It was Confucious who wisely said, “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” This sage advice digs directly to the root of one of the most critical tools for sustained professional success: maintaining a growth mindset.
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What is a Growth Mindset?
A growth mindset comes from believing that the talents you possess can be developed through strategies such as receiving input from others and hard work. A growth mindset focuses on a desire to perpetually learn, develop, and grow.
In contrast, a “fixed” mindset believes that you were born with the skills that you now possess. This attitude tends to stunt growth and encourages an unnecessary fixation on looking knowledgeable.
The Benefits of a Growth Mindset
There are many benefits that take place when a growth mindset is at work. For instance, employees who work within a growth mindset atmosphere tend to feel more:
- Innovative and creative.
- Empowered and committed.
- Collaborative and teamwork-oriented.
- Supported and confident.
While these are excellent results, they cannot come about without the active participation of everyone involved. That’s why it’s important for management to proactively encourage development and growth within their business in order to cultivate a growth mindset shared by employers and employees alike.
How to Cultivate a Growth Mindset
There are many ways to encourage a mindset of continual learning. Here are a few suggestions for areas to focus on.
Motivate
Motivation is a powerful tool. When an employee feels apathetic or unmotivated, it can be difficult for them to desire to actively participate in developing their talents and skills.
Fortunately, there are many ways to motivate your employees. For instance, you can offer flexible hours and remote work opportunities in order to enable employees to work at various times and in the best atmosphere that facilitates their personal needs and proclivities.
Setting up a company wellness program or providing resources for mental health, depression, and anxiety can also help to free up employees to look beyond current problems and focus on long-term improvement.
As a boss, you can also actively reach out to see how your employees are doing. As long as you avoid micromanaging their work, this can be an excellent way to communicate and encourage them to get involved.
Grow Together
If you want to instill a company-wide growth mindset, it’s important that you make the initiative all-inclusive. Simply expecting everyone to embrace personal growth and development is unrealistic and will likely lead to private growth within each individual that doesn’t actually help the company.
Instead, establish a culture of togetherness in your growth journey. Make it clear that everyone has their place and you’re all working towards similar company-oriented goals (even if each specific path towards growth varies depending on each person’s function and skillset). The point is, each employee should strive to develop in ways that make them that much more invaluable to the company as a whole.
In addition, if a coworker is struggling, learn to recognize the signs of distress. This will open up doors to help listen and possibly even help, all of which encourage your professional community to stay healthy and grow together as a unit.
Set Up Employee Development Plans
Employee development plans are an excellent way to develop staff members into more skilled and qualified employees while simultaneously aligning them with company-specific goals.
Having a plan specifically devoted to developing employees within your business benefits the company while leaving the employees themselves more professionally developed on a personal level, as well.
Cultivating a Growth-Oriented Company Culture
There are many reasons to focus on a growth mindset within your company. While the process to do so is fairly straightforward, though, it’s important that you focus on one essential element: buy-in from your employees.
If you can get everyone on board with collectively embracing a growth mindset in your business, you’ll be able to profit from its many benefits as your workforce perpetually develops and grows over time.
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