Carol Dweck’s defines it in her book, Mindset: The new psychology of success, as “the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, strategies and help from others (10).” The term “growth mindset” is used very casually by leaders, consultants and the media, so let’s start with the author’s original definition. However, if you believe that growth mindset means that different outcomes in life will occur if someone has a fixed mindset or a growth mindset, or that it’s possible to increase one’s intelligence or change one’s personality, please keep reading. If that is how you’re defining the concept, let’s stop using the words “growth mindset” and call it “trying hard” or “having a positive attitude.”
That age-old belief also appears everywhere from the Bible (6) to Buddha (7) to Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking (8) to the children’s book The Little Engine that Could (9). We agree and the science in areas from self-efficacy(3) to goal setting (4) to motivation (5) supports that exerting more effort often leads to better results. If you believe that growth mindset means that if you try harder you can accomplish more, you can stop reading when you finish this section. That brief conversation raises the two most important questions about the concept of growth mindset – what do those words mean and does growth mindset actually matter? About “Mindset” Or, perhaps the benefits he noticed were due to his personality traits that naturally predisposed him to work hard and be resilient (2). He is an intelligent individual and intelligence is the largest predictor of our success in life and work (1). Regardless of what he meant, could he really be sure that a growth mindset had a positive effect on his life? Or, were the positive effects he attributed to having a growth mindset really due to other factors?
“I was hurt by that section,” he said, “because having a growth mindset has had a very positive effect on my life.” That interaction perfectly highlights the problem with the concept of growth mindset.ĭid the interviewer mean that he always believed he could change and grow, and therefore he was successful? Did he mean that he believed in his ability to become more intelligent and therefore became more intelligent? Was he saying that he was resilient when going through challenges? Was he saying that he had often been successful when he tried hard? Was he saying that he had a positive attitude in life and that had served him well? On a recent podcast interview, the interviewer called out the chapter in my book 8 Steps to High Performance where I state that growth mindset isn’t proven to work. By Marc Effron, President, Talent Strategy Group
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