Fixed Mindset vs a Growth Mindset; How to be a Better Leader

Posted on April 22, 2024 by David Campanella, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

WHAT IS A MINDSET?
According to General Systems Theory, a mindset is a set of assumptions, attitudes, methods, or beliefs held by a person or groups of people. A mindset is a mental gatekeeper set up to protect and guide us.

ALL IDEAS, DECISIONS AND ACTIONS ARE RUN THROUGH OUR MINDSET
Our mindset originates in the potential we see around us. Do we see danger or opportunities? How do we interpret what we see coming? What potential outcomes do we imagine?

Our perspective affects our performance, which is cultivated in the unconscious rhythm that plays across the four stages of a mindset: (1) the potential you see around you influences (2) the actions you are willing to take, which generates (3) the results you get and those results then reinforce (4) the beliefs that you hold about yourself and the world around you. These beliefs then guide the potential you see around you, and the rhythm repeats, hardening our mindset. Beliefs are created through experience and very hard to change so the best way to change your mindset is to intervene before the potential-you-see stage by suspending our disbelief and imposing a new perspective of the potential for something different. We will come back to this later.

WHAT IS A FIXED MINDSET?
If you have a fixed mindset, you think your failures are linked to your abilities or lack thereof. “I failed because I can not do that.” You have a fixed view of the potential you see based on your past experiences. It’s fairly black and white, abilities are unchanging, either you can do it or you can’t. You have a business approach of ‘stick to what you know or is proven to work’. You believe that your potential is set.

People with a fixed mindset thrive in a repeatable job environment where they know they are good at something, and that is what they do. At their best, consistency with quality is what they contribute. Think of an accountant; the job hasn’t changed much over time, it’s dependable, and there’s a way to do everything. Since you see the world in this fixed way, feedback is personal. Change is hard; you want standard operating procedures to show you how to do the task. Your fixed beliefs affect the potential you see in the world around you and influence your actions.

AN UNCHECKED FIXED MINDSET CAN BE SELF-LIMITING.
I remember working with a CFO who had a fixed mindset. He was excellent at his job, and I relied on his predictable perspective, but he fought against the change I was trying to bring about in our organization. It was difficult to bring him on board and show him a new way of doing things, a new way that I believed was essential for the organization to meet its aspirations.

He couldn’t see the potential this change could create. The thought of doing something without a proven track record, something his past experiences had not encountered, something that challenged the potential he saw for success, made him uncomfortable.

IF YOU FIND YOURSELF RESPONDING IN A SIMILAR MANNER, YOU COULD BE STEPPING INTO ONE OR MORE OF THE 10 FIXED MINDSET TRAPS:
1) Avoiding Challenges: Shying away from challenges due to fear of failure.
2) Effort as Fruitless: Viewing effort as pointless if one is not naturally talented.
3) Ignoring Useful Feedback: Dismissing constructive criticism and feedback.
4) Feeling Threatened by Others’ Success: Perceiving the other’s success as a threat to one’s status.
5) Perfectionism: Believing that if you’re not perfect, you’re a failure.
6) Defensiveness: Defending one’s ego or status instead of being open to learning.
7) Plateauing Early: Settling for a certain level of skill and not pushing beyond it.
8) Entitlement: Believing success is due without putting in the work or effort.
9) Inability to Recover from Setbacks: Viewing setbacks as insurmountable vs. opportunities to grow.
10) Desire for Approval: Valuing validation from others over one’s own learning process.

WHAT IS A GROWTH MINDSET?
If you have a growth mindset, you see failure as an opportunity to learn and grow because you see abilities as scalable. You can learn new skills, do things better, and have your eyes set on self-improvement. Because you see work in part as developmental and how you do things as flexible, feedback is constructive. Your identity is not wrapped up in what you can or can not do.

You ask, ‘Tell me how to do this better so I can learn and grow.’ Challenges are welcomed experiences as they are opportunities to grow. You believe effort and attitude determine abilities, you are inspired by seeing others, and you love to try new things or adopt new ways of doing old things. You believe you can do hard things because you have done stretching tasks before. You believe you can be thrown a curve ball and figure out what to do with it. You are not afraid to fall on the path as you journey toward your goal.

Steve Jobs said, “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” I think this describes someone with a growth mindset well.

WHEN IS A GROWTH MINDSET TOO MUCH?
When it produces a maverick-mess-maker. Someone who believes they can do things they truly can not or would be done better by someone else. They envision their potential to succeed without considering the complexity of the endeavor, the cost of failing, or the conditions required for success. If given unconstrained room, they can create strategic confusion, exhaust precious resources and create damage that others need to clean up.

When we take a growth mindset too far, we take on work we shouldn’t. We throw out tried-and-true methodologies and create chaos. Organizations can’t always withstand the pain of trying 100 techniques before finding the one that brings growth.

IS A GROWTH MINDSET BETTER FOR TEAMS?
When I work with teams, leaders are tempted to label those with growth mindsets as better workers. This temptation arises when witnessing their eagerness to try again and collaborate in finding ways to achieve goals, which can be more appealing than those who resist change and seek guidance.

But a balance is required in individuals and teams. You can not forgo the past to blaze a path into the unknown in the name of innovation, growth and improvement. Sometimes, the road more travelled is the way to go. There is a reason we do things the way we do. Established best practices or standard operating procedures save time and are preferred because someone else has tried different ways and found what works.

However, if a fixed collective mindset influences a team, it will not be able to adapt to changes in the work environment or create breakthroughs to reach goals.

SO HOW DO YOU FIND BALANCE?
Don’t shy away from labelling people with a growth or fixed mindset in a team environment. I believe open conversation about ‘what is’ is always the best approach to working together. Label it, talk it out and clarify how each will uniquely contribute towards better performance.

When a team works together on a significant challenge or difficult mandate, I prefer to see someone with a growth mindset partnered with someone with a fixed mindset. When they appreciate each other’s unique part to play, they can play off each other and find new ways forward without disregarding the past or creating too much risk when trying new methods. Both individuals have the same value but different contributions to the discussion.

Another exercise I like with teams is ‘the unreasonable request.’ This is when you pose an unreasonable request, such as triple revenue in 3 years. Then, you guide the conversation and identify, as a team, what conditions would have to be in place for this to happen (growth mindset) and what restrictions are keeping you from those conditions (fixed mindset).

This exercise often ends in finding a balance between the fixed mindset members of the team and the growth mindset members; they may not have the resources to triple revenue in 3 years, but they will be stretched much further than if they incrementalized their way forward.

HOW DO YOU ADOPT A GROWTH MINDSET?
As we discussed at the beginning, because mindsets are hardwired and involve thought patterns, a growth mindset isn’t something you can just turn on and off. However, it is a thought rhythm that you can inject an intervention, and it begins with suspending disbelief. Think about watching a fantasy movie series like The Lord of the Rings. You set your perspective of what is possible aside and immerse yourself in another reality where trees talk and hobbits live in holes.

In the same way, to adopt a Growth Mindset suspend your disbelief, open your mind to the potential you could see for a moment, and think, ‘What good could happen in this situation? What’s the best-case scenario? And how can I work towards it?’

As a leader, set aside your fixed mindset traps and apply some learning agility…:

… to attend to the needs of the team as you lead through aspirational achievements.
… to ask the unreasonable and the conditions to make it attainable
… to invest resources (time, people and capital) in areas of the best return and measure everything through a lens that nothing is sacred.

And as you suspend your disbelief, let those new ideas and potential you see around you (growth mindset) dictate your decision-making and action-taking and allow the results to put your beliefs on trial:
1) Were your beliefs about the situation true?
2) What has happened in the past that has given you those beliefs? Is that still true?
3) Based on the results, what new beliefs can you form?
4) What fears or insecurities are informing your beliefs?

Those shifts in Beliefs will expand the potential you see, the cycle will repeat, and over time your brain will adopt a Growth Mindset.

HAVING A GROWTH MINDSET WILL MAKE YOU A BETTER LEADER AND PROBLEM SOLVER.
With a growth mindset, you can easily adapt to new environments, weather the storm of change and chart a new path for your team. You will be more resilient and able to manage challenges that come your way.

Learn a new thought rhythm, adopt a growth mindset and learn to find a balance in your team and yourself to find new ways. See challenges as opportunities to learn while maintaining consistency and dependency in executing what is expected of you.

Here are some excellent growth mindset quotes to inspire you and your team on your journey. If these quotes resonate with you, it’s a sign that you have a growth mindset and are on the right path.

“It’s not that I’m so smart. It’s just that I stay with problems longer.” Albert Einstein.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow; learn as if you were to live forever.” Mahatma Gandhi.

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So sail away from the safe harbour. Explore, Dream, Discover.” Mark Twain.