Professor Carol Dweck, an American psychologist, found that we all have different beliefs about the underlying nature of ability.  Children (and adults!) with a growth mindset believe that intelligence and abilities can be developed through effort, persistence, trying different strategies and learning from mistakes. On the other hand, people with a fixed mindset believe that our intelligence and abilities are fixed traits; something that you are born with and that you cannot do anything about.

It is still common to hear people refer to someone as a “natural leader”! it helps if our natural predisposition fits into the leadership need of a particular group or organization. Yet, research proves human traits are not fixed, people change and evolve with age and experience. Leadership is not a set of fixed traits; its effectiveness and success requires agility to learn and adapt to situations.  If you believe you can be a good leader, there are higher chances of you becoming one with that self-affirming belief in your potential.

Raise awareness around your fixed mindset triggers:

While revisiting her pioneering study on growth mindset in 2015, Professor Carol Dweck acknowledges we are all a mix of Fixed and Growth mindset. A coach invested in your growth can illicit within you a conscious awareness to triggers which surface your fixed mindset. i.e. the triggers that make you think, you cannot make this proposal any better. This team’s energy is beyond your repair.

Does feedback make you defensive or eager to learn and improve? Is that with all feedback or specific feedback? This awareness is the first step to bridge the gap. Once we know of our triggers, we can begin the change work to manage them.

Partner with you to find that intrinsic motivation which fires your growth mindset:

Growth mindset is not just about being open to putting in more efforts, it is about learning from the efforts and believing in one’s ability to learn and grow. Neuroscience research has found a positive correlation between intrinsic motivation, growth mindset and academic performance in students.

As adults working in a corporate world, our performance is appraised on outcomes, not efforts. Finding and associating our intrinsic(inner) motivation with the work at hand can make it easier to, learn that new skill or accept that stretch assignment. Your intrinsic or inner motivation gives you that personal satisfaction and joy irrespective of external triggers of reward and punishments. Our hobbies provide us that, imagine getting that innate organic pull from the job at hand. Will it not make it easy to increase our openness towards opportunities and growth? An honest coaching journey on your goals will implore you to explore those motives and at times even reconsider goals which are not aligned to your desired motives or your authentic self.

Challenge limiting beliefs and assumptions which can restrict your potential: 

Coaching can be defined as a partnership and a thought-provoking association which enables a client to realise and work towards achieving his/her potential and goals.

A personal coach will have a client focussed approach, invested in creating results which are in alignment with your(client’s) needs. This intent, paired with coaching expertise equips them with the ability to notice your limiting beliefs or perceptions and show you the mirror to work on or with them.  A seasoned mindset coach will act as a facilitator to your goal, not a guide who tells you what to do. You own your life and know best what works and does not work for you. A mindset coach’s role is to understand what clients want and empower them to achieve it in the best way possible for them.

Co-create a vision board for your aspired identity:

Most coachees who come to a mindset coach, come with a goal they want to achieve but the crux of that tangible/ objective goal is to acquire a mindset or at times manage a mindset.  E.g. if you want to perform well under pressure or build the leadership gravitas under pressure situations it is a peak performance mindset that we are looking at adopting.

At Thoughtsfile, we work with our coachees to define their aspired identity and then explore inner resources which can make that aspiration a reality. Like any transformation or change work, it is a journey which depending on the goal can take anything from 3-9 months but like they say all good things require some work. What is your aspiration? Connect with us at Thoughtsfile to start working on it now.