10 Ways to Develop a Growth Mindset

Growth mindset is the belief that skills and intelligence can be grown and developed through hard work, good strategies, and input from others. In previous posts, I discussed fears and stories, or what prevents us from developing a growth mindset. In this next blog post in the series, we’ll look at specific ways to develop growth mindset.

Strategy # 1: Focus on continuous personal improvement

Learning, as the gerund form indicates, is a process. Having a growth mindset isn’t about meeting ONE challenge; rather, it’s about meeting it and then welcoming the next challenge. It’s about constantly learning, getting better, and increasing knowledge and skills.

How do you develop and keep that focus on continuous improvement? First, disassociate improvement from failure. Stop assuming that “room for improvement” translates into failure.

Second, make a new goal for every goal you accomplish. You’ll never stop learning. People with growth mindset know how to constantly create new goals to keep themselves stimulated.

Recommended resource: read James Clear’s blog post on continuous improvement.

Strategy # 2: Take ownership over your attitude

When you display and act from a growth mindset, own it. Acknowledge yourself for your growth perspective and try to sustain it as much as possible.

Keep in mind, however, that our mindset can change by the day, project, or the skills involved. Be mindful of triggers that bring out old patterns and behaviors. For example, seek out ways to prioritize learning over social approval. When you prioritize approval (i.e. looking good in front of colleagues or your boss) over learning, you sacrifice your own potential for growth.

Recommended resource: check out Marshall Goldsmith’s Triggers (available in local public libraries).

Strategy # 3: Think of feedback as a gift

Feedback is an important tool to support growth. Actively solicit and welcome feedback because feedback will make you reflect and give you ideas for adopting new practices and behaviors.

Furthermore, push yourself to provide honest, constructive feedback to help those around you learn and grow.

Recommended resources for giving and receiving feedback:

• Kim Scott’s Radical Candor framework
• The Center for Creative Leadership’s Situation-Behavior-Impact model
• The Social Transformation Project’s feedback toolkit

Strategy # 4: Celebrate growth with others

If you truly appreciate growth, share your progress with your colleagues, friends, and family.

As you discuss and model growth mindset behaviors, it encourages the people around you to recognize their own potential. When they see you constantly striving to improve yourself (instead of trying to one-up others), and celebrating the success and growth of others, it fosters a sense of teamwork and fellowship where people take a genuine interest in each other’s learning and development.

Furthermore, be vulnerable in the company of others. Worry less about saving face and try to experiment more. It will make it easier to take risks in the future.

Recommended resource: join or start a Working out loud circle.

Strategy # 5: Try different learning tactics

There’s no one-size-fits-all model for learning. What works for one person does not necessarily work for everyone else. Try out different tactics and identify what works for you.

Learn from other people’s mistakes. It may not always be wise to compare yourself to others, but it is important to realize that we often share similar weaknesses and we can learn not only from other people’s strengths, but also from their mistakes.

Also, seek out and appreciate diverse perspectives. Initiate conversations with people and groups you might not typically engage with. Approach these conversations with an open mind to discover new perspectives. Be open to see your views challenged. Fresh insights will stimulate your creativity, and encourage you to try new strategies.

Finally, cultivate grit. If you have that extra bit of determination, you will be more likely to seek approval from yourself rather than from others.

Recommended resource: watch Angela Duckworth’s TED talk and read her book “Grit”.

Strategy # 6: Value the process over the end result

Don’t misunderstand this to mean that results don’t matter; of course they do. However, people with a growth mindset enjoy and value the learning process, and don’t mind when it requires more time and effort than initially anticipated.

You must be keenly aware and accept that it takes time to learn. Don’t expect to master any topic in a few hours. Growth is more important than speed. Learning fast isn’t the same as learning well, and learning well requires allowing time for mistakes.

Recommended resource: read James Clear’s blog post on systems vs. goals.

Strategy # 7: View challenges as opportunities

If you want to develop a growth mindset, you have to learn to embrace uncertainty. You should realize that in order to learn, you must be challenged. You accept situations in which you might appear weak, or vulnerable and you relish opportunities for self-improvement.

Choose difficult projects and tasks, the kind that take you out of your comfort zone and invest the time and effort to master them. Persist when you face a setback: try different approaches until you find one that works.

Recommended resource: read Trevor Ragan’s short article about the importance of mistakes.

Strategy # 8: Improve your self-awareness

Knowing yourself, your strengths, your tendencies, your triggers plays a key role in developing and staying in growth mindset.

First, discover and leverage your signature strengths.

Second, acknowledge and embrace imperfections. Hiding from your weaknesses means you’ll never overcome them.

Finally, take time to reflect on your learning, at least once a day.

Recommended resources:

• Read this HBR article on how to increase your self-awareness.
• Take the Strengthsfinder assessment to learn your top 5 strengths. (There are many other assessments such as DISC, Myers-Briggs, VIA, Belbin, etc. that I encourage you to check out. Personally, I found great value in Strengthsfinder.)

Strategy #9: Upgrade your vocabulary

Replace the word ‘failing’ with the word ‘learning’. When you make a mistake or fall short of a goal, you haven’t failed, you’ve learned. As Thomas Edison famously said, “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”

Similarly, use the word “yet.” Carol Dweck (who pioneered the concept of growth mindset) says “not yet” has become one of her favorite phrases. Whenever you struggle with a task, remember that this means you haven’t mastered it yet.

Recommended resource: watch Carol Dweck’s TED talk “The Power of Yet”.

Strategy # 10: Remember that the brain keeps evolving

The brain isn’t fixed; the mind shouldn’t be either. There’s a close relationship between learning and “brain training.” Similar to the rest of the body, the brain is like a muscle that needs to be worked out. Just like you could train your body to perform a physical feat, you could train your brain and vastly improve cognitive skills and emotional reactions. Learning about neuroplasticity helped me re-frame what I thought was possible and inspired me to aim higher.

Recommended resource: read Dr. Merzenich’s article on how to keep your mind sharp and explore the research of neuroplasticity.

What’s ONE question or challenge you have about growth mindset? What kind of help and support do you need to apply what you learned?

This blog post is part of a series on growth mindset. You can read the introductory post here.

Zarko Palankov seeks ways to connect ideas, people and organizations, to create platforms for learning, collaboration and growth, and to fundamentally change the leadership paradigm: how we work together toward a common vision. He is building a social venture, LeadIN, that grows the individual and collective leadership of people and organizations. LeadIN brings people together to learn, share, and grow their leadership.

Feel free to contact Zarko at zarko@lead-in.co or follow LeadIN on Twitter @leadincommunity.