudge or
have beliefs like ‘that’s just the way
things are and there is nothing you can do about it’, or ‘that group of people will never change’ have
a fixed mindset. This fixed mindset
prevents them from exploring options and challenging the status quo. It also creates a tendency for stubbornness;
‘I don’t want to be wrong (I’ll look
stupid)’ and even arrogance; ‘I’m
better than others’. Setbacks are
seen as reasons or excuses to give up. The
studies show that people with a fixed mindset build their self-esteem by
comparing themselves to others who are less able, cheating about scores and
seeking easy problems over and over again.
A growth mindset creates willingness and
eagerness, to step outside your comfort zone with optimism about what will be
learned and how it will help growth, development and improvement. Setbacks are interpreted as feedback along
the way about what doesn’t work and provide a signal that more effort is
required. Experiencing difficulty just
proves how determined and tough you are and this improves self-esteem.
Looking back it is easy to see how so many of
the Bankers that almost destroyed the global economy had a fixed mindset. They didn’t listen to the feedback that
things were not right in the system.
They thought it would simply go on for ever because they were so bright.
Like motivation, your mindset is influenced
by context. So you may want to consider
if there are any contexts where you have a fixed mindset. Is it hindering your performance, or perhaps
some of your relationships? How many of
your people have a fixed mindset about their work? What impact is this having on your business?
4 Steps
To Increase Learning And Growth
Dr. Carol Dweck has
some good advice for changing from a fixed to a growth mindset which I have
reproduced below. She has already done
some great work with disadvantaged teenagers in America and she is currently
working with some of the most challenging cultural situations on the planet, by
providing workshops for Israelis and Palestinians to help them overcome some of
the very entrenched and fixed mindsets they have about one another.
Step 1 –
It is important to identify and learn to hear your Fixed Mindset “voice.”
- For example, as you approach a challenge,
that voice might say to you “Are you sure
you can do it? Maybe you don’t have the talent.” “What if you fail—you’ll be a
failure.” “If you don’t try, you can
protect yourself and keep your dignity.”
- If you hit a setback or obstacle, the voice
might say, “This would have been easy if
you really had talent.” “You see, I told you it was a risk. Now you’ve shown
the world how useless you are.” “It’s not too late to back out, make excuses,
and try to regain your dignity.”
- If you face criticism, you might hear
yourself say, “It’s not my fault. It was
something or someone else’s fault.” You might feel yourself getting angry
at the person who is giving you feedback.
“Who do they think they are? I’ll put them in their place.” The other
person might be giving you specific, constructive feedback, but you might be
hearing them say “I’m really disappointed
in you. I thought you were capable but now I see you’re not.”
Step 2 –
Recognise that you have a choice.
You always have a choice about how you
interpret challenges, setbacks and criticism. You can interpret them as signs that your
fixed talents or abilities are lacking. Or
you can interpret them as signs that you need to ramp up your strategies and
effort, stretch yourself and expand your abilities. It’s up to you to decide
your approach.
Step 3
– Talk back to the Fixed Mindset voice with a Growth Mindset voice.
- As you approach a challenge:
The Fixed-Mindset says: “Are you sure you can do it? Maybe you don’t have the talent.”
The Growth-Mindset answers, “I’m not sure I can do it now, but I think
I can learn to with time and effort.”
The Fixed-Mindset: “What if you fail—you’ll be a failure”
The Growth-Mindset: “Most successful people had failures along the way.”
The Fixed-Mindset: “If you don’t try, you can protect yourself and keep your dignity.”
The Growth-Mindset: “If I don’t try, I automatically fail. Where’s the dignity in that?”
- As you hit a setback:
The Fixed-Mindset: “This would have been easy if you really had talent.”
The Growth-Mindset: “That is so wrong. Basketball wasn’t easy for Michael Jordan and
science wasn’t easy for Thomas Edison. They had a passion and put in tons of
effort.
- As you face criticism:
The Fixed-Mindset: “It’s not my fault. It was something or someone else’s fault.”
The Growth-Mindset: “If I don’t take responsibility, I can’t fix it. Let me listen—however
painful it is – and learn whatever I can.”
Step 4
– Take the Growth Mindset action.
- Over time, the voice you heed becomes your natural
choice. Whether you take on the
challenge wholeheartedly, learn from your setbacks and try again is now in your
hands. Whether you hear the criticism
and act on it or not, is a matter for you to choose.
- Practice hearing both voices, and practice
acting on the growth mindset. See how you can make it work for you.
The phrases above are
also a clue for how to give (and how not to give) feedback to others. If you feel some of your people have a fixed
mindset you may want to share this article with them and then discuss how they
may have fallen into a habit of listening to their Fixed Mindset voice because
they may not be aware that there is an alternative.
I would be interested
to hear your thoughts and opinions about any of the above so drop me a line at David.Klaasen@InspiredWorking.com
Remember . . . Stay Curious!
With best regards
David Klaasen
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