Do your leaders place a bigger emphasis on looking smart or admitting mistakes? It’s the difference between having a growth and a fixed mindset.
Leaders with a fixed mindset don’t believe people can change. They only want people to have the right answers, not to admit when they don’t know something.
On the other hand, leaders with a growth mindset believe in feedback and encourage employees to experiment and admit when they need help or don’t know something.
Being able to embrace vulnerability and a growth mindset is crucial for leaders—for themselves and for the success of their organizations.
I put together a video which talks about this in more detail. Please check it out below and if you want more content like this you can subscribe to my Youtube channel.
A classic example of what happens when organizations and leaders embrace a fixed mindset is Enron. Enron had a talent-obsessed culture focused on being smart and right. It did whatever it took to create outcomes that appeared to be positive. The company was so obsessed with making itself look smart and correct that its employees lied both internally and externally to shareholders, which led to the company’s demise.
Instead of admitting their mistakes and trying to correct them, Enron’s fixed mindset led to the company digging itself deeper and deeper until it couldn’t recover.
Working in an environment where everything you say has to be correct and you can’t ask for help is incredibly stressful and puts huge pressure on employees to never make a mistake. It stifles innovation, creates a toxic and unhealthy relationship for employees, and can lead to the downfall of the company.
Instead, leaders need to have a growth mindset and foster that same mindset in their employees and throughout their organizations. They need to admit failures and mistakes and encourage employees to ask for help or say they don’t know the answer. Admitting you don’t know something isn’t wrong–it’s the start of growth and improvement.
A growth mindset is crucial for leaders. Embracing vulnerability and authenticity leads to honesty and growth, both as an individual and as an organization.
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Now more than ever we need to take a step back to define what it means to be a leader and what great leadership looks like. But this isn’t easy to do. In fact, man business leaders struggle with this. You cannot become and build what you don’t define. In the PDF you will get a framework you can follow and also see how some of the world’s top CEOs define leadership. Click here to get the PDF.
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