Individuals who believe their talents can be developed, whether that be through hard work, good strategies, or input from others, possess a growth mindset. They tend to achieve more than individuals who believe their talents are innate gifts, those with a fixed mindset because they worry less about looking smart and emphasize learning and improvement. 

Individuals that embody a growth mindset encourage appropriate risk-taking, knowing that some risks won’t work out. They are rewarded for important and useful lessons learned, even if they don’t meet their original goals. These individuals support collaboration rather than competition, as they see working together as an opportunity for self-development. 

On a bigger scale - when companies embrace a growth mindset, their employees report feeling far more empowered and committed; they also receive far greater organizational support for collaboration and innovation. However, individuals employed at fixed-mindset companies report more of only one thing: cheating and deception among employees, presumably to gain an advantage in the talent race.

 “Growth mindset” has become increasingly popular in today’s society. However, it is still misconceived. Often, individuals believe:

I already have it, and I always have. 

People often confuse a growth mindset with being flexible, open-minded or having a positive outlook — qualities they believe they’ve simply always had. This is often referred to as a false growth mindset. 

Everyone is a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets, and that mixture continually evolves with experience. A “pure” growth mindset doesn’t exist, which we have to acknowledge in order to attain the benefits we seek.

A growth mindset is just about praising and rewarding effort. 

This is not true for students in schools or for employees at work. In both settings, outcomes are important. It is critical to reward not just effort but learning and progress. Further, we must emphasize the processes that yield these, such as seeking help from others, trying new strategies, and capitalizing on setbacks to move forward effectively. The result — the bottom line — follows from deeply engaging in these processes.

Even if we correct these misconceptions, it’s still not easy to attain a growth mindset. A reason as to why this is is because we all have our own fixed-mindset triggers. When we face challenges, receive criticism, or perform poorly compared to others, we can easily fall into insecurity or defensiveness, a response that inhibits growth.

To remain in a growth zone, we must identify and work with these triggers. Many individuals have benefited from learning to recognize when their fixed mindset “persona” appears and what it does to make them feel threatened or defensive. Most importantly, over time, they have learned to talk back to it, persuading it to collaborate with them as they pursue challenging goals.

It’s hard work, but individuals can gain a lot by deepening their understanding of growth-mindset concepts and the processes for putting them into practice. It gives them a richer sense of who they are, what they stand for, and how they want to move forward.