Originally published on The Izzy Way Blog, September 5, 2022
I used to think breaking out of my comfort zone daily to continue to grow sounded like going back to grade six and realizing I had so many more years of dreaded school. But, having a growth mindset truly does elevate you to be extraordinary in all aspects of your life. My growth mindset journey began early in my career as I always struggled with the “maintenance mode” of roles. When I felt my growth potential was limited, I sought the uncomfortable. As a result, I typically moved into a different position and company. The tips below are ones I’ve followed and still do to this day to explore and grow continually.
What is a growth mindset?
First, it is essential to define what a “growth mindset” is and is not. According to Carol Dweck, individuals who believe in a growth mindset can develop their talents through hard work, good strategies, and others’ input. On the other hand, people with a fixed mindset believe their talents are innate gifts.
But you might be wondering how to push yourself to be more growth mindset-focused. While these certainly are not the only ideas, they are the ones I lean towards in my career and personal growth journey. For example, in reading some of the questions people post on Quora, I found an analogy that resonated with me “growing where you are planted.” The ability to see the quote for starting where you are, taking advantage of opportunities you have in life, and having gratitude for the present is simple but often overlooked.
Tip 1: Inward focus on your development/career plan
Before you can embrace the opportunities to grow, you need to take stock of you.
Consider asking yourself the following questions:
- What capabilities do I want to elevate?
- What activities am I doing today that may require less focus?
Of course, taking stock of your present will get uncomfortable. Still, it allows you to begin exploring all the fantastic resources available to you. But, looking inward also means getting uncomfortable and seeking input from others.
Input from others can be quite enlightening if you are willing to do the work. By work, I mean booking time to gain insights from people you interact with daily.
Here are some of the things I have done:
- I’ve scheduled development chats with others to get input into capabilities I should consider growing to gain a different perspective than my own.
- I’ve taken a few personal branding courses that suggest engaging others (peers, mentors, and other leaders) to seek insights into what they see as your core strengths.
- If responses were not what I was expecting, I reflect and determine what I will focus on in my future growth opportunities.
Once I have these key insights gathered:
- I develop a plan for the next year on where I want to focus my growth mindset energy.
- At the beginning of each year, I start looking at internal company offerings (Udemy, Pluralsight, certificate programs).
- I enroll in my company’s formal mentorship program, look to join or remain involved in key Employee Resource Groups, Internal Gigs, job rotations, and job shadowing are available to me.
- I look at industry associations that offer many webinars, speaker series, and networking opportunities.
Tip 2: Collaborating with others
Many feel that learning comes from formal education and training. Still, you can tap into your growth mindset all day long. In their HBR article, Tupper and Ellis suggest we spend much of our time and energy at our jobs, making it a perfect place for significant learning.” Considering their comment, have you considered how many people you interacted with in the past week? How many of them demonstrate capabilities you’d love to elevate? Your internal networks, peers, and project teams are a great place to begin your growth mindset journey. They may even offer you a book, course, internal opportunity to be on a project or help deliver a piece of work (think gig economy) or volunteering suggestions that come highly recommended.
Think of peer mentoring as a corporate bartering tool that leadership encourages.
How do I use peer mentoring:
- I seek out feedback, bounce ideas off my peers, and share insights and different perspectives in return.
- Sharing what I’ve learned with my internal peers; other times provides options for more efficient ways of executing something they are tackling.
Collaborating with others allows you to work on capabilities you are not an expert in, enabling you to find something to learn every day. Having a growth mindset lets you consider whether you are, as they say, “future-fit”.
A few of the books I have read recently certainly speak to that growth mindset and being future fit ready:
- In Future Fit, Andrea Clarke found having a growth mindset sparked by her journalistic curiosity critical at each career inflection point and focusing on collaborating with others. Collaboration allows us to share what we know and gives others insights into how they can help our growth mindset journey.
- In Career Leap, Michelle Gibbings suggests cultivating learning at every opportunity and looking for opportunities to see different and better ways to approach an issue. Having that growth mindset allows you to consider other people’s perspectives and thus engage in innovative thinking, which is a requirement for being a future-fit individual.
Tip 3: Consider what opportunities await
When you consider what opportunities await, a great way to jump right into a learning development opportunity is to find yourself a high-challenge experience. In The Power of Flexing, Susan Ashford, suggests finding a project, initiative, or job rotation out of your current comfort zone will significantly increase your likelihood of learning.
My most significant learnings come from:
- Challenges I seek out myself and know my passion for learning would outweigh the fear of failure that would periodically creep in.
- Challenges I gravitate towards are those that everyone else seemed to shy away from,, and have always offered me more experience than I could have imagined.
- Running towards challenges for development because it’s what makes my internal light shine – I love to be challenged.
If you wish to start smaller, engage in small experiments that allow you to try new things. When you think of an Agile approach to a project or design, your growth mindset is one big series of small experiments. Looking at your growth areas, consider what small shifts you can make that allow you to move forward but not push you out of your comfort zone too quickly. Small experiments enable you to test things under the radar (e.g., improving your listening skills) without others knowing you are working on capability gaps.
My approach to experimenting:
- I have used small tests or experiments with each of my teams in each organization to determine the right approach.
- Once the experiments prove to be the best scenario (e.g., a new process), we formally document and implement it until something in the environment changes and we need to evaluate again.
- Nothing is ever a one and done – we are constantly learning and growing, and new approaches come into focus.
Tip 4: Track for Performance
A growth mindset is great, but you must ensure your fantastic work is recognized. Tracking for performance has been a journey for me, as I am sure it is for you. I use year-end performance review time as an opportunity to work on my brand and review my career development goals. However, first I make sure I demonstrate my development over the year and how my accomplishments have benefited the strategic objectives of my organization.
How? Track for performance!
- I capture each program or capability I am working on that year and add how I used my growth mindset to build that capability.
Why do I track this way?
- Demonstrates I took my career development into my own hands, tapped into the tools that the company already invests in, and expanded beyond my current bubble.
- Leadership should be able to see the fruits of my labour through the innovative ways I’ve changed or elevated my area of responsibility and circle of influence.
There are many more ways to build your growth mindset and close your capability gaps than described above. My ask of you, start with an inward reflection on where you are today and what steps or activities you are willing to experiment within the short term. Tapping all available resources is only possible if you make a growth mindset a priority. Your company should be demanding this of you, and you should be demanding of yourself – be future-fit tomorrow while building up your growth mindset muscle.
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