Growth Mindset in Business
By: Lauren Marsicano
Insta: @networkingmaverick
Growth Mindset in Business
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
--Winston Churchill
The Churchill quote above is an excellent example of a growth mindset. Stanford Researcher and Psychologist, Carol Dweck, wrote a book titled “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” where she presents over twenty years of research and reflections into the power of changing your conscious and subconscious beliefs to achieve significant personal growth. To understand how a growth mindset can help you in business, let’s first explore its opposite.
Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset
A fixed mindset is the idea that personal qualities - such as identity, personality, intelligence, and thoughts - never change. And that success is due to the proper use of innate qualities, not one’s efforts to learn and grow. Someone with a fixed mindset will avoid failure at all costs.
On the opposite side of the spectrum is a growth mindset. This is the belief that your personal qualities can be changed by your acquired knowledge and life experiences. Someone with the mindset believes that success comes from trying, no matter the outcome. Failure is seen as an exercise of your abilities and as an opportunity to learn and grow. Personality, identity, thoughts, and intelligence can be developed and changed over time.
Fixed Mindset = Lack of Business Growth
Having a fixed mindset can keep you from achieving your business and careers goals. If you see failure as something to be avoided, you never take risks.
You never collaborate with that big company you’ve been watching for years, because they might not even want to work with you.
You never ask for that raise or promotion you’ve been working so hard for, because you might not get it.
Your avoidance of failure keeps you from growing. With this mindset, your innate characteristics and talents are all you’ll ever have to achieve success.
Growth Mindset = Success in Business
On the other hand, a growth mindset helps you make moves to advance in business.
You approach that big company for a collaboration, and if they say no, it’s ok. You ask for feedback on what you can do to make your business desirable for collaboration, work to improve, then you try again. Or you try again with another company.
You ask for that raise or promotion. And if your request is denied, you ask what you can do to earn it. Then, you continue to work hard to earn it. Or take their feedback to produce better work at another company that will give you what you want.
You use the failure to help you learn to be and do better. This way of thinking opens you up to new possibilities for growth and advancement in business. With this mindset, your innate characteristics and talents are just a starting point from which to grow and achieve greater success.
Conclusion
There are clear benefits to adopting a growth mindset in business.
Failures are less damaging to your psyche because you believe your innate qualities aren’t everything you have to achieve business or career success.
Instead, you focus on developing your talents through learning and lived experiences to achieve that success.
Which mindset do you have when it comes to business?