Which statement do you believe to be true: that your personality, talents and abilities are something you’re born with, and they remain pretty much unchanged throughout your life; or that you can develop them, work on both your talents and weaknesses, and become better? Dr Dweck says that your answer to this question has a profound meaning for how you deal with obstacles and failure in your life!
If you believe that you are the way you are, and that’s just the cards you were dealt – you have what dr Dweck calls Fixed Mindset. And that’s problematic, because you may have a tendency to always try to prove how smart you are, instead of identifying your shortcomings and working on them. You may hold a belief that if you have to work hard on something – that means you weren’t good at this to begin with. That if you don’t understand something – means you’re too stupid to understand it. That if you don’t succeed at something at first try – means it was just not for you.
If you, on the other hand, love a good challenge and enjoy constantly learning – also from your failures – you represent Growth Mindset. You recognise that you have to cultivate your talents, hone your skills, identify your weaknesses and work on them. And that can make a big difference, especially when you face setbacks and failures.
People with Fixed Mindset feel like they always have to prove themselves; like they’re always being measured and judged, and whatever the judgement is – that’s what they are (and likely always will be). And because of that they are very sensitive about making mistakes and failing at things. They would rather not attempt difficult tasks in fear that they will fail, and their shortcomings will be exposed. Their need to always succeed leads them to only doing things that come effortlessly to them.
For people with Growth Mindset it’s almost the opposite: they love a good challenge, because they know that when they perform a difficult task – that’s when they learn. They’re good at identifying their strengths and weaknesses. For them success is not about proving how smart you are and never failing, but rather about learning and improving. If they fail on a test – that’s a valuable feedback for them. It lets them know where they are on their path to mastering something – rather than a judgement of who they are.
A perfect example of the Fixed Mindset in action (and one that sounded too familiar to me) is what Dweck calls “Low-Effort Syndrome” in students transitioning to junior high school – the work gets a lot harder than it was before, much more effort is required, suddenly it’s not so easy to be a straight-A student. For those with Fixed Mindset a very common response is… to stop trying. They fear that they might still fail, even if they put in a lot of effort, and that will expose them as not being smart enough. If they don’t put any effort – they think – they can’t be measured and judged.
Fixed Mindset can also be observed in the world of business. One way it can manifest itself is a “genius with a thousand helpers” model – leaders who don’t want a great team around them. Don’t want talented people around them, who could steal their spotlight, or who they would have to share the credit with. They want to feel better than the rest, so they have to surround themselves with mediocrity. They don’t allow dissent, they only want to hear praise. If they fail – they assign blame and look for excuses. They may have good intentions, but “at critical decision points, they opt for what would make them feel good and look good over what would serve the longer-term corporate goals”.
And it can get even worse! Since those people love to compare themselves with others who are worse off than they are, AND they are the ones in charge – they “have the power to make people worse off. And when they do, they feel better about themselves” – says dr Dweck. Doesn’t that sound familiar to many of us? The whole toxic bosses culture, workplaces where everyone feel miserable and no one is allowed their own opinion, dissent is punished etc. That may also be a result of insecurities stemming from the Fixed Minset.
Dr Dweck offers many great examples of both Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset in the world of business, but also many different areas of life: sports, parenting, school, relationships. You would be surprised how many of the mistakes we make in our lifes can somehow be linked to how you answer this very basic question: am I just the way I am and that’s final, or do I have the ability to develop? If you only believe in the former: you’re basically screwed. But there’s some good news: in reality most of us have a little bit of both of those mindsets, and we sometimes lean more towards one or the other. In other words: if you think you have the fixed mindset – that also isn’t fixed forever and you can (and should) work on it! It’s important to be aware of the pitfalls of Fixed Mindset and learn what triggers it.
The main idea of the book is: you can change your mindset. And as everything else in life: it will require a lot of work and effort. You can’t just flip the switch. You can just start the process, and maybe you will never even achieve a full success – but that’s not the point. Starting the process is the goal. Making a concrete plan to improve – and sticking to it! – is the goal. The learning, the development, the improvements – are the success.
The lesson from the book for me is: do difficult things. The things I hate doing, things I know I’m bad at, things that terrify me – I can continue avoiding them forever and never get better at anything, OR I can force myself to start, plow through the initial pain and awkwardness, and get better and better, a little bit at the time. Try things, identify what works and what doesn’t, try different approaches, seek advice from people who know better, don’t avoid people with more knowledge and talent.
Dr Carol Dweck is a Stanford University psychologist specialising in personality, social psychology and developmental psychology. Here’s her TED Talk about “Mindset”