Having a growth mindset is a term from the business world, referring to an individual who believes that their success in a particular field is contingent on working hard, forward planning and being able to receive and implement constructive feedback from others.

While it is a term that is regularly used in business, and undoubtedly one that many if not most job candidates will profess to possess, the reality is that a true growth mindset relies on a psychologically mature and relational mind.

To believe that our success in business, or any field of endeavour, is contingent on our hard work and performance means that we have outgrown, or let go of, fantasies of omnipotence: any idea that we may be special in some way. It is a mindset, and therefore in its truest sense, a personality, that is rooted in reality, and recognises that whilst we may have a disposition towards a particular way of thinking or working, only hard work will bring achievement.

To work hard to achieve success is in turn contingent on having self-confidence, which is a belief in our ability to apply ourselves, as opposed to narcissism, which is a belief in our specialness. This differentiation is critical and lies at the core of a true growth mindset.

The second requirement for a growth mindset is having the ability to forward plan, that is to say, to recognise where we are now, where we want to get to and what work, effort and sacrifice is required to get there. From a psychological perspective, this requires an individual to be able to bear complex feelings such as anxiety and frustration and move in the direction that they wish to go, which is to face uncertainty.

Lastly, and perhaps critically, a growth mindset can only coexist with a certain humbleness. Successful people are able to use relationships in order to challenge their world view and their way of thinking. This is again in stark contrast to narcissistic people who use relationships to bolster their (inflated) idea of themselves.

To receive and use feedback and criticism and to allow our thoughts, ideas and plans to be challenged requires a certain strength of character – a strong ego – which can differentiate between ourselves and our ideas or thoughts. Again, this is something that a developmentally stunted character cannot achieve – narcissistic characters – as they lack the ego strength to take on board any criticism.

Why is it important to have this over a fixed mindset when moving a business forward?

To be successful in business, as to be successful in life, relies on a person being willing to adapt their approach, modify their strategy and face criticism. Without possessing a mature psychological structure, a growth mindset is simply impossible to achieve and the individual’s pathology will get in the way of their success, as they feel too wounded to pivot from their entrenched position.

Business has always required successful entrepreneurs to be ‘light on their feet’ – willing to adapt to the market. However, with the advent of globalisation and technology, the need to be adaptable has increased exponentially. Where, in the past, ‘slow-and-steady’ were attributes valued by certain large organisations, this simply is no longer true and rigidity in business, which is reflective of rigidity in personality, is synonymous with a business that is weak and fragile.

Tips on how to become more growth-focused

Whilst we can all work on the skills needed to become more orientated towards a growth mindset, it is important to recognise that the foundations for such a mindset are contingent on a certain level of psychological maturity. If one does not possess this, then moving towards a growth mindset simply is not going to work.

By psychological maturity I am referring to how a person relates to both themselves and those around them. Have they established a solid sense of self that enables them to contend with the complexities and realities of the world? This in turn translates to the ability to contend with difficult feelings whilst holding onto a thinking mind. It also refers to the capacity to be challenged in one’s beliefs without taking it personally, and being able to use criticism constructively.

Secondly, is the person able to relate to others in a healthy way, or are others simply there as either a threat or as an extension of themselves? This example is why autocracies are inherently unstable and eventually come unstuck: dictators surround themselves with sycophants who will not tell them the truth, and lock up critics who they see as dissidents and trouble-makers. It is no coincidence that dictators score extremely highly for
narcissistic traits.

Assuming a candidate has a mature personality, a solid sense of self and the ability to relate, then there are some specific skills they can work on to develop a growth mindset.

• Be clear about what you want to achieve, and be realistic about how much hard work it will entail and what personal sacrifices will be required.
• Start to build a network of people around you who also have a growth mindset, from whom you can learn and garner feedback, and be prepared to be challenged in your beliefs.
• Employ a strategic approach to your work, one that is methodical and measurable so that you are able to hold yourself to account and reformulate your plans as you progress.
• Learn the difference between a criticism of an idea or vision and a criticism of yourself.
• Criticism is uncomfortable and difficult to receive for anyone, but the mark of a mature person is the ability to examine and accept appropriate criticism without it undermining their self-confidence.
• Recognise that adopting a growth mindset means to feel intensely – it is impossible to feel excitement without also feeling anxiety. You need to be able to tolerate difficult emotions and hold onto a thinking mind.
• Self-care is critical for anyone operating at this level and this means that you also ensure that you are caring for your mind and body alongside your business.

Are there common challenges or obstacles that businesses or people encounter when trying to adopt a growth mindset, and what strategies can be employed to overcome them?

The most common challenge people encounter is the difference between a hypothetical growth mindset and adopting and remaining in one in practice.

Staying in a growth mindset is tough and challenging, and requires not only a robust self-confidence, but also the requirement to have a solid support network in place who can remind us of our goals, and importantly, be in relationship with us.

Empathy often gets confused for sympathy, however, in truth, empathy can be very tough and confronting, as it is the ability to understand how a person is feeling without colluding with that, and offering appropriate challenge when their thinking becomes rigid or fixed.

These are the sort of people you need around you.

Can you provide strategies for handling setbacks or failures in a way that promotes a growth mindset and encourages resilience?

A growth mindset is contingent on holding onto a thinking mind at all times. This may sound simple but is fact a difficult thing to do under pressure.

When our emotions become ‘too much’ they tip us over into a state of overwhelm where we are unable to clearly think anymore. This is controlled by our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) and is a biological process we have no direct control over. It actually pre-dates our mammalian brain and evolved simply to keep us safe from danger.

We have all heard the term ‘keep cool under pressure’ but what this term really alludes to is the capacity to remain thinking under pressure, which means to be able to feel our emotions and not become overwhelmed by them. Once overwhelmed, the ANS leaves us with four possible coping strategies – fight, flight, freeze and fold.

All of these are critical responses to existential survival but have no place in the workplace.

Whilst we cannot directly control our arousal levels – that is to say the intensity of emotion that we feel – someone who has achieved psychological maturity has a distinct advantage here in that they generally have far more resilience in feeling emotion before they tip over into overwhelm. This is fundamentally because they start from a premise that both they and the world are ‘safe enough’. In contrast, if someone is constantly scanning their environment for threat, they will easily locate it and will struggle to remain able to think
clearly.

Working with a psychotherapist or executive coach trained in this arena can be invaluable in helping individuals to better ‘hold onto themselves’ in the face of strong emotion.

As stated, setbacks and failures are painful and challenging for us all but we can deal with them if we expect them, are able to not take them personally and to see them as opportunities.

A strategy I often espouse is to slow things down. Rather than adopting the slogan ‘don’t just sit there, do something!’, I believe that a successful growth strategy relies on an individual being able to instead ‘don’t just do something, sit there’. This may sound counter-intuitive, however if a person is able to stop, think through what has happened, recognise that they are struggling to think, take some time out and then regroup, that is
generally a recipe for success.

How can leaders effectively communicate and promote a growth mindset within their teams?

One of the biggest problems in organisations is that they espouse to embrace a growth mindset whilst having a fear-based culture that limits and polices staff.

Growth culture orientated organisations are extremely good at empowering their staff to take risks and make mistakes. The risks taken are done so by people who are entrepreneurial and excited, rather than reckless, and mistakes are seen as opportunities for learning. This is a culture of meritocracy and in its heyday was what made American companies so globally successful.

Leaders need to lead by example and adopt a growth mindset themselves which means that they are modelling this attitude in their own approach to work. This is exposing and cannot be faked. There is nowhere to hide when authentically having a growth mindset.

A huge aspect of a growth culture is predicated on the premise of collaboration and partnership rather than competition and envy. This therefore means that a growth culture needs to be implemented from the top down in any organisation, and show that envious attacks on other departments in lieu of working together will not be tolerated.

Employees need to feel safe to express themselves and to take risks knowing that the organisation will not punish based purely on outcome – many a failed idea has come to make an organisation a fortune, such as the story of Viagra which was originally synthesised as a drug to treat hypertension.

Mark Vahrmeyer, UKCP Registered, BHP Co-founder is an integrative psychotherapist with a wide range of clinical experience from both the public and private sectors. He currently sees both individuals and couples, primarily for ongoing psychotherapy.  Mark is available at the Lewes and Brighton & Hove Practices.

Further reading by Mark Vahrmeyer – 

Don’t tear down psychological fences until you understand their purpose

How do I become more assertive?

I worked as a psychotherapist with death. Here’s what I learnt

What is love?

What is the difference between loving and longing?