Growth Mindset in the Workplace: Definition & Tips

A growth mindset is the belief that someone has the capacity to continue learning and growing regardless of inherent ability. It applies to all employees, from entry-level roles right up to C-suite management positions.

More specifically, a growth mindset means that employees learn from their mistakes and use them to continue learning. In the workplace, a growth mindset can drive organisational culture and help fuel company-wide progress.

Some examples of a growth mindset at work include:

• Instead of being discouraged by criticism, your workforce is energised and motivated to improve their skills.

• Managers teach employees critical thinking skills to help them identify and solve problems.

• Employees aren’t afraid to experiment to find new, more efficient ways to handle their responsibilities. 

• Your workforce understands that failure is possible but doesn’t let that stop them from taking on challenging work. 

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Alongside a growth mindset, employees may fall into a fixed mindset representing opposing beliefs. Below is a table illustrating the major differences between them: 

If you feel your workforce can benefit from the challenge of developing a growth mindset, you can take action to set these standards. Use the methods below to help engender a growth mindset across your organisation…

Outline your employees’ roles and tasks, but allow them to find their own process for accomplishing their responsibilities. While creativity has the chance for failure, success can reveal more effective ways of doing things that can benefit your entire organisation.

Allow employees to explore different company roles and find where they’d like to expand their skill set. They can collaborate with teams in different departments or even temporarily transfer to shadow an experienced employee. Additionally, leadership can hold seminars explaining their department’s purpose and enrich their learning and development. 

Understand that growth is gradual and that adopting a growth mindset won’t produce results overnight. As your employees practise these skills and this new approach to their work, they’ll consistently grow over the long term and produce increasingly better results for your company.

Your organisation can help employees grow by giving equal merit to their ideas. Not every idea needs to be implemented, but genuinely discussing them encourages people to participate more in future decision-making. The more they participate, the more attuned their ideas become to company goals. 

A growth mindset is the belief that you can continue to grow and improve yourself beyond inherent talents or personality traits. 

The characteristics of a growth mindset are:

• Passionate. This is motivation to want to improve. Working environments often influences this.

• Cooperative. This recognises the value of peers and learning from them. 

• Driven. Even when things are tough, a growth mindset encourages continued pursuit of goals.

• Resilience. A growth mindset accepts criticism and the employee learns from it for better outcomes. 

• Graciousness. A positive outlook on their future skills and the people who help get them therehelps a growth mindset.

Encouraging a growth mindset in your employees can improve employee morale, increase trust between employees, and lead to more fruitful risk-taking. 

It can be difficult to determine if your efforts to switch your organisation to a growth mindset are producing results because they occur over a long period. Personio’s performance tools allow you to keep track of an employees’ progress and offer holistic feedback to help them improve further. Book your free demo today to find out how else Personio can help you.