For more than 30 years, people have been talking about “mindset” and what it means for personal development. American psychologist and author Carol Dweck coined the idea of “growth mindset” in the early 2000s, publishing the first book comparing a “growth mindset” to a “fixed mindset” in 2006 titled Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Since then, the idea of cultivating a growth mindset has spread, and now, many employers look for signs of growth mindset in potential employees.

How do you know if you have a growth or fixed mindset? Keep reading to find out!

Basics of Mindset

Your mindset is simply a set of beliefs and attitudes that you hold. Some of these beliefs/attitudes may be ones that you were taught when you were a child or picked up from your culture. For example, a commonly held belief is that “old dogs can’t learn new tricks.” Does that sound like growth or fixed mindset to you? If you said “fixed” then you’re already catching on! 

Other beliefs/attitudes may be ones that you consciously choose for yourself. An example of a chosen belief in popular culture is: “The only way out is through.” People who choose to believe this tend to face challenges head on rather than try to avoid them. That definitely sounds like a growth mindset, doesn’t it? 

The first step in changing your mindset is to understand that you have the power to change your beliefs and attitudes. The second step is to examine your current beliefs and attitudes. Let’s explore how that looks in a few different areas of our professional lives so that you can develop a growth mindset in the workplace.

Intelligence

A fixed mindset believes that intelligence is fixed and limited. Someone with a fixed mindset might believe the old wives’ tale that one is born with the most number of brain cells they will ever have, and they only deplete with age (this is NOT true, by the way). Sometimes they believe that intelligence is completely baked in at the time of birth - you’re either born smart or born stupid. A common fixed mindset phrase about intelligence is: “You can’t fix stupid.” 

By contrast, a growth mindset believes that intelligence is always changing. Someone with a growth mindset might say things like, “Anyone can learn,” or, “We all learn at our own pace.” They usually believe that intelligence is built through study and participation. They rarely think of themselves as “not smart enough” for a job or task, but instead choose to think of the brain as a muscle that grows stronger with practice and use.

Challenges

A fixed mindset views challenges as obstacles rather than opportunities. Someone with a fixed mindset may face a challenge and interpret it as a sign to give up. When they experience a challenge, they see it as a brick wall that can’t be climbed, so they don’t make any attempt to overcome it. Instead, they might make excuses for their inaction. For this reason, a fixed mindset will likely prevent someone from advancing in their career and meeting their goals.

On the other hand, a growth mindset believes that challenges are opportunities to improve and expand their skills. Someone with a growth mindset will experience a challenge and rather than becoming discouraged, they will evaluate their skills and abilities and determine what can be improved. They view challenges as hurdles that can be conquered with the proper training. You might hear a person with a growth mindset exclaim, “I love a challenge!”

Failure

A fixed mindset believes that failure indicates personal flaws or limitations. A person with a fixed mindset may stick to activities or tasks they know they are good at to avoid the chance of failing. Similar to their view of challenges, someone with a fixed mindset experiences failure and feels that they are not good at something and should just quit. They may feel that failure in one aspect of their life equates to failure and shortcomings in all aspects of their life.

A growth mindset, however, views failure as a temporary setback. Someone with a growth mindset may become discouraged, but they don’t allow their failures to define them. They believe in the common phrase, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Just like their reaction to challenges, someone with a growth mindset uses failure as a learning opportunity. They learn from their mistakes and use this knowledge when they try again.

Feedback

A fixed mindset typically views feedback as a personal insult with no real purpose other than to make them feel bad. Someone with a fixed mindset dislikes getting feedback on their work or performance because they believe they cannot change, so criticism or suggestions are pointless. Instead of seeing feedback as a valuable source of knowledge and advice, they may feel that the person giving feedback is insulting them or trying to tear them down. Because of their fixed mindset, they will miss opportunities to learn and grow and could alienate themselves from people who can help them. 

By contrast, the growth mindset sees feedback as a way to learn from others and gain new knowledge. Someone with a growth mindset understands the concept of constructive criticism: that even feedback that seems negative is helpful because it reveals areas that need improvement. While it’s true that not every piece of feedback will always be helpful, receiving feedback from others is a necessary part of the learning process and will ultimately make you better at whatever you do. A person with a growth mindset will often ask for feedback from other people they work with, asking questions like, “How can I improve in this area?”

Success

The fixed mindset believes that success is like a pie: if someone else takes a large slice, then there is less to share with the rest of the party. With that limiting belief, a person with a fixed mindset is often jealous or discouraged by other people finding success because they think that means fewer opportunities for themselves to succeed in the same industry. They may believe successful people are endowed with a greater amount of “luck” than less successful people. They think or say things like, “I would start a small business if there weren’t so many other people doing it too,” or, “I can’t succeed in this business because the market is already saturated.”

The growth mindset, on the other hand, believes that success is abundant and can be experienced by anyone who consistently provides value to others. With this perspective, a person with a growth mindset is often encouraged and inspired by other people finding success because they embrace the idea: “If someone else can do it, so can I!” They don’t view themselves as being in competition with others, but instead try to learn from others who are a few steps ahead of them in terms of skills or knowledge. Most importantly, they embrace the idea that success is a winding path of progress and setbacks, not a straight shot to the top. It has been said that Thomas Edison created a thousand unsuccessful light bulbs before creating the first successful model. The growth mindset recognizes that “overnight success” often happens after many, many nights of attempting with no success.

Get Your Mind Right!

Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.” Many decades and studies later prove he was exactly correct. Mindset changes everything. 

Here are some simple tips to change your mindset:

1. The Power of “Yet” - Many fixed mindset beliefs can be transformed by adding the word “yet.” For example, if you experience failure in a fixed mindset, your automatic response might be to think: “I can’t do this.” By adding “yet” to this phrase you change it immediately from fixed mindset to growth mindset: “I can’t do this yet.” Similarly, you can turn, “I don’t understand this,” into, “I don’t understand this yet.” The small three-letter word “yet” opens up the possibility of improvement and growth in the future.
2. Stop Absolute Thinking - You’ve probably heard the phrase “never say never,” and that is a helpful first step in stopping absolute thinking. Absolute thinking is when you frame things as never or always, black or white, can or can’t. For example, upon receiving feedback from a supervisor, a fixed mindset with absolute thinking might respond with, “My boss is always critical. I never do things well enough.” If this sounds like you, try taking out the absolute word and adding the word “today.” Then it becomes, “My boss is critical today. I didn’t do things well enough today,” leaving room to learn and grow tomorrow.
3. Resist the Spiral - Sometimes when we meet a challenge or failure, we are tempted to descend a downward spiral into self-defeat, where we recount all our other failures and make up reasons why we most likely will fail in the future. This is especially true of people with fixed mindsets. The fixed mindset believes that “luck runs out” and can very easily see failure as a sign to accept defeat and stop trying. To switch over to a growth mindset and resist the spiral of defeatism, focus on the quality of your efforts instead of the quality of your results. The easiest way to do this is to ask yourself, “Did I do my best?” Some days your “best” will be better than or not quite as good as other days, but by concentrating on what you can control (your choices) rather than what you can’t control (the outcomes, everything else), you can keep your self-talk in a space of growth.

Check out this infographic for a summary of all we’ve talked about today, and until next time, keep going and keep growing!