Changing from a Fixed to a Growth Mindset
In the book Mindset, Dweck, Carol S, refers to mindset as a belief that a person can have in regard to individual attributes such as capabilities, intelligence and talents. These traits can influence an individual’s success within different life dimensions. People who possess a growth mindset seems to have a development view and pools together all their abilities and skills in order to push them to success (Dweck 243). Consequently, they develop a desire to learn new things and also have the capability to embrace challenges in the learning process. The implication here is that to change from a fixed to a growth mindset is not easy, but it’s something that can be done. The question is how, thus to comprehend the concept, this paper seeks to discuss various ways that a person can manage to shift from fixed to a growth mindset in the workplace.
In a workplace environment, the growth development of people plays a significant role in their success. A worker can be assisted in learning and embracing efforts that lead to personal development. Many challenges face people in a workplace, but in order to succeed an individual has to work on the allocated tasks with passion and be able to accomplish the set goals. In case a person has a fixed mindset he or she has to seek for aspiration from others who have succeeded and learn what to do in order to move forward and attain personal development (Vandewalle 307). The key to being fit in the class of people with a growth mindset one is expected to be ready to develop and project to attain high levels of individual mastery and success. In other words, this calls for the acquisition of self-actualization attributes with the ultimate experience and increased productivity in the fields that one operated with a fixed mindset.
Shifting into a growth mindset requires a person to comprehend the existing difference between exists between growth and fixed mindsets. The working environment that workers operate in within an organization holds on a key role in shaping employees mindset. In other words, it assists in fostering a fixed to a growth mindset culture in an organization. Embracing positive changes in terms of performance is paramount for those people intending to shift into a growth mindset in a workplace (Popova). Managers must lead from the front and coach the employees on the ways that can help them improve personal performance through constructive and frequent feedback about their performance. Likewise, an organization should not go ahead and develop measures that will facilitate balance growth and development among all employees and this way a growth mindset will be nurtured from an individual and group level at the same time.
The transformation role from a fixed to a growth mindset is not only mandated to an individual but in organization managers and leaders can also assist. Managers can be embracing mistakes made by employees, offer directions to avoid their reoccurrence in future. As a result, employees will not be working with the fear of making mistakes. Still, instead they will capitalize on them as a guideline to identify their weak areas and improve on them (Hochanadel 47). The errors made by workers will no longer be seen as an indication of failure, but a learning opportunity an aspect that will evoke growth. The resulting increase will be that fewer mistakes are likely to be made, and individual, team, and the entire organization’s growth will improve. Therefore, changing from a fixed to a growth mindset is influenced by the concept of ensuring that people in an organization gain confidence when it comes to revealing their weak areas (O’Rourke 30). Managers are also encouraged to talk about the mistakes that they make in the course of their career to act as an encouragement to the workers. Despite all, shifting from a fixed to a growth mindset means that a person has to have the courage to face challenges with courage and use them as a platform to attain set goals and objectives. That is understanding the things that hold them back within the fixed mindset, such as defining their jealous level that comes along anytime that they come across talented people. This implies having the strength of others to develop his or her foundation to attain the same level as them. The point here is that people with a fixed mindset should try and learn from those who have already succeed through having embraced a growth mindset. In a workplace, employees intending to develop must capitalize on the positive and negative feedback given and meet the envisioned goals (Vandewalle 336). Individuals should take a crucial step of noting down their progress over time to be in a position to identify areas that they succeed well as compared to the past. This type of reflection will enable them to foster more of a growth mindset. Anytime that a person notices some progress, he or she feels motivated and continues to improve even more.
Effective communication is paramount in an organization, particularly on matters involving people’s abilities in nurturing a shift from fixed to a growth mindset. As a result, an organization can discuss existing growth opportunities, organizing training seminars to show its people the need to think outside the confines of a fixed mindset to the one of being able to identify their abilities and talent in doing something(Dweck 215). It’s also paramount for an organization to come up with a plan on how to recognize and appreciate persons who are enthusiastic about taking the available openings to learn and develop new ideas. For instance, those that are always on the front end to accept and correct mistakes made by noting down the missed points and struggle to correct and get them right. An organization should also emphasize the need for good performance among its employees and anytime that they refer to particular individuals, they all the time include the failures and success, then acknowledge the strategies followed to the attainment of positive results (O’Rourke 35). This, in its self, is an opportunity for persons to develop. That is, the issue of taking and developing better approaches to attempt assignments that are dispensed in the work environment and fundamentally testing undertaking, envision, and recognize rewards. This implies that persons will stand a better chance to work on any task without thinking about whether it essentially leads to success or not.
In conclusion, it’s possible to shift from a fixed to a growth mindset, but individuals should put in mind that success necessitates commitment. Persons who possess a fixed mindset attain success through diverse ways as compared to those with a growth mindset. That is they avoid things that they come across and which looks like an obstacle and a challenge to them. Therefore, fixed mindset individuals can only be able to change to growth mindset if only the start by admitting that there are alternatives out of the fixed mindset, then develop confidence and become innovative, creative, and not afraid of taking calculated risks.
Works Cited
Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House Digital, Inc., 2008.
O’Rourke, Eleanor, et al. “Brain points: a growth mindset incentive structure boosts persistence in an educational game.” Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems. ACM, 2014.
Vandewalle, Don. “A growth and fixed mindset exposition of the value of conceptual clarity.” Industrial and Organizational Psychology 5.3 (2012): 301-305.
Dweck, Carol. “What having a “growth mindset” actually means.” Harvard Business Review 13 (2016): 213-226.
Hochanadel, Aaron, and Dora Finamore. “Fixed and growth mindset in education and how grit helps students persist in the face of adversity.” Journal of International Education Research (JIER) 11.1 (2015): 47-50.
Popova, Maria. “Fixed vs. Growth: The two basic mindsets that shape our lives.” Brain Pickings, (2014).