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Why Mindset Drives Leader Performance

October 13, 2019 by Gill Thackray Leave a Comment

Leaders need charisma. Leaders are born, not made. Effective leaders need grit. The world of leadership is riddled with myths and misconceptions. The truth is that mindset is a key differentiator when it comes to outstanding leadership. Here’s why mindset drives leader performance.

Mindset Leaders are Unique

There’s no point in pretending that there’s a cookie cutter formula for the perfect leader. There isn’t. Authenticity is key to successful leadership. Growth mindset leaders are constantly learning, developing themselves, acquiring new skills. Attempting to define them in binary terms is pointless. They’re constantly changing because they recognise that learning is the key to transformation and business growth. What’s more, they encourage development in their teams. They’re not threatened by the success of others.

Mindset Leaders Banish Perfectionism

It might sound tautological but growth mindset leaders embrace failure. They recognise that perfectionism combined with a blame culture when things go wrong will destroy innovation. Continuous improvement can only take place when you’re able to look at what isn’t working openly and honestly.

This means embracing risk and becoming comfortable with uncertainty. Consider companies that have deliberately failed in order to innovate, making it culturally ok to fail. Think James Dyson, Momofuku Ando – the creator of instant noodles, Akio Morita and Sony’s first rice cooker that ended up burning rice instead of cooking it, yes, we said burned it and one of our favourites, as Thrive Global Authors, Arianna Huffington whose second book was rejected by 36 publishers.

Failure is the only way to learn and truly grow. The research into growth mindset and neuroplasticity is impressive. As Dweck says, keep those neutrons firing.

Growth Mindset Leaders Possess Laser Like Situational Awareness

Mindset leaders possess self awareness. They’re able to recognise their own emotions and master them. They self regulate and are able to drill down and focus on the detail whilst maintaining an open awareness of the bigger picture. This enables them to build effective relationships with colleagues. To listen with emotional intelligence and encourage dialogue. They’re honest about their own mistakes and make it clear that when things don’t go to plan it’s an opportunity for growth.

Great leaders leverage peak performance with a growth mindset culture. If you’d like to find out more about mindset, take a look at our free resources along with our Growth Mindset Toolkit

We work with thousands of individuals and Fortune 100 companies to develop growth mindset workplaces, high performing teams and individuals. We deliver growth mindset coaching and leadership training using evidence based strategies from positive psychology, neuroscience and performance psychology Get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

10 Hacks to Create a Growth Mindset in the Workplace

September 8, 2018 by Gill Thackray Leave a Comment

What does a growth mindset workplace look like? How would you recognise a growth mindset company? And how can you develop a growth mindset in the workplace? We take a look. read on for PCG’s 10 hacks to create a growth mindset in the workplace.

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10 tips and tricks for a growth mindset team

August 23, 2016 by Viv Thackray Leave a Comment

Are you developing a growth mindset team? Start with our ten tips and tricks to develop a growth mindset culture.

1. Promote problem solving through failure

A growth mindset team problem solves by analysing failures. Help your team understand that taking reasonable risks and experiencing a few failures along the way is an essential part of the process that leads to increased creativity and innovation. Encourage your team to anticipate setbacks and ask..how will you overcome them?

2. Encourage your growth mindset team to talk about how they overcome challenges and setbacks

The culture you create within your business is reflected in everything you do and say. Encourage your team to understand the value and benefits of talking about their professional challenges and setbacks and sharing the tools and techniques they’ve used to overcome difficulties.

3. Encourage the process

Avoid the fixed mindset trap of only focusing on successful outcomes. A purely results driven business risks losing the fertile learning ground that’s contained within both successes and failures. Results matter but learning from the process that your team is constantly engaged in is just as important if you want to create an innovative, agile and resilient culture. Ask your team, what did you learn from the process?

4. Ask your team …where is the challenge?

Invite people out of their comfort zones by asking them to constantly choose and immerse themselves in new challenge. A fixed mindset approach encourages us to stick with that which we’re confident we can achieve and a fear of failure prevents us from breaking free from this limiting approach. In contrast, a growth mindset enables us to take on new challenges wholeheartedly, taking failures in our stride as we relish the new opportunities that a challenge can bring.

5. Encourage a culture of development rather than genius

Carol Dweck’s research has shown that organisation’s who worship a culture of genius rather than development can become places where the majority of employees feel undervalued, disengaged and unsupported. When you encourage a development culture research shows your team is more likely to feel committed, engaged, supported and more able to take on innovative and challenging tasks.

6. Make sure you don’t just talk the growth mindset

At PCG we sometimes hear people in organisations complaining that although leaders talk about growth mindset they do little to embody it. Let your people know that you’re serious about developing as a growth mindset team by talking and walking a growth mindset. Lead by example and talk your team through how you’ve overcome setbacks, dealt with failures and challenged yourself to develop skills and abilities.

7. Encourage reasonable risk

In fixed mindset organisations innovation can be stifled because people resist taking risks for fear of being blamed when things go wrong. Encourage your team to take on acceptable risk in order to support them in developing new strengths and skills.

8. Emphasise that errors are the route to mastery

A growth mindset team understands the need to embrace failure as part of the route to success. When a team member talks about their failures and tells you, “I can’t do this” encourage them to add “yet.” Encourage your team to embrace failure and learn from it by explaining that real mastery is impossible without encountering and surmounting failures.

9. Growth mindset teams ask…who are you collaborating with, who are you mentoring?

In growth mindset teams people share information across teams and networks and support each other to achieve the organisation’s goals. Mentoring and collaboration can spark innovation, improve performance and increase organisational resilience when the going gets tough. Regularly ask your team to share who they are mentoring or collaborating with and how this has benefited them, the team and the organisation.

10. Look for your fixed mindset triggers and encourage others to do the same

The first step to develop a growth mindset team is to recognise what triggers our fixed mindset responses. Learn to listen out for your own fixed mindset triggers and encourage others to do the same by monitoring your inner dialogue and emotional responses.

We love to talk about all things growth mindset at Positive Change Guru. Check out our forthcoming events or get in touch to find out more about our suite of courses and discuss bespoke growth mindset training for your organisation.

10 Ways to Manage a Fixed Mindset Manager

July 22, 2016 by Viv Thackray Leave a Comment

How do you manage a fixed mindset manager?

At PCG we’re often asked to speak to businesses about how they can develop into a growth mindset organisation, during these sessions the PCG team is invariably asked “But how can you implement a growth mindset effectively when your manager has a fixed mindset?” It’s a question that will resonate with many professionals. To help you navigate professional relationships with a growth mindset approach we’ve put together a toolkit of ten ways you can manage a fixed mindset manager.

Be strategic. In many organisations, it’s often the case that people are promoted to management positions without any training on how to develop effective leadership and management techniques. It may be the case that your manager knows little about growth mindset and the benefits that it can have for not only themselves, but also the team and organisational performance but how do you enlighten them without appearing critical? Be strategic and think about what really ignites your manager’s passions, are they a sports fan, fanatical about racing cars or a science junky? Look for examples of a growth mindset approach that will resonate with them. Maybe they’re a David Beckham fan? Tell them how his family describes how he practised for thousands of hours as a child, kicking the ball at a goal painted on a wall and as his skills improved he would move his striking position further and further away from the goal. Perhaps your manager is a basketball fan? Weave the words of Michael Jordan’s coach into the conversation and explain how he always describes Jordan as not the most talented player on the team but what did make him stand out from the crowd was his dedication, when the rest of the team had finished practising for the day, Jordan would stay behind and persevere with practice for hours after his team mates had left.
Talk about growth mindset culture in other organisations.Use conversations about the success of other organisations as an opportunity to include snippets of information on the growth mindset approach and how these organisations have used a growth mindset to their competitive advantage. Talk about companies like Google and Quest and the programs they implement to encourage a growth mindset.
Link a growth mindset to the bottom line. You’re manager tells you, “this growth mindset fad is fine but it’s the bottom line that counts.” Tell your manager how astute they are and then point out that Carol Dweck, the Stanford professor responsible for the international bestseller ‘Mindset: the new psychology of Success’, has addressed this very question, Dweck explains that whenever we apply a growth mindset approach outcomes undoubtedly matter. If effort is unproductive we need to examine how we can more deeply engage in the process perhaps by seeking help from others, trying new strategies or capitalising on setbacks to propel us forwards. Dweck recommends paying equal attention to learning and progress, as well as rewarding effort, which people often more readily associate with encouraging a growth mindset. As Dweck says, growth mindset is indeed linked to the bottom line.
Explain mindset is a spectrum and discuss your own fixed mindset triggers. You’re manager explains “I’ve always had a 100% growth mindset, that’s why I’m so successful.” The next time growth mindset comes up in conversation, tell your manager that you’ve recently read an interesting article on false growth mindset. Without reminding your manager abut their claim to possess a 100% growth mindset, explain how mindset is a spectrum and although we might make a conscious effort to adopt a growth mindset approach, there will always be certain triggers, that can elicit a fixed mindset approach. Explain how you monitor your own thoughts to try and capture what triggers a fixed mindset for you at work and mention what you’ve done to successfully overcome your fixed mindset triggers.
Describe how a growth mindset has contributed to team success. Take a growth mindset approach to the situation and focus on highlighting all the effective ways in which your team tackles challenges with a growth mindset. Whenever you’re talking to your manager about the great work your team has been doing, make sure that you frame your comments to include the positive effects a growth mindset approach has had on motivation, perseverance and positive results in your team.
Inspire your team to work across the organisation, sharing their skills and expertise for organisational success. Encourage your team to promote the benefits of a growth mindset approach when working with others, when there are more workers enthusiastically applying a growth mindset to the organisation’s vision and goals it becomes harder for those with a fixed mindset approach towards their work to ignore the message.
Encourage others to share growth mindset strategies and success stories. Foster wider growth mindset habits within the organisation by encouraging other teams to swap growth mindset strategies, ideas, information and success stories. Make sure that your manager is kept in the loop of this growth mindset exercise.
Emphasise perseverance. When your manager compliments you on the great results and outcomes that your team has achieved make sure you highlight the effort, hard work and perseverance that contributed to the team’s fantastic outcomes.
Expose your manager to a growth mindset at every opportunity. Whenever you watch a video, read a great article, or hear of another business that is working towards becoming a growth mindset organisation, share the information with your manager and if you have time, summarise the contents to expose them to more and more growth mindset information. When your manager realises that so many other businesses see the benefits of a growth mindset, they may start to shift their position and approach.
Maintain a growth mindset towards your manager. Finally, it may sound obvious, but maintain a growth mindset towards your fixed mindset manager! Just because they hold a predominantly fixed mindset towards their role it doesn’t mean that this will always be the case. There are plenty of examples of people who once approached their job, their education, their beliefs about intelligence (including Carol Dweck) or their relationships in a fixed mindset way, only to realise that they could improve their approach and their outcomes by adopting a growth mindset.

How to Create a Growth Mindset Organisation Part 2

June 22, 2016 by Viv Thackray Leave a Comment

How to create a growth mindset organisation for success

More and more of the organisations that Positive Change Guru works with are realising that a growth mindset is an essential element of success. Leaders are seeking to create and develop an innovative, agile and resilient workforce. Many companies are also focusing their attention on mindset at recruitment stage, recognising that people who are enthusiastic, willing to fail and open to learning and improving through such failures make great employees. In Part 2 of our series on creating growth mindset organisations, we look at why so many companies are turning their attention to organisational growth mindset.

Inspire and motivate with a growth mindset

Want to create a platform for competitive advantage in your team? Studies show that employees evaluated their growth mindset managers as being better at coaching and developing their skills than fixed mindset managers. Growth mindset managers were also more data driven, less likely to fixate on poor past performance and better at spotting performance improvement in the individuals they managed.

Encourage innovation with growth mindset feedback

What impact do your words have on those around you? Do you adopt a growth mindset and encourage others to learn, develop and adapt? If not, you can improve the quality of your interactions by communicating a growth mindset when giving feedback.

Research shows that when people have their performance compared to that of others they are more likely to adopt a fixed mindset, assuming that the purpose of comparison was to show how good they were. When a person’s current performance was compared with their past performance they were more likely to adopt a growth mindset, believing that the purpose of the exercise was to help them improve. Studies show that not only did performance improve for these people but they were also better at finding the best solution to the project they were working on.

5 Tips and tricks to create a growth mindset in your organisation

Praise the process. Remember to praise the process of teamwork, taking on manageable risk and learning from failure. By analysing and understanding errors your team will be in a stronger position to adapt to future challenges and improve performance. Highlight progress and effort by comparing a person’s current and past performance rather than comparing them to others when providing feedback.
Promote reasonable risk. Carve out time and resources for improving individual and team performance. Encourage innovation and experimentation, adopting a growth mindset approach to the possibility of risk and failure.
Master the aspects of your business you avoid. Don’t avoid areas of your business that feel less than easy to master. Making a commitment to wholeheartedly engage with challenging tasks allows individuals and teams to develop new skills and abilities. Neurologist, Dr. Harry Chugani, describes the synaptic connections which occur in the brain during the learning process as being similar to roads. Chugani explains, “Roads with the most traffic get widened. The ones that are rarely used fall into disrepair” (Linley, 2007). Keep your neutrons firing to develop new skills. New or difficult tasks are an opportunity to develop new skills and build new synaptic connections, with practice both will strengthen and improve performance.
Share growth mindset success stories. Make time to acknowledge growth mindset team and organisational practices. Recognise the hard work,strategies and processes that have enabled your team to learn new skills or excel at a new project. Encourage your team to share growth mindset practices across the organisation.
Guard against fixed mindset triggers. Even when you work hard to develop a growth mindset business, it’s still possible to be tripped up by your own fixed mindset triggers. A fixed mindset trigger might be evident when we face criticism, are unfavourably compared with others or face a challenge, if we fall into defensiveness behaviour or insecurity then a growth mindset will be inhibited. Inevitably, some business environments can be full of such fixed mindset triggers.Guard against fixed mindset triggers in your business by focusing on being aware of when your fixed-mindset ‘persona’ shows up and then identifying what it takes to make you feel threatened and defensive. Develop a growth mindset approach by spotting your triggers, identifying the fixed-mindset persona for what it is and learn to talk back to the persona with a growth mindset voice, persuading it to work towards the new growth mindset effectively.

Learn more about mindset here:

How to Create a Growth Mindset Organisation Part 1

May 18, 2016 by Viv Thackray Leave a Comment

How to create a growth mindset organisation for success

More and more of the organisations that PCG works with realise that a growth mindset is essential for developing an innovative, resilient and successful business. Increasingly, companies are also focusing their attention on mindset at recruitment stage, recognising that people who are enthusiastic, willing to fail and open to learning and improving through such failures make great employees. In Part 1 of our series on creating growth mindset organisations, we look at why so many companies are turning their attention towards becoming a growth mindset organisation. [Read more…]