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Career Kickoff

What is a Growth Mindset and How Can it Help You Succeed?

In this video, Dr. Paula J. Caproni discusses the growth mindset's role within successful endeavors. This video is part of our Science of Success MOOC.

Excerpt From

Transcript

0:09 hi there 0:10 you're looking marvelous today in this 0:12 session 0:13 you'll learn about the awesome power of 0:15 your beliefs particularly something 0:17 called the growth 0:18 mindset after decades of studying how 0:21 our beliefs affect us 0:22 researchers have found that our beliefs 0:24 about ourselves 0:26 others and how people become talented 0:28 predict how high we set our goals 0:30 and whether we succeed in achieving them 0:33 now our beliefs predict whether we seek 0:35 out hard problems or whether we take the 0:37 easy way out 0:38 whether we take risks or whether we play 0:40 it safe 0:41 whether we admit our mistakes or whether 0:43 we hide them 0:44 or whether we blame others for our 0:46 mistakes whether we ask for negative as 0:48 well as positive feedback 0:50 and whether we handle our transitions 0:52 well or whether we crumble 0:54 our beliefs even predict whether we're 0:56 more likely to cheat when given the 0:58 opportunity to do so 1:00 for over 10 years stanford psychologist 1:03 carol dweck and her colleagues 1:05 have been studying how our unconscious 1:07 beliefs about how people achieve success 1:09 have profound effects on our choices our 1:12 behaviors 1:13 and ultimately our ability to achieve 1:15 our goals 1:16 they have found that some people have 1:18 what they call a fixed mindset 1:20 whereas others have what they call a 1:22 growth mindset 1:24 and each mindset predicts how likely a 1:26 person is to succeed at school 1:28 at work in their career and even in 1:30 their personal relationships 1:33 these mindsets are described in this 1:34 session while learning about the power 1:37 of mindset 1:38 think about whether you tend to have 1:40 beliefs that are more consistent with 1:41 the fixed or the growth mindset 1:43 and consider the consequences these 1:45 beliefs may have on your future 1:47 and i'll tell you up front that i'm 1:49 going to make the case that you'd be 1:51 wise to have 1:52 or develop a growth mindset 1:56 people who have a fixed mindset believe 1:58 in nature over 1:59 nurture in other words they believe that 2:02 each person 2:03 inherits intelligence talents and 2:05 personality characteristics 2:07 that are unique to their genetic makeup 2:09 and these characteristics they believe 2:12 stay pretty stable throughout their 2:13 lives consequently 2:15 they're more likely to say things like 2:17 i'm a people person 2:19 i'm a numbers person she's a natural 2:22 storyteller 2:23 and leaders are born and not made they 2:26 see their strengths and weaknesses 2:27 as part of who they are as a person and 2:30 they make their day-to-day choices 2:32 according to this belief dr dweck and 2:35 her colleagues have found that people 2:37 with a fixed mindset 2:38 are more likely to seek out 2:40 opportunities where they can demonstrate 2:42 their strengths 2:43 and avoid situations that might expose 2:45 their weaknesses 2:47 they're less likely to take risks for 2:50 example 2:50 taking on a course or a job assignment 2:53 in which they may not excel 2:54 because they fear that doing so may put 2:56 them in situations that require 2:58 skills that they don't yet have and that 3:01 may lead to failure 3:04 when they or others make mistakes 3:06 they're more likely to believe that 3:07 these mistakes are due 3:09 to a lack of natural ability rather than 3:11 an opportunity to reflect on what they 3:13 can learn from the mistake 3:14 and learn new skills they are less 3:17 likely to seek out and appreciate 3:19 negative feedback 3:20 because it can feel like a threat to 3:22 their identity particularly because they 3:24 are more likely to believe that they 3:26 can't do much to change their weaknesses 3:28 since they believe that their strengths 3:30 and weaknesses are wired 3:31 in they are also more likely to quit 3:34 when facing hurdles and setbacks 3:36 because they believe that struggles 3:38 suggest that they don't have the natural 3:40 ability in those areas so 3:42 why even try for people with a fixed 3:46 mindset 3:47 focusing primarily on their strengths 3:48 may serve them well for a while 3:50 as they continue to excel in what they 3:52 already do well 3:54 but as they continue to miss out on 3:56 opportunities to take risks 3:58 learn and grow their strategy of 4:00 focusing on their strengths can backfire 4:03 in the long run because their strengths 4:05 that help them in the past 4:06 may not help them in the future 4:08 especially if the environment changes 4:11 and they don't change with it 4:13 in contrast people who have a growth 4:16 mindset 4:17 believe more in nurture than in nature 4:20 they believe that intelligence talents 4:22 and personality characteristics 4:24 are learned and can change over time 4:27 with effort 4:28 and practice they are more likely to say 4:31 she worked hard to get where she is 4:33 today i can become a great speaker 4:36 if i put my mind to it and leaders are 4:38 made 4:39 not born they believe that effort 4:42 careful planning 4:43 and ongoing learning more so than 4:45 natural ability 4:47 predict people's ability to achieve 4:49 success and they make their day-to-day 4:51 choices and pursue their goals according 4:54 to this belief 4:56 because they believe their strengths are 4:58 the result of effort 4:59 rather than innate abilities 5:02 they are more likely to take on projects 5:04 in which they can learn things that they 5:06 have not yet mastered 5:08 even if doing so highlights their 5:09 current weaknesses 5:12 they are more likely to take risks 5:14 because they are more interested in 5:15 growth than in protecting themselves 5:17 from the possibility of mistakes and 5:19 failure 5:20 they are more likely to see mistakes as 5:22 opportunities for learning 5:24 rather than as signs of permanent 5:26 personal flaws 5:28 they are more likely to seek out 5:30 negative feedback 5:31 and persist when faced with hurdles and 5:33 setbacks 5:34 because they believe these are to be 5:36 expected as they move 5:38 step by step toward their goals in fact 5:41 many people with a growth mindset find 5:44 negative feedback 5:45 hurdles and setbacks to be motivating 5:47 rather than demoralizing 5:49 and they double up their efforts to 5:51 improve their performance 5:54 the hallmark of people with a growth 5:56 mindset 5:57 is that they believe in the adage that 5:59 the harder i work 6:01 the smarter i get day by day 6:04 they focus more on developing their 6:05 future self than on validating and 6:07 protecting their current self 6:09 they don't see the advantage of being 6:11 the smartest person in the room 6:13 and they're not comfortable receiving 6:15 only positive feedback 6:18 now here's another way that a growth 6:20 mindset pays off 6:22 because they start taking risks and 6:24 learning from mistakes earlier in their 6:26 careers 6:27 people who favor a growth mindset tend 6:30 to be better prepared to handle the 6:32 bigger problems 6:34 and they make fewer mistakes later in 6:35 their career when the stakes are higher 6:39 dr dweck and her colleagues have 6:41 conducted and inspired over 10 years of 6:43 research on the power of the growth 6:45 mindset 6:45 in predicting success now listen for 6:48 yourself 6:48 to dr dweck talk about this research and 6:51 the power of what she calls 6:53 not yet 6:57 i hope you found dr dweck's presentation 7:00 to be useful 7:01 here's what's really interesting about 7:03 the growth mindset 7:05 a theme in this course is that small 7:08 interventions 7:09 can trigger big changes and this is 7:12 demonstrated in a study by dweck and her 7:14 colleagues 7:15 in the study researchers gave hundreds 7:18 of adolescent students 7:20 a test that was made up of 10 questions 7:22 designed to assess 7:23 nonverbal ability and most of the 7:26 students did pretty well on the test 7:29 after taking the test the researchers 7:31 praised 7:32 some of the students for their ability a 7:35 fixed 7:35 mindset saying wow you did very well on 7:40 those problems 7:41 you got x many problems right that's a 7:44 really good score 7:45 you must be smart at these problems 7:49 the researchers praised other students 7:51 for their effort 7:52 emphasizing a growth mindset they said 7:55 things like 7:56 wow you got x many right that's a really 8:00 good 8:00 score you must have worked hard at these 8:03 problems 8:04 the researchers later gave the students 8:07 the choice to tackle an easy or a hard 8:09 task 80 percent of the students who are 8:13 praised for their intelligence 8:14 the fixed mindset chose the easier task 8:18 and 67 percent of the students who were 8:21 praised for their effort 8:22 chose the challenging task now 8:26 as part of the study the researchers 8:28 also asked the students to write a 8:29 private letter to their peers 8:31 discussing their experience with the 8:33 study and revealing their scores on the 8:35 test that they took for the study 8:37 interestingly forty percent of the 8:40 students who were told 8:41 you must be really smart lied and 8:44 overstated their scores 8:46 compared to only thirteen percent of the 8:48 students who were praised for their 8:50 effort 8:51 it seems that the students with a fixed 8:53 mindset were more invested in 8:55 demonstrating that they were 8:56 smart not only to themselves but to 8:59 others as well 9:01 even if that meant inflating their 9:03 scores 9:05 in study after study researchers have 9:07 found 9:08 similar results for example the growth 9:11 mindset has been associated with 9:13 academic performance 9:15 in both underachieving and high 9:17 achieving students 9:19 it has been associated with adolescents 9:21 resilience 9:22 in responding to peer exclusion and 9:24 bullying 9:25 girls test scores in math community 9:28 college students grades and remedial 9:30 math courses 9:31 medical students grades hong kong 9:34 students willingness to take classes to 9:36 improve their english language skills 9:37 and managers willingness to coach 9:39 employees 9:40 and their effectiveness in doing so 9:43 let me tell you a personal story about 9:46 the power of 9:47 not yet about 15 years ago i was 9:50 academic director of the part-time mba 9:53 program at the raw school of business at 9:55 the university of michigan 9:57 a student was trying to get admitted to 9:59 the mba program 10:00 even though he had a low score on the 10:02 graduate management admissions test 10:04 a test that was required for admission 10:06 to the mba program 10:08 and it's supposed to be designed to 10:10 assess one's ability 10:11 to successfully tackle the rigors of an 10:13 mba program 10:15 he took the test several times studying 10:18 hard between each test 10:20 but despite his efforts his test score 10:23 would not 10:24 budge he applied to the mba program 10:26 twice 10:27 and he did not get admitted in large 10:30 part due to his low 10:31 gmat scores the third time he applied to 10:34 the mba program 10:36 he tried a different strategy he visited 10:39 the dean of the business school 10:40 and made the dean a promise he said that 10:43 he was certain that he would get 10:45 excellent grades if he was admitted to 10:47 the mba program 10:48 and he promised that if he did not get 10:50 high grades 10:51 he would voluntarily leave the program 10:54 based on that agreement he was admitted 10:56 to the program where he 10:58 indeed earned a very high grade point 11:00 average by the time he graduated with 11:02 his mba 11:03 a few years later i ran into him while i 11:06 was teaching a leadership program at his 11:07 place of work 11:09 he had enjoyed several promotions since 11:11 graduating from the mba program 11:13 and although i didn't know about the 11:15 research comparing the fixed and growth 11:17 mindsets at the time 11:18 i believe that having a growth mindset 11:20 played a key role in this man's success 11:23 he lived in a world of not yet and that 11:26 world was serving him his teams 11:28 and his organization very well 11:32 now before moving on you'll get more out 11:35 of this session if you take time to 11:37 think about your own mindset 11:39 and how it may affect your ability to 11:41 achieve your goals 11:43 to assess your mindset ask yourself the 11:46 following questions 11:49 do you say things like i'm a natural 11:51 people person 11:53 or i've learned to work well with people 11:56 do you say he's a born mathematician or 11:59 he must have worked hard to develop his 12:01 math skills 12:03 do you say she's a natural leader or 12:06 she worked her way up to the leadership 12:08 role if you're a parent 12:10 do you say things to your children such 12:12 as you're so 12:13 smart or you worked hard 12:16 you're a natural athlete or you sure 12:19 practice a lot 12:21 i guess math just isn't your talent 12:24 or what can you do to do better at math 12:28 how does what you say every day reflect 12:31 the growth or fixed mindset 12:33 and what might be the consequences on 12:35 your own or others performance 12:37 and ability to achieve important goals 12:42 how can you encourage yourself to use 12:44 language that reflects the growth 12:46 rather than fixed mindset for example 12:49 you can praise yourself and others for 12:51 the strategies 12:52 effort and resilience used when learning 12:55 new skills and talents 12:58 for your children you can ask them 13:00 questions such as 13:02 what did you do today that was hard what 13:05 can you learn 13:06 from this what mistakes did you make 13:09 that taught you something 13:11 well if that didn't work what can you do 13:14 to try another way 13:18 and you can guide your choices with the 13:20 power of the phrase 13:21 not yet and push yourself to become more 13:24 skilled in areas that you're not 13:26 yet good at for example if you're not 13:30 yet comfortable giving presentations you 13:32 can join one of the highly respected 13:34 toastmaster clubs in which you'll work 13:36 with others who are trying to enhance 13:38 their communication skills 13:40 if you aren't yet comfortable in 13:42 settings in which you should be speaking 13:43 with people informally 13:45 say a conference you can read a book or 13:47 search for a website about working the 13:49 room 13:50 or making small talk you can take 13:52 courses 13:53 including online courses to increase 13:55 your skills in many different areas 13:58 and then you can practice your new skill 14:01 every day 14:02 at home at school or at work 14:07 i hope you found learning about the 14:08 growth mindset to be interesting 14:10 and useful for yourself and for the 14:12 people you care about at work 14:14 at school and at home let me end this 14:17 session with one of my favorite 14:19 quotations by dr dweck 14:21 remember she said the people who start 14:24 off the smartest 14:25 don't always end up the smartest 14:29 in the next session we'll talk about how 14:31 the growth mindset 14:32 can protect people against some of the 14:34 negative effects 14:35 of prejudice and bias until then take 14:39 care 14:40 and i'll see you soon