The Growth Mindset Explained
Carol Dweck is widely known for her work in this field. Through her research, she identified two mindsets: fixed and growth. A fixed mindset is “believing your qualities are carved in stone,” while a growth mindset is “the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts” (Dweck, 2006, pp. 6–7).
The experience of these mindsets is on a continuum. It is not possible to always operate from one or the other. For example, you might have a fixed or growth perspective about your math ability. Maybe you think that you are horrible with numbers because they do not come naturally to you. In your mind, you either “get” math or you don’t.
On the other hand, you could have a growth mindset if you believe you have the ability to learn math because it is a skill that a person develops. Your perspective is that you do not understand it, yet.
An individual also could have a fixed mindset in one area of their life and a growth mindset in another. Maybe you believe you are not athletically inclined, so you avoid sports or other physically demanding activities. You believe people are born with athletic prowess and that they have a natural talent that you do not possess.
In another area of your life, you feel confident in your public-speaking ability, so you seek out opportunities to do that more often. You also believe it is a skill that develops with practice. Each time you do it and receive feedback, you learn how to get better. This motivates you to continue.
It is easy to understand how a fixed mindset could hold a person back. In our math ability example, that person might avoid seeking jobs that involve math. The bottom line is that some people operate from the perspective that intelligence is a finite thing. Others believe it is mutable.
In an article for the Harvard Business Review, Dweck (2016) points out three areas of confusion some experience regarding her research. First, people mix up open-mindedness and positivity with having a growth mindset, believing that they have always had a growth mindset and, therefore, always will.
Second, some people believe that praising and rewarding effort is all that matters. Her research demonstrated that acknowledging the process is critical, as is the learning and progress that led to the process.
Finally, sometimes people think that if they talk about a growth mindset, or put up posters about it, that is all that is needed. Without doing any work to create a growth mindset culture or environment, those posters are just paper on a wall.
Having a growth mindset involves understanding that taking appropriate risks sometimes leads to failure. The difference, though, is in how a person with a growth mindset defines and rebounds from that failure. People who consistently develop and maintain a growth mindset share the following characteristics (Dweck, 2006, p. 245):
- They embrace challenges.
- They persist in the face of setbacks.
- They see effort as the path to mastery.
- They learn from criticism.
- They find lessons and inspiration in the success of others.
It is not enough to shift our mindset. We also need a healthy dose of grit and resilience to achieve short- and long-term goals.
What Are Grit and Resilience?
In 2006, an aspiring PhD candidate was fascinated with the idea that some people seem to be grittier than others. Her exploration started after deciding to become a 7th-grade math teacher several years earlier. She noticed that some students appeared to have the ability to tackle long-term challenges better than others, regardless of IQ scores.
You probably have heard of Angela Lee Duckworth and her work around grit and resilience. In case you have not or need a reminder, here is her 2013 TED talk, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.
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