May’s Book of the Month: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.
For leaders striving to empower their teams and embrace the human side of leadership, understanding the stark contrast between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset is crucial. Carol S. Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success highlights the profound impact of our mindset and beliefs on our personal and professional lives.
As I recently learned in my IOSM Organizational Mindfulness Facilitator Certification, science has confirmed that through specific mindfulness practices, brains can be trained and programmed to learn new behaviors, acquire new knowledge, and develop new skills. Dweck’s book highlights the difference between people who believe this, those with a growth mindset, and those, with a fixed mindset, who believe that people are only as good as their inherent skills and knowledge.
Key Concept #1: Growth Mindset Vs Fixed Mindset
Dweck explains that individuals with a fixed mindset assume intelligence and talent are static and unchangeable. Leaders who operate under this mindset may see challenges as threats, avoid risks that may lead to error, and feel threatened by the success of others. This can lead to a toxic organizational culture where learning and innovation are stifled, as employees are more likely to fear making mistakes and consequently may hide them or shy away from challenges.
Individuals with a growth mindset, on the other hand, believe that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. Leaders with this mindset inspire a love of learning, curiosity, and resilience. They encourage their teams to seek challenges, learn from feedback, and persist despite setbacks, cultivating continuous improvement and innovation.
Growth-minded leaders value effort and the learning process, and encourage team members to develop, grow, and fail forward, creating a collaborative and supportive environment that leads to better problem-solving and collective success.
Key Concept #2: Why Leaders Should Develop A Growth Mindset
A growth mindset helps leaders increase their tolerance for risk and failure by reframing these experiences as essential parts of the learning process. Leaders with this mindset understand that mistakes and setbacks are opportunities to gain valuable insights and improve. This perspective reduces the fear of failure, encouraging leaders to take calculated risks and experiment with new approaches. By fostering a culture where bold actions and failing forward is supported, these leaders inspire their teams to innovate and push boundaries without the paralyzing fear of making mistakes.
Moreover, leaders with a growth mindset are more likely to take bolder actions because they are confident in their ability to learn and adapt to any outcome. They see challenges as opportunities to grow and develop new skills, which empowers them to pursue ambitious goals and tackle difficult problems. This proactive approach drives personal and organizational growth and instills a sense of resilience and adaptability within their teams. As a result, organizations led by growth-minded leaders are better equipped to navigate uncertainty and capitalize on new opportunities.
Key Concept #3: Developing a Growth Mindset
In Dweck’s book, she discusses four key steps to developing a growth mindset.
Embrace your fixed mindset. Our brains crave stories that make sense, which means we inherently have fixed views and beliefs about certain things. Rather than fighting this fact, embrace it. This level of awareness and acceptance will empower you to take the next three steps on the journey.
Identify your fixed mindset triggers. Pay attention to situations and experiences that trigger you to “hold on” to your fixed knowledge and beliefs. The moments where your ‘fixed mindset persona,’ as Dweck calls it, comes out to play. This awareness will empower you to create strategies to minimize the impact of the trigger, and ultimately develop a growth mindset when faced with a similar situation.
Name your fixed mindset. Naming your fixed mindset and persona separates it from your personality, allowing you to objectively observe the impact, and make the conscious choice to minimize how often it shows up. Note: While this sounds crazy, Dweck’s approach of naming the fixed mindset is very similar to when I have my clients name their self-sabotaging behaviors! It’s wild how effective the “naming” approach can be.
Take Action. Once you’ve effectively identified the experiences and situations that trigger your fixed mindset, you can create an action plan to approach these triggers with a growth mindset. Thanks to neuro-placisity, the more you practice responding with a growth mindset, the easier it will become in the future.
Beyond the Book: Notes From a Certified Mindful Leadership Coach Coach
As you might imagine, developing a growth mindset requires you to challenge engrained thoughts, emotions and beliefs that are no longer serving you. It requires you to stop living on autopilot and letting your subconscious drive your behaviors, which can be challenging without external support, considering that roughly 95% of mental processing happens within the subconscious.
And, while 95% might sound extreme, according to healthybrain.org, “your brain processes 70,000 thoughts each day using 100 billion neurons that connect at more than 500 trillion points through synapses that travel 300 miles/hour.” If 95% of that activity didn’t happen within the subconscious, we’d all be paralyzed with even the simplest of actions and decisions such as walking, brushing our teeth, or making coffee.
Here are three strategies to help you stop living on auto-pilot, make the subconscious conscious, and strengthen your growth mindset:
Journal for Awareness: This is why journaling can be such a powerful tool. Writing freely, or to a specific prompt, can allow you to access your subconscious by allowing it to flow freely to the page. Once on paper, you can objectively observe your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs and consciously choose what to do next.
Work with a Certified Coach: Certified coaches partner with clients in a thought-provoking process to maximize their potential. As a Mindful Leadership Coach, I use a holistic approach grounded in education, discussion, and data. This approach empowers leaders to shift perspectives, identify limiting beliefs, and develop strategies that allow my clients to pause, leverage their strengths, and cultivate resilience and adaptability. Learn more about working with me.
Develop a Mindfulness Practice: Neuroplasticity allows humans to turn temporary traits into permanent states through mindfulness practices. A growth mindset can be cultivated through regular mindfulness exercises tailored to support your growth areas. Check out this blog for tips on starting a mindfulness practice.
These three practices can stand alone but are best when used in conjunction with each other. Conversations with your coach can help you increase your knowledge and perspective about various topics, and identify areas to further explore with your journal, and help you help integrate mindfulness practices into your routine.
Final Thoughts
Carol S. Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success offers invaluable insights into the science and benefits of developing a growth mindset. It provides a framework for understanding how our attitudes, thoughts, and beliefs shape our lives and leadership styles. This book is a must-read for leaders who want to drive transformation and cultivate a resilient organizational culture. For those who prefer a video summary of the key concepts, here’s a link to Carol Dweck’s talk at Google on the exact topic.
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