After
my last article on Manager Mindset, lot of people wrote/spoke to me on what
should be the mindset of the associate. I thought about it and this article
primarily addresses the question. Now, in a way, all of us are associates. A
Manager is an associate of a Senior Manager; Senior Manager to a Director and
even CEO is an associate to the Board. So, as much as this article is about
mindset of an associate, in a way, it is about mindset of each and every one of
us. So, let me start with a question – do you know what type of mindset do you
have - One that fulfills your need for recognition or one that will enable you
to grow?
Let
us look at the following conversations between Meher (who is the manager) and
two of her associates, Ritu and Vijay.
“Now
that we discussed things that you do well, I do like to bring to your attention
an area that you should focus upon”, Meher said to Ritu. Ritu who is seated
very comfortably till now suddenly changes her seating position and her body
posture is now more closed. “One of the hallmarks of a successful person is
their ability to build relationships”, Meher continued. “I do not observe you
building relationships with your peer group or with support groups”. Ritu cuts
in “Why do you say that? I have great relationships with people. Everyday, I
come into office, I say Hi to people. I talk extremely well to my peer Daniel.
I am good at building relationships”. Meher smiled and said “Saying Hi and
talking to people does not automatically translate into great relationships. We
need to invest in building relations”. Ritu jumps in and says “But I am not
here to make friends. I am a professional and focus upon getting my work done
in effective manner. I do not waste time like others in drinking coffee with
people. I just focus upon my job. I do not know why you find fault with that”
Meher/Vijay
conversation: “Now that we discussed things that you are doing well, I do like
to bring to your attention an area that you should focus upon”, Meher said to
Vijay. Vijay who is seated very comfortably till now suddenly gets more
attentive and leans forward. “One of the hallmarks of a successful person is
their ability to build relationships”, Meher continued. “I do not observe you
building relationships with your peer groups or with support groups. It is
important to develop relationships so that you can leverage their skillsets and
strengths to achieve your milestones”. Vijay asks “Why would my peers or
support groups support me on my goals?” Meher answers “It is impossible for any
single person to achieve everything on their own. Hence, each and every one of
us need support from others to achieve our goals. If we invest in building
relationships and offering help to others, we can leverage others when we need
their support. Also, we are all humans and humans tend to react well to
emotional connect than sheer logic. Hence, building relationships help
establish emotional connect that will enable people to reach out to each other
much better than sheer logic of reaching out”. Vijay asks, “That’s great. How
do we go about building relationships?” Meher and Vijay continued the
conversation that helped Vijay to draft an action plan on building
relationships.
What
do you see is the difference between the two conversations? Why did Ritu and
Vijay react differently to the same comments from Meher? How often do you see
people reacting very differently to the same environment/situations? What’s
driving these reactions?
Carol
Dweck, psychology professor at Stanford University, best explains this. She has
done immense work, which explores our beliefs, both conscious and unconscious,
and how changing even the simplest of them can have profound impact on nearly
every aspect of our lives.
One
of the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves has to do with how we view
and inhabit our personality. She sees two different types of beliefs – people
with ‘fixed mindset’ and people with ‘growth mindset’.
A ‘fixed
mindset’ assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability
are static which we can’t change in any meaningful way, and therefore success
is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence. People with this mindset tend
to operate in an environment where they have an opportunity to look smart and
avoid situations where their talent could be challenged and they could face
failure. They see every situation, in classroom, in careers, and in
relationships, as one that they need to prove themselves to others and gain
approval of their intelligence, smartness. Therefore, before undertaking any
task/project, they tend to evaluate - will I succeed or fail, will I look smart
or dumb, will I be accepted or rejected, will I feel like a winner or loser?
People with this mindset avoid challenges, give up easily when faced with
obstacles, sees extreme effort as fruitless, ignores useful negative feedback
and feel threatened by success of others, as it could bring up a question of
their own intelligence or success. This approach conforms to deterministic view
of the world and this results in such people plateauing early in their careers
and achieving less than their full potential.
A ‘growth mindset’ thrives on challenge
and sees failure, not as evidence of lack of intelligence but as a springboard
for growth and for stretching the existing abilities. People with this mindset
tend to operate in an environment where there are new opportunities to learn
and grow. This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities
are things that you can cultivate through your efforts. Although, people may
start with differences in initial talent, aptitude, interests and temperament,
they believe everyone can change and grow through application and experience. Since
they see failure as an opportunity to learn and grow, they are willing to take
more risks in their career and relationships. They embrace challenges, persist
in face of setbacks, see effort as a path to mastery, learn from criticism and
when they see successful people, they find lessons and inspiration from them
for their own success.
As
you can see from the above story, while Ritu and Vijay were equally good, Ritu
reacted negatively to the feedback as she is operating from a ‘fixed mindset’
while Vijay took the same opportunity to learn and grow, given his ‘growth
mindset’.
The
good news is that this mindset is not fixed. You have an opportunity and
ability to change your mindset to growth mindset. But the starting point is
recognizing where you are. Many times, I have seen people with ‘fixed mindset’ not
acknowledging their mindset, as they see this acknowledgement as a sign of weakness
(thus even avoiding to acknowledge to themselves). However, once we recognize
and become aware of our situation, through concerted effort, we could gradually
change our approach to ‘growth mindset’.
What
mindset do you possess? When you look back at your decisions in the last week,
are they driven from ‘fixed mindset’ or ‘growth mindset’? How would your life
be changing if you operate with ‘growth mindset’? What about your children?
What is their current mindset? What questions are you asking them that would
develop their mindset to be growth mindset?
P.S. – In her book, Carol Dweck quotes on
seventh-grade girl, who captured the difference between fixed mindset and
growth mindset beautifully:
