3minutes read

Does Growth Mindset matter to success?

 

  • During pandemic, global work from home increased to 558m (from whatever it was earlier) and corresponded to 17.4% of global population.
  • Those who switched to telework were of higher Income, Education and Better Health
    within the society.
  • It is forecasted that 3% of manufacturing global workforce will continue to work-at-home post pandemic.

Traditionally, home was a place where we lived only at a particular time – evenings, weekends and holidays. And for last two years, though our shopfloors kept running, a large part of the population were confined to home fulltime, adapting to a new life where living, working & learning happened in the same room.

With memories of office life fading for some, its is certain that the notion of success evolve in this new world of hybrid work culture when some of us are confined within the walls of home? What is definition of success and how you can make sure you are in the right path to succeed in life?

Welcome Growth Mindset.
In 2015, Stanford Professor Carol Dweck coined the term “Growth Mindset” in her book Mindset.

 

“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure. It is: Try to please everybody.”
– Herbert Bayard Swope

Implementing SEO strategies help you to rank higher on the search engine’s results page (SERP). This means that when your target customers search for products and services that your industry offers, they are likely to find your website. When you repeatedly appear on the SERP, users become aware of your site and your business. This increases the chances of landing potential customers on your webpages.

SEO is a Cost-Effective Advertising Strategy

One SEO component called off-site SEO ensures that users of external pages or of social media can find your website. Being optimized for SEO increases the site’s potential to draw customers from other platforms other than the search engine. For instance, when you post content and links to your page on Facebook or Twitter, you are able to promote your website and attract more customers. One of the main goals of SEO is to attract the targeted audience through organic searches. The number of visitors to your site influences your sales and subscriptions. It also promotes the marketing of your products and services. Increased inbound traffic is always good for business because it equates to more conversion opportunities.

Growth Mindset has helped entrepreneur Bill Gates and the professional footballer Cristiano Ronaldo to find success and endure it continuously. Both men possessed natural intelligence and talent in their professions, but both men also dedicated their lives to learning and self-improvement in order to be leaders in their respective fields.

Growth Mindset is the belief that a person’s most basic abilities can be developed through dedication, hard work and practice.

They believe that their natural level of intelligence, as well as their talents, are just a starting point and that with time and dedication these can improve to a level that is not only the very best, but that can also surpass others’ pre-existing levels of talent.

Such a mindset then nurtures a hunger and a passion for learning and constant self-improvement, as well as resilience that is essential in order to achieve significant accomplishments.

It is possible to plant the seeds of Growth Mindset in the entire factory floor as a culture drive in your organization. Then what do I need to do, to drive Growth Mindset?

First, starting with you being the key driver of change in the shop floor, avoid being the victim of three misconceptions that are commonly touted and confused with the actual values of possessing a growth mindset.

They are:

I already have it, and always have

This misconception is borne from people believing that part of having a growth mindset is the ability to remain flexible, optimistic and open-minded. Open-mindedness is important in the sense of remaining open to continuous learning and improvement, but for a person to believe they already possess the traits hinders their ability to truly remain open, and lacks the motivation or dedication required to self-improvement.

A growth mindset is about rewarding effort so that a person can “grow”

Most commonly found in schools and workplaces, this misconception confuses the definition and values of a growth mindset with nurturing positive reinforcement. Instead, to truly unlock your growth mindset, you need to be aware that success and rewards are consequences of your commitment to learning, self-development and progress, as well as effort.

Second, what is the role & responsibility of management in collectively engaging Growth Mindset in teh shop floor?

With all the above in mind, it’s time to think about how to adapt the true meaning of possessing a growth mindset – and the subsequent growth culture – into our workplace.

Experts say, typically workplaces tend to be full of triggers that can place us into a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset is the opposite of a growth mindset, so it is the belief that our intelligence and talents are fixed and therefore do not need development or improvement.

This means that when you and people around us are challenged, face criticism, or compare ourselves against the success of others, we often put up defences and feel insecure. Both of these traits hinder growth.

1. We will Believe you have a growth mindset, and you have one

You wouldn’t just imagine your car was a Ferrari and expect it to transform into one, so why should this be the case for non-committal mission statements?

Nurture a growth culture. Impliment policies that make this real and achievable, such as set time dedicated to learning and collaboration on projects. Promote collaboration over competition to ensure that you and I remain dedicated to the growth of not just company but also ourselves individually, nurturing self-improvement as well as a stronger team culture.

2. Set Learning Goals instead of Performance Goals

To truly unlock your value with a growth mindset, we will design rewards & recognition emphasising your commitment to learning, self-development and progress, as well as effort.

3. Provide feedback that focuses on improvement

To strike the right balance, when providing feedback (in one-to-ones or even on projects), praises will be accomplished with constructive feedback on areas that you have identified as needing improvement.

    References

    1. Voxeu.org’s statistics on working from home during pandemic
    2. Census.gov (united states census bureau)’s report compiled by Joey Marshall, Charlynn Burd and Michael Burrows on 31st March 2021
    3. Global Workplace Analytics’ special analysis of 2016 ACS data

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