The Benefits of a Growth Mindset

Publié le 25 September 2020 Par Matt Dodge

Businesses need to move forward, take risks and challenge themselves in order to grow and remain successful. If a company appears to be fearful or hesitant to take on a new challenge, what they need to do is to change their mindset. Popularized by Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, the modern notion of mindset has become increasing popular within the business community, and has the potential to reshape the way many corporations view success and failure. Businesses and professionals can take advantage of the benefits of a growth mindset approach in order to grow their companies and careers.

Defining Mindset

Simply put, mindset is the instinctive manner in which people will view a challenging situation. Under mindset theory, there exist two broad ways in which people will approach a personal or professional challenge: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.

Fixed Mindset Attributes

A person with a fixed mindset, subconsciously or not, views intelligence and success as inherently limited. Therefore, they believe:

Challenges are to be avoided

It’s best to admit defeat in the face of obstacles

Effort has little impact on results

Criticism should be ignored

The success of others is a threat

Growth Mindset Attributes

A person with a growth mindset will view intelligence and success as limitless and adaptable. Therefore:

Challenges are to be faced head-on

Obstacles can be overcome with persistence

Effort leads to improvement

Criticism is a useful learning tool

The success of others is helpful and inspirational

To successful business leaders, it is obvious that approaching challenges in the workplace with a growth mindset will lead to improvement and accomplishment, while a fixed mindset will do nothing but place artificial limitations on people. Businesses need to foster a growth mindset within their company culture.

Taking on Business Challenges

Every growing business faces challenges and challenging situations. They can be as simple as satisfying a particularly picky client or as complex as determining the next stage of growth for a large-scale company. As long as business leaders have been sure to foster a growth mindset mentality in their workforce, employees will not view these challenges as something to be feared.

A growth mindset company will view each business challenge as a new opportunity with many benefits. While challenges bring with them the chance of failure, challenges and risks should not be avoided. Even if a company falls just short of their goals, the knowledge and experience gained will be invaluable when setting new business goals in the future.

Overcoming Business Obstacles

In the world of business and marketing, it can be all too easy to grow complacent with tried and tested methods. As the pace of business grows exponentially quicker, obstacles to further growth will appear at a more frequent rate. Business will need to rethink their approach and redefine themselves in order to be successful. By viewing each obstacle with a growth mindset, they become possibilities for company advancement and chances to adapt to a changing marketplace.

For example, imagine a marketing company that has noticed shrinking returns from a key demographic: young adults from ages 18-26 are not responding to traditional campaigns. If their company culture reflects a fixed mindset, they will likely throw their hands in the air and admit defeat in the face of this business challenge. Soon they will have more and more dissatisfied clients as returns continue to diminish. Instead, they should be open to rethinking their campaign strategy and attempting several new ideas in various forms of media. There is no guarantee that any of the ideas will be successful, but they will learn so much more about the tastes of their target audience. With this knowledge, the team will be able to find the right solution.

Making an Effort in the Workplace

The key to success is not talent or luck, but perseverance. It is about going into work every single day with the motivation to try new things and put the strongest effort forward with every opportunity. While the idea of trying really hard in the face of the unknown can seem like a difficult prospect, those with a growth mindset realize that the only way to grow is to try.

Those employees with a fixed mindset will be reluctant to try new things because they view it at ultimately meaningless. They see a limit on their own potential, and do not truly believe that new skills and knowledge can be gained through effort. Of course, the opposite is true. By applying effort, it is entirely possible to expand your skill set and use these to grow your business.

“The survey findings of TalentLMS research underscore the powerful benefits of a growth mindset culture. With 64% of senior leaders reporting increased productivity and performance, it’s evident that when employees are encouraged to learn and constantly expand knowledge and skills, the entire organization reaps the rewards. Moreover, the fact that a growth mindset contributes to talent retention (50%) and customer satisfaction (49%) speaks volumes about its impact on overall business success.”

-Christina Gialleli, Director of People & Culture at Epignosis, the parent company of TalentLMS

Criticism is a Tool

Nobody enjoys being criticized. In a perfect world, every decision would result in nothing but payoff and positive reinforcement. Unfortunately, this is just not a realistic goal, especially in the world of business. Others may very often have a negative opinion regarding decisions and actions, even when they were made with the best interest of the company in mind.

Instead of growing angry, the best thing to do with criticism is to view it as a learning tool. Criticism that comes from those with more experience and knowledge is actually an invaluable resource and can provide useful shortcuts in the learning process. If the criticism is from a business’ target audience, they are actually saying exactly what they are looking for from a company, and giving business leaders the opportunity to adapt. Even giving yourself a performance assessment can be useful for identifying areas for improvement. A growth mindset is the perfect way to turn criticism into a tool that will lead to more success.

Encouraging the Success of Colleagues

Jealousy is a natural human emotion, but one that can be very harmful if allowed to fester. If you feel jealous when colleagues or other businesses in your field experience professional success, it is really just an unhealthy expression of your own self-doubt and insecurity. A person with a fixed mindset mentality secretly believes that there is a limited amount of success in the world, and that others achieving their goals somehow prevents you from reaching your own.

In a growth mindset, jealousy should instead be transformed into motivation. When others achieve a goal, they have actually provided a roadmap to success. Even if their path is not the exact one you envision for yourself or your company, there is still much to learn from their choices, mistakes and solutions.

A business needs to have the right mindset in order to be successful. This is true both on a company-wide and individual level, where business leaders should make every effort to motivate employees to adopt the right mindset. With the benefits of a growth mindset, every challenge, obstacle and critique are not to be feared and avoided. Rather, these are the perfect opportunity for learning, development and growth. If a business embraces a company culture of maintaining a growth mindset on every level, the path to success will be much simpler.