Facilitate a Growth Mindset

March 9, 2022

One of the many benefits of Truvelop is the messaging our Customer Success team sends to leaders and managers on the 1st and 15th of every month. Through Truvelop Tips, we share best practices, proactive recommendations, and quicks tips with end users on various topics. Here is an excerpt from the most recent Truvelop Tip: Facilitate a Growth Mindset.

To create the best possible employee experience, it’s important managers focus on a growth mindset. If someone has a growth mindset, they believe that talent and intelligence can be improved. They typically see challenges as a learning opportunity and embrace the idea of being uncomfortable in order to grow.

When Team Members have a strong growth mindset, they are less likely to become discouraged or demotivated when presented with a challenge or a setback. Instead, they embrace the opportunity for growth. With so many organizations focusing on employee retention, having individual contributors that are resilient and engaged is a top priority. Managers can develop a growth mindset for each Team Member.

Here are the recommendations we shared with our leaders and managers:

  • Share Action-Oriented Feedback: One of the key components of a growth mindset is believing that talents and skills can be improved and aren’t stagnant. With Spark, it’s easy to document observations, share praise, and coach actions & behaviors. When delivering feedback, focus on the output, as this will always challenge the Team Member to reflect on what actions went well, and what can be improved.

  • Inspire Reflection: Data-driven reflection can be extremely powerful. When looking at Detailed Reporting, consider the Team Member’s performance journey. In the next check-in, celebrate any obstacles or challenges the Team Member may have overcome. Celebrating resiliency and progress is a great way to reinforce a growth mindset.

  • Encourage Continuous Learning: Sometimes developing a growth mindset takes a bit of a nudge. Whether a Manager is encouraging goal-setting, highlighting training opportunities, or modeling a drive for continuous learning (for example sharing resources or attending classes/trainings), they’re helping to facilitate a growth mindset by pushing for continuous progress and development.

Developing a growth mindset is crucial for sustaining engagement in the long-term. Burnout can creep up if Team Members become demotivated each time a speed bump comes across their path. Managers can support their team by reframing the narrative and focusing on the exhibited resiliency and the learning takeaways. Developing a consistent growth mindset may not happen overnight, but through regular encouragement and modeling the right behaviors, you can start to create a positive shift in the way that your team perceives a challenge.

Inspiration of the week…

As managers and leaders encourage continuous learning, it’s worth highlighting how other companies incorporate the concept. In the Netflix Growth Engineering Panel Discussion, managers emphasize how important it is to prioritize learnings over wins. One of the engineers discussed how after working at the company for 7 years, she finally had her first win. Of course, we’d like to have wins more often, but it’s what an individual learns in the process that matters. Being confident in asking questions, having autonomy to try new approaches – these are all incredibly important in encouraging a growth mindset. 

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