Is a Growth Mindset at the Core of Leadership?

Or at least, should it be? Mindset, Part 2

Last week, we started looking at what leaders need to understand about subordinates’ mindsets—how people respond if they have a growth mindset (believing that things are malleable) or a fixed mindset (believing that things are stable and unchanging). And we also looked at how the circumstances themselves can shape which type of mindset we’re in.

This week, we’re going to explore more about leaders’ mindset impact their followers… and themselves.

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One research team made the analogy that a mindset becomes like a lens for information: Information that is consistent with your mindset shines through the lens, while inconsistent data bounces off, unseen.

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How Does a Leader’s Mindset Impact Subordinates?

When it comes to kids, studies have suggested that the teachers’ mindsets about kids’ abilities can be determinative. During a program where kids were taught about growth mindsets, they didn’t improve their grades unless their teachers had a growth mindset, too. But can teachers, whose job it is to help kids grow, really have a fixed mindset? Well, apparently, it does happen. But a study that came out this month tackled that professional oxymoron in a new way. These researchers asked German college students training to be teachers to think about their mission as teachers, i.e., to reflect on how they will help children learn and develop. Once they’d done that, these teacher trainees increased their growth mindsets—at least for the short term. 

That had me thinking—what if we go back to thinking about the mission of leaders? Is a leader’s mission to get people to unite so they can accomplish a task? Or is it to make their people better? And if leaders choose “B,” are they already on their way to adopting a growth-mindset orientation?