We want the best people we can get on our teams. This means people who are self-starters, continuous learners, and are ready to go. But what if you’ve come across a team member who doesn’t have that motivation? Can you motivate them to change their mindset from a limited mindset to a growth mindset?
You can!
A team member who is stuck currently doesn’t have to be stuck forever. Just think back to some of your missteps. You’ve had your ups and downs as you’ve taken this journey. They will too!
You have the joy and pleasure of being there, next to them, helping them grow. You are able to encourage a growth mindset in your people.
How cool is that?
It won’t always be easy. As they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force it to drink. However, I know that if you regularly bring your people to the trough of knowledge, they’ll be tempted by the sweet water that awaits them.
6 Ways To Encourage A Growth Mindset In Your Team
1. Share what you’re learning:
If you want your team to be excited about growth, you have to be willing to share about your growth. Bring new books to meetings, discuss what you’ve learned from them, and share how they’ve changed your mindset or methods.
By being excited about a growth mindset, your team can also catch the fire of excitement. Don’t be shy in sharing about your growth. Share with them and then ask them what they’ve been learning.
2. Give them a WHY:
It can be hard to get behind a new initiative or idea, especially one that adds more commitment to an already full plate, but if you give your people a why to developing a growth mindset you will see people grasp the concept. So, what’s the why behind a growth mindset?
- New opportunities
- A sense of pride
- Getting noticed
- New pathways
- Upward mobility
- New connections
By giving your people a why, they can see the reasons for growth.
3. Provide developmental opportunities:
Claiming that a growth mindset is a critical part of your organization means nothing if you don’t offer up opportunities for your people to grow. Your team will see through the talk.
One way you can counteract this is to actually offer up developmental opportunities. You can provide access to LinkedIn Learning, pay for a conference, or bring in speakers for a lunch and learn.
What you say matters, and what you do about it speaks volumes. Make sure you’re giving your people developmental opportunities to grow.
4. Hire from within your organization:
What do you do when it comes time to fill a needed position? Do you rush out to the latest recruiting company? Do you place ads in the local paper?
What about looking internally for someone to fill the open position?
Hiring from within your organization recognizes the hard work people have put into growing themselves and working hard for your company. It tells people that growth is important.
Don’t be afraid to hire from within.
5. Allow room for mistakes:
How do you handle mistakes? Do you freak out? Maybe you yell and scream? It could be threatening the livelihood of an employee?
This destroys a growth mindset in organizations. Instead, it creates fear.
You have to allow room for mistakes if you want a growth mindset. This means allowing people to make a decision, follow it through to the end, and deal with the consequences in a safe way.
Give people room to make mistakes. Failure is one way to grow.
6. Get rid of unhealthy competitiveness:
I’ve seen a lot of organizations hold unhealthy competitions. From pitting salespeople against one another to firing the bottom 10% of the organization, as Jack Welch is known to do. This is another fear play. It doesn’t encourage growth.
Instead, look at how your team members are improving. Praise them as you see them stepping out, stepping up, and taking on new challenges (even if they fail). By praising performance improvements, you encourage a growth mindset.
