Question of mindset
View failure as a stepping stone to building ability and success
Their attitude to themselves as a starting point in defining how they might go forward.
OVER many years serving as a leader in organisations, manager in business and as a facilitator/executive coach, I have had the remarkable opportunity to hear many, many people’s stories and to engage in supporting them through change or transformation in order to build clarity and focus in their life, their role, their contribution.
Much of my work is conversational and, as a coach, I ask quite challenging questions that highlight a person’s mindset. Their attitude to themselves as a starting point in defining how they might go forward constructing the actions required to make the changes needed to get them to their desired future state.
Often what I am observing and identifying is whether the person has fixed or growth mindset. Whether they are anchored in a belief that says that’s just the way I am and that their character is developed and “static”, or that they demonstrate a belief that challenges are opportunity for development and that failure is just a stepping stone to build on ability.
A “fixed mindset” anchors us in the place where we do not believe we can change in any meaningful way, that we’ve inherited a set of capabilities and success – when achieved confirms our inate intelligence, we are fixed in place and striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs becomes a way of maintaining a sense of being intelligent or skilled and we can point at either and say “that’s just the way I am”.
A “growth mindset”, on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees setbacks as an opportunity for growth and for building on our existing abilities in a world of possibility. These two mindsets are demonstrated from a very early age and – as you can imagine – are the wellspring of our behaviour, our self-belief and, as Carol Dweck alludes in her book Mindset – The New Psychology of Success, our relationship with success and failure leading ultimately to our capacity for happiness.
So if in doubt and you wanted to know how could you move to a “growth” mindset? Much of it has to do with our internal dialogue, actually listening to what we tell ourselves and then challenging the language we use.
I have heard many people talk about their failures and I find it has a very destructive and negative outcome when challenged to consider change. A question that I may ask is, what if you knew you couldn’t fail? What then? If it were possible to do that thing, what would be the first step? Give it a go next time you are putting up barriers to yourself.