What actually limits us? Is it our innate intelligence or is it other influencing factors? And if it is other influencing factors, who decides whether these influencing factors limit, support or inspire us? Of course, any motivational coach would answer at this point: "You yourself decide which things limit you and which don't."
Now I don't count myself among the classic motivational coaches who spread the opinion that any of us can achieve anything we set our minds to. Nevertheless, I would like to share a concept with you that I find very helpful when dealing with teams and employees as well as in educational work. I am talking about the "Mindset Concept" by Prof. Carol Susan Dweck. In her book "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success", she distinguishes between two different basic attitudes in us humans.
- people with a fixed mindset believe that what they have been given in terms of intelligence and ability is unchangeable.
- people with a growth mindset assume that they can expand their skills and abilities at any time.
These two basic attitudes have a major influence on how people deal with challenges and possible failures. People with a fixed mindset avoid challenges because they are afraid of defeat. From their point of view, this could prove to themselves and others that their abilities are limited. It is understandably uncomfortable for them to make this transparent. People with a growth mindset, on the other hand, like challenges as they see them as an opportunity to improve and learn new things. These people tend to see defeat or constructive criticism as an incentive to try again or try harder. For people with a growth mindset, the external impact of failure is not as negatively connoted as it is for people with a fixed mindset.
The consequence of these different approaches is that people with a growth mindset are more successful and possibly also happier, as they move through life with less fear.
At this time, I would like to make it clear that each and every one of us carries both inner attitudes (i.e. 'fixed' and 'growth') within us. It would be unusual if we were to approach all areas of life with the fixed mindset. However, it is much more likely that we are more courageous in some areas of life than in others: in other words, we take on every challenge in one area of life and are more cautious in the other, turning to the tried and tested.
And who says that's a bad thing? Just imagine how exhausting it would be if you wanted to constantly develop in every area of your life. A growth mindset allows us to grow, learn, make an effort and become better. This applies to areas in which we already have many strengths, but also to areas in which our weaknesses predominate. We don't have to stop there either.
But beware: an exaggerated growth mindset can also have negative consequences. You can't become good at everything. Everyone has limited energy and also needs breaks. Building on our strengths and using our talents takes less energy than working on the areas where our weaknesses lie. If we focus too much on overcoming our weaknesses, we run the risk of overextending ourselves and putting our mental health at risk.
Nevertheless, I would like to promote a growth mindset here, because how inspiring is it to realize that you can develop your own intelligence instead of settling for an IQ of x?
As always, before we can help others to strengthen their growth mindset, we have to start with ourselves. Here are a few tips for starting with yourself:
- keep exposing yourself to new situations and challenges and thus regularly leave your comfort zone
- ask for feedback, especially constructive criticism, and learn from it
- accept that lifelong learning is necessary and continue to develop yourself further
- take the negative connotation out of your own mistakes and failures and reinterpret them as an opportunity to learn
Very similar things help to strengthen the growth mindset of people in our environment, our organization or our families:
- Very important: praise people, employees, children, students for their effort and perseverance and not just for their achievements!
- Offer constructive feedback and establish feedback processes
- Offer help in case of failure and make the opportunities to learn from them visible
- Enable coaching and mentoring
- Create opportunities to try out new things, to experiment and to face up challenges
In a nutshell: Prof. Carol Susan Dweck refers to a high school in Chicago where students were never given the grade ‘failed’ but instead the result ‘not yet’. From her point of view, these two words summarize her entire theory on the growth mindset: You're not there yet, but you have the potential to get there!
This text first appeared in my newsletter "It's innovation Wednesday". It is published every three to four weeks. For subscription click here