80% of companies say a growth mindset culture directly drives profits; we say, of course!

Here are 3 things you can do to lean into a growth mindset culture

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

I recently read an article in Forbes reporting on TalentLMS’s Growth Mindset in the Workplace Report that shows 80% of companies say a growth mindset among employees directly contributes to an increase in that company’s bottom line. There were several statistics in this article that supports this claim, including:

• 88% of executives agree that a growth mindset is important for organizational success

• 64% of organizations who adopt a growth mindset culture report higher productivity and performance, and 58% cite improved employee engagement as a benefit

• 89% of senior leaders agree that future business success will depend on leaders who embody a growth mindset

Our work at the Equity Accelerator (EA) with different organizations that are up against a variety of challenges – from retaining top talent to unlocking the potential to innovate within their context – has shown us the impacts that a growth mindset culture can have on individuals, teams, and organizations. I’m so glad to see others promoting the benefits of adopting a growth mindset culture, or as we call it Cultures of Growth. These statistics are great, but what can you, as a Culture Creator in your organization, do to get your teams leaning into a growth mindset?

Here are three things that you can do right now! 

1. Do an informal Mindset Culture Cues Audit

There are Mindset Culture Cues in every organization that help shape the way we engage with one another; they tell people within the culture which behaviors are praised and rewarded, and which behaviors are not. Mindset Culture Cues come in many different shapes and forms from verbal and written encouraged behaviors to team norms that employees experience on a daily basis. When employees feel a gap between the stated and experienced culture of their organization, this is often because the cues that are being sent by the organization via its policies, practices, procedures and norms are not in line with the values that the organization professes. 

To better understand how your organization's mindset culture aligns with your organizational values, do an informal audit of your team’s Mindset Culture Cues. You can take our online Mindset Culture Cues Audit and consider questions like these:

• What are my team’s norms, and how do they contribute to people leaning more into their fixed or growth mindset? 

• How are ideas shared, critiqued, and praised within our team?

• How might I shift the way I behave on my team to demonstrate growth minded behaviors?

2. Be aware of your and your team’s Mindset Triggers

Mindset Triggers are common and predictable situations that are created in encounters that we have with one another and move us along the mindset continuum between a fixed and growth mindset. In our work and research at EA, we have seen four Mindset Triggers that have empirically shown the greatest impact on an organization’s Mindset Culture. They are:

• Evaluative Situations: Situations where you are going to be evaluated on your ideas or performance, like giving a presentation to senior leaders or pitching a new idea for a product to your team

• High Effort Situations: Situations where people are asked to try new things or learn new skills, like participating in stretch assignments or taking on new roles

• Critical Feedback: Moments when you give or receive feedback on something that could have gone better, whether verbally or in writing, and in private or public

• Success of Others: Moments when you compare yourself to others when they succeed or receive praise, whether in small moments, like praise or congratulations during a team meeting, or bigger moments like promotions 

Each of these triggers has the potential to shift someone into their fixed or growth mindset. I’m sure that some or all of these triggers resonate with you, and it’s important as Culture Creators, to not only understand how we are triggered in each of these moments, but to also to understand how those we support and work with are triggered in these moments, too. The goal is to be intentional about creating environments that trigger people into their growth mindset more of the time. You can take our online Mindset Triggers Assessment to start to understand your personal mindset trigger profile and lean into the following strategies:

• Create spaces where evaluative situations are more about learning and less about tearing down ideas

• Supporting people through the development of new skills by setting up coaching or mentoring opportunities 

• Being intentional about how you frame constructive feedback and praise

3. Be intentional about your role in creating the culture you want to see

Leaders in an organization have a large impact on an organization’s culture. This influence happens in the cues that we send and the environments we create. 

Mindset cultures not only have an impact on the way we perceive ourselves, but also how we are perceived by those that we lead. The Growth Mindset in the Workplace Report has a statistic that says 96% of executives claim they embody a growth mindset while only 45% of employees agree that their leaders demonstrate growth minded behaviors. This aligns with what we see in our own work. Often the messages that we think we are sending as leaders are not as clearly perceived by other members of our team as we would like them to be. We’ve seen this phenomenon occur in many different industries, including Higher Education, where a study at California Community Colleges found a similar misalignment between faculty and student mindset perception; overall faculty overwhelmingly self-reported endorsing growth mindset beliefs about their students’ abilities to learn and grow, whereas students perceived their faculty as having more fixed mindset beliefs. The question then becomes, how can we expect people within our organization to embody a growth mindset, when they can’t see what a growth mindset looks like in action. I propose that we take the following steps as leaders to close this gap:

• Commit to doing one growth minded behavior each week that demonstrates the importance of learning to those you support and lead. This can be the same behavior each week, but should showcase a different learning each time. 

• Gather feedback from those you lead on a regular basis. When you're trying to create a space where people are embodying a new mindset, transparency is key to making that space effective. 

• Remember the importance of celebrating wins, large and small. Working on your team or organization’s culture isn’t just about making people feel good, but it is certainly part of the process. Rewarding people for participating in creating a growth mindset culture will keep the fact that this kind of culture is important to you and other leaders in the organization top of mind for everyone. 

These tips are just the first steps you can take in creating a stronger Culture of Growth in your organization. If you’re interested in learning more about what you can do to create a Culture of Growth, reach out to me and my team at EA. We’d love to talk with you and learn more about what you’re up to and how we can help.