What has been traditionally described as an established set of attitudes held by someone?

Mindset – the established set of attitudes held by someone. The attitudes you hold are very powerful they define how you react or respond to situations.

Mindsets can be split into two types Fixed and Growth.

Fixed mindset: When people believe their intelligence, talents & abilities are a fixed trait, you have a certain amount and that’s it.

Failing = not smart? When you are afraid of facing challenges because you fear it will unmask your deficiencies, makes you withdraw in the face of difficulty because it made you feel stupid.

This causes some people to wilt in face of challenges while other thrives.

Growth Mindset: believe that talent and abilities s can be developed through hard work, good strategies, good mentoring from others.

Focus is learning instead of fear of failing. They understand that their abilities could grow through hard work

Doesn’t mean people don’t have different abilities & talents – it just means everyone can grow.

Examples of growth mindset: We never give up on a kid who is learning to walk.

Albert Einstein said he wasn’t smarter than others just that he stuck to things longer. He took time because he did not understand time, space, energy initially and people thought he was slow.

Michel Phelps – had severe ADHD – he practiced 7 days a week even Sundays which gave him an edge over competition. He had a choice to gave in & hide behind the ADHD or practise and believe in himself and the effort put in by him gave him results. Yes he has long limbs but without effort he would not have been a champion he is. You need to drown out the noise & focus on the growth.

What we are born with is the raw material that you have got to develop. If you read about the your hero you will find he/ she had a journey you will learn that your hero put in inordinate amount of work, met with obstacles and powered through them and was not catapulted to overnight success.

People are born with passion & talents but many who are born with them don’t see through.

You can feel, hurt or disappointed but these won’t stop you from moving forward.

Just knowing you have two mindsets can be a big start. You have a choice, mindsets are just beliefs – they are powerful beliefs. They are just something in your mind and you can change your mind.

Most people have elements of both fixed & growth mindset. Carol Dweck (psychologist from Stanford & Yale) who coined the term growth mindset - found that whatever mindset people have in a certain area, it will guide them in that region.

You may have different mindsets in different areas:  My social skills are fixed but my creativity can be developed.

I might believe my personality is fixed but my intelligence can be developed

Why develop a growth mindset: Fixed mindset hold you back & limits your belief about what you / others can & cannot do.

How to develop a growth mindset: Start by first observing - We need to understand what triggers our fixed mindset, just observe the inner dialogue /voice & listen to it.

How are you reacting to others failing? Do you judge them and say they are no good at that.

What happens when you face a difficult situation- do you think maybe i am not good at this, why expose my weakness.

What happens when you receive criticism – do you get angry & defensive?

What happens when you see someone who is better in something you are good at – do you feel jealous & resentful or do you feel inspired (maybe i can learn from that person).

HR - Does your company have a growth mindset?

 Does your company believe in fixed talents & worships it? Or is it a company that believes that everyone can develop their abilities & really provides these opportunities

Employees in the growth mindset feel more empowered by the organisations and feel more committed to them. While fixed mindset have one foot outside the door looking for the next highest bidder. 

Growth mindset employees feel their company values Innovative & creativity & really put their money where their mouth is. Eg , My company really values team work.

Mangers in growth mindset say & believe that their employees / team have great potential to rise within the organization, become stars, join management. They believe in collaborating instead of hoarding knowledge.

Where as in a fixed mindset companies worship talent, hire talent & pay to keep the talent. But a few years later they find that there are not a lot of people in the organisation who can rise & join management. Either they have left or they don’t have potential anymore.

Giving performance evaluation that speaks to people’s growth and contribution to the company in terms of learning. Salary increases that take into account that did someone take on challenges, improve, help other people improve, and were they a good team player. Bottom line counts but these things also count. You can’t just talk growth mindset without backing it up actually rewarding enacting a growth mindset within the job – it would be a great start.

Recruiting : When recruiting ask questions that help you get insight to the mindset – does he/ she have the capability to reorganise, redefine themselves, learn new skills.

Ask them what their greatest failures were – see whether they take responsibility & what they did with that failure. Did they capitalize on it to do something even better, did they use it to put value added back to the company.

Or do they make it reflect good on them & put the blame on others, readiness to share success.

How you talk about yourself also needs to be considered – if you say i can’t do this add a yet to it and it becomes a learning curve instead of a closed statement made in a fixed mindset.

Let’s create an environment that creates growth:

Telling people you are smart is a crime. Using smart or stupid can work against your best intentions. Praising talent, praising intelligence makes people vulnerable. Calling someone smart puts them on a pedestal & their life becomes organised around deserving the pedestal- this makes them narrow their lives to what they are good at & are sure they can succeed in.

We in our praise convey stubble ideas that smart people don’t make mistakes, smart people don’t have to work hard. The most important thing in the world is to be smart & look smart

Praising for the process, their strategies, their focus, their perseverance – they learn challenge seeking & resilience

Learning a growth mindset changes the meaning of effort & difficulty- it used to mean you are dumb & now it’s a chance to get smarter. Difficulty just means you are not yet there, you are on a learning curve.

Praise more wisely – instead of you did this so quickly i am impressed, say I am impressed with the different ways you tries to solve the problem. Show interest in the process, appreciating the process. By asking questions, give encouragement when anyone tries a new strategy/ approach. Praise improvement , it’s great you tried something new. Never praise effort that isn’t there.

Interpret the challenge – what can i learn from this, can i seek help / mentoring, monitor the fixed mindset triggers, and remember it’s a ongoing journey.

What is an established set of attitudes held by someone?

What is an entrepreneurial mindset?

Whats the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset?

Which of the following statement best represents a fixed mindset?