It has finally arrived in Vietnam. The Growth Mindset. If you read the book, it almost looks as if the Growth Mindset is the solution for everything that is wrong with the world. If only the leaders of Israel and Palestina had a growth mindset, peace would have been eternal….

But, what does the science say about growth mindset?

“The foundations of mind-set theory are not firm and bold claims about mind-set appear to be overstated” (Burgoyne, 2020)

“There is a weak relationship between mindset and (academic) achievement” (Sisk et al, 2018)

It turns out that there is no significant evidence that shows a relationship between performance at work and the mindset of the individual, as most of the experiments have been done at schools. 

And we have to admit, we were also impressed when reading the book, and it did make us more aware of our own patterns of thinking… 

But, it’s not the panacea that the “believers” would like us to think. 

Let us propose a few other mindsets that can improve performance at work:

• Grit: passion and sustained persistence applied toward long-term achievement. It combines resilience, ambition, and self-control when achieving goals. (Duckworth, 2016) Can you imagine what your business would look like if all your staff had more grit? 
• Self-efficacy: this refers to an individual’s belief in their capacity to execute behaviors necessary to perform  (Bandura, 1977, 1986, 1997). Self-efficacy reflects confidence in the ability to control one’s own motivation, behavior, and environment. Even if the self-efficacy is based on nothing, it still has a stronger correlation with performance than growth mindset! So, increasing it in your staff is good for performance! 
• Curiosity: Results from a validation study confirmed the hypothesis regarding the significance of curiosity for job performance (Mussel, 2012). Especially for knowledge-heavy roles that are subject to constant change, it helps if the staff have a “curious mindset”. 

The good news is, all of these mindsets can be improved in your staff members, with the help of culture, coaching and training. It is not easy, but it’s possible!

If you are interested in improving the performance of your employees, reach out to us at no-nonsense.management!