The Happy Company #5: Embracing the Growth Mindset
Grab your coffee, tea, or perhaps something you never had before like a combucha or Zelda power-up potion, because today we’re exploring the world of growth mindset. That’s right — it’s time to channel your inner superhero and unleash the power of possibility!
The Growth Mindset Revolution
So, what exactly is this whole growth mindset thing, you ask? Allright, picture this: You’re facing a new challenge. Doesn’t matter what it is. It could be:
- a puzzle to solve,
- a mountain to climb,
- a project that’s pushing you to your limits.
Now this is what makes the difference: Instead of throwing in the towel and calling it quits, you roll up your sleeves and say, “Challenge accepted!”
That essentially is the essence of a growth mindset. It’s the belief that your abilities and intelligence can grow and evolve over time. It’s like Jake Paul continuously trying to fight a next bigger, badder, better name in boxing.
*Whether he’s any good, is beside the point, I don’t know the first thing about boxing, except that young Mike Tyson was crazy.
So how does this look versus the “Traditional (Fixed) mind”?
There are plenty of models, illustrations, etc. out there that will list a hundred items of how the growth and fixed mindset compare to each other. I listed some above in the illustration as well. The basics of it however come down to this:
A growth mindset is about having the belief that your abilities can blossom with effort, zooming out to see the bigger picture and taking learnings from doing so.
A fixed mindset sees it as a given, a static.
The Stats Speak for Themselves:
- Students with a growth mindset scored 32 points higher on reading tests than those with a fixed mindset (OECD).
- Students in a growth mindset intervention were three times more likely to score in the top 20% on a national achievement test (Student Experience Network).
Grow Your Mindset with These Tips:
- Reframe challenges: Instead of saying “I can’t do this,” say “This is challenging, but I can and most likely will learn from it.”
- Celebrate effort: Acknowledge and appreciate the hard work you put in, not just the outcome.
- Embrace feedback: Listen to constructive criticism and use it to improve.
- Seek out learning opportunities: Continuously learn new things to expand your knowledge.
So you can actually work on it. To give you some exercises to start with, have a look at these two:
1. Challenge Reframing:
- Pick a Recent Challenge: Think of a recent situation where you faced a setback or difficulty (could be exercise-related, work-related, anything!).
- Fixed Mindset Framing: Write down how you might typically describe the situation with a fixed mindset. For example: “I’m just bad at running, I’ll never be fast.”
- Growth Mindset Reframing: Rewrite the situation using a growth mindset perspective. Focus on effort, learning, and improvement. For example: “This run was tough, but with practice and focusing on my breathing, I can get faster.”
2. Effort & Strategy Reflection:
- Effort & Strategies Used: Reflect on the effort you put into the challenge and any specific strategies you used (even if they didn’t work perfectly).
- Next Time Strategies: Based on the experience, identify 1–2 new strategies you could try next time you face a similar challenge.
This exercise helps you identify areas for growth. It also helps to challenge negative self-talk. It trains your brain to start seeing challenges as opportunities to learn and improve, which is the core of a growth mindset.
More blog posts in this series on Medium:
- The Happy Company #1: The importance of psychological safety
- The Happy Company #2: Building trust in remote teams
- The Happy Company #3: Navigating conflict in teams
- The Happy Company #4: A culture of empathy
Cheers,
Roel
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