How Growth Mindset Can Help Your Organization

by Becky Sharpe, CEO of ISTS, NSPA Premium Affiliate Member

February 6, 2024

As a business owner, leader and lifelong learner, I’ve often wondered: what makes us open to new concepts and experiences? Why do certain people seek out information and seem endlessly curious? After much contemplation, I believe it’s because of their mindset, one of growth.

An Introduction To Growth Mindset

The internet credits researcher, psychologist and Stanford professor Carol Dweck with coining the term and offers this explanation¹ :

A growth mindset […] describes people who believe that their success depends on time and effort. People with a growth mindset feel their skills and intelligence can be improved with effort and persistence. They embrace challenges, persist through obstacles, learn from criticism and seek out inspiration in others’ success.

Those who hold a growth mindset believe that they can get better at something by dedication of time, effort and energy. Working on one’s flaws, and the process—not the outcome—are the most important components. With time and practice, people with a growth mindset believe they can achieve what they want. The opposite of a growth mindset is a fixed mindset.

Why It’s Good For Business

in my business experience, a growth mindset in a professional setting is strongest when a work culture is one that does not punish, shame, demote or shut down people who share their thoughts (good or bad about the organization). Instead, the organization encourages, rewards and cheers on those who, in a respectful way, communicate about things they wonder, dream and contemplate.

Without proactively encouraging a growth mindset and reviewing processes, procedures, culture and communication practices are regularly for conflicts with growth mindset, businesses will improve at a slower pace or miss opportunities to do so completely. Growth mindsets get smothered when leaders have big egos, the types of people who want to get and take credit for success while they finger point when mistakes occur.

Growth mindsets flourish and are rocket fuel for organizations that create an environment in which people regularly see that their ideas and creativity will be rewarded and that they will be credited for them fully and sincerely. When leaders show their humanity by asking for help, admitting to mistakes and imperfections - instead of being the be-all-end-all - growth mindset becomes a part of the culture.

Imagine your work experience 25 years ago: the internet was new; fax machines were still a daily necessity and cell phones were just that – a phone…no camera, no music, no Bluetooth. If fixed mindset people had guided our work experience, we would still be waiting for the fax machine to beep and standing in line to pick up photos, hoping they turned out.

How To Change Your Mindset

If you want to have a mindset that is more often in growth mode than in fixed mode, how do you do that? The first step is to decide that you want to know and then to think about any righteousness you bring to work. I remember being told “women can’t run a company” and that “people won’t do business with a woman.” Really? That was only a few decades ago. Many companies missed out on hiring millions of incredible people who would have helped them grow their businesses, because of a fixed mindset.

When we are willing to pull back the mental curtains on our own ‘stuckness’, we will see opportunities for growth. I’m not saying it’s easy, but for me, it has been very impactful. I do this several times a year. I think about things I’m sure I know and get very curious about them, looking for ways to prove my mindset wrong as an exercise in a flexible mindset.

If you get energized by lightheartedness and humor, pick something you find silly. I did this for a year with ‘my socks have to match’. I believed it. Had been taught it. The first few weeks that I wore unmatching socks, I felt uncomfortable and a little nervous that someone would notice and judge me. Do you always sit in the same spot at dinner or when watching TV? Do you take the same route to your favorite store? Altering little things like this will help you understand how fixed you are and give you a simple exercise to practice a growth mindset by changing your routine.

As you experience the discomfort or enhanced focus associated with changing something that has become rote, you will be able to identify the intensity of your growth or fixed mindset. Who is and is not included in the decision and why? Is there data you keep from some but share with others and if so, why? Are there people in your workplace whose opinions are always or never considered?

Make It Stick

Just like exercise, to make growth mindset a constant it must become a habit. If ignored, a muscle will atrophy, as will a mindset. In his book Atomic Habits, author James Clear talks about the time and the effort needed to create a new habit, so approach your desire to improve your mindset with patience. Rituals, he says, are an effective way to make a habit stick. At work, notice if you are keeping or sharing information and why. Imagine your conversations are being recorded and how you would communicate (perhaps differently) if they were. Lastly, share your intention to make curiosity and a desire to learn a part of your corporate culture with your co-workers. Galvanize them to voice their thoughts to help everyone remove blind spots and embrace openness and to believe that the best (version of you and of all team members) is yet to come.

¹ https://tophat.com/glossary/g/growth-mindset/