Development Mindset: What It Is and How To Adopt It
In order to make sense out of reality, our mind automatically “frames” what we are presented with to make sense out of it. This “frame of reference” helps us to determine our response to the information presented to us. Typically known as the fight or flight mechanism, our responses can be seen differently depending on many factors -- background, experience, ethnicity, education and culture, to name a few. Another word for this phenomenon is Mindset. The basic definition can be best captured in this insight from writer Anais Nin, “We don’t see the world the way it is, we see it the way we are”.
Research on change and the challenge of growth through new technologies clearly shows that we desperately need to leverage our learning efforts toward agility and transformation to maintain long-term success. And most us will admit that we still struggle to make this essential transition.
This transition to addressing the need to open up and shift our mindset requires us to “reframe” the conversation from defining any one mindset to creating a continuous learning development mindset. Our first step is to take a look at how we look at things. Our preferred tool for this is The Birkman Method. Its rich database of perspectives and behaviors allows us as coaches to provide insights to our clients on their mindsets and those different from themselves.
Defining a development mindset
A development mindset is a pattern of thinking and a way of looking at the world that invites ongoing opportunities for continuous individual and organizational growth and transformation. It’s a perspective that recognizes growth opportunities that others might overlook. Individuals with this mindset tend to:
Believe that they can learn and grow throughout their entire career
Assume that there is something to be learned from all experiences
Accept that experimentation and failure are powerful, necessary and productive parts of the learning process
Take personal responsibility, initiative and ownership for their ongoing growth
See feedback as helpful information to fuel their overall growth
Understand that development is a perpetual cycle of learning, application, practice, reflection and refinement
Developing a development mindset
The workplace has never needed individuals with the development mindset more than it does today; however, many aspects of the today’s business landscape undermines our ability to develop and practice it.
Given the environmental hurdles to promoting a development mindset, it’s all too easy to simply give up. But smart individuals who understand the long-term benefits can choose to take steps to create more supportive conditions for their growth. They can do this by:
Setting, supporting and following up on development goals
Looking for organic, work-based experiences that will help them stay engaged
Taking time to pause, reflect and crystallize insights
Asking “what can I learn from that?” until it’s so deeply ingrained that we naturally and unconsciously ask for it
Remaining competitive in a dynamic and unpredictable marketplace demands that we continuously and quickly learn, adapt and transform ourselves. And this becomes considerably more possible when each of us develops a development mindset.
In closing, how has your mindset shifted and what have you learned because of the COVID-19 life-changing experience? Please share in the comments below.