To lead business transformation, leaders must learn to transform themselves.

Organizations spend over $356 billion on leadership development programs around the world. Yet, according to research, 75% of organizations surveyed evaluated their leadership development programs as ineffective.

So what is the missing link? Combining all the strategies implemented without a growth mindset in leadership, it is less likely for development programs to reach their maximum capacity. 

Misconception: It’s Not All Effort

It’s not simply about putting in the work with a growth attitude. The most widespread misunderstanding is that the development mindset is synonymous with effort. Effort is important, but it isn’t the main ingredient for the recipe that leads to success. When a leader is stuck, they should try new tactics and seek help from others. They require a variety of techniques to learn and progress, not just pure effort.

Growth Mindset is, at its core, a learning theory. Learning is a difficult and tedious process. It becomes something it is not if people make it sound as simple as ‘working harder alone.’ As a result, it becomes easy to criticize and evolves into something it isn’t. As the Growth Mindset theory gains traction in every field, it’s critical that we’re taking all the aspects that need to be considered and delve deeper into its definition with the application. 

The goal is not to put forth the effort. The term “growth mindset” refers to how we view ourselves and how we may best improve and learn. Carol Dweck recently warned against exaggerating praise for effort. ‘Too often nowadays, executives who are putting forth effort but not learning are praised in order to make them feel good in that certain moment. Learning, not merely striving hard. 

Growth Mindset: A Brief Explanation of Its Effects in Leadership

A Harvard Business Review article examining typical growth-mindset fallacies included a term that I believe is both significant and meaningful. A growth mindset, according to the article, is the conviction that one’s talents and abilities may be enhanced. It is a concept that people may improve their talents, abilities, intelligence, and emotional intelligence. Growth mentality basically indicates that you feel that success comes from making a persistent effort to overcome obstacles. Thus it is an idea that implies a person’s professional goal and responsibility is to develop skills and abilities. 

Leaders who have a growth mentality are more concerned with the process than with the ultimate result.  So this is the main reason that a growth mindset is vital in leading if you want to develop your team into proactive, accountable, and motivated problem-solvers. The company will develop and evolve as your staff does. Growth mindset provides a perspective that one’s characteristics can be changed. It is a concept that has influenced the way people think. It began in the sphere of education and has recently made inroads into the commercial world.

When a leader approaches things with a growth perspective, then fresh possibilities and opportunities that lie beneath the apparent failure or dead-end are just stepping stones to raise the notch of success higher. Instead of looking back with dismay, guilt, and disappointments, a leader with a growth mindset will look forward, developing the vision to see past faults, challenges, and failures by exploring new ideas and possibilities. That person will not panic or give up; rather you have faith and confidence enhancing his or her ability to find a solution will emerge and be magnified. This is extremely motivating for you, your team, and everyone else.

Now, let’s check the how’s and why’s in the application of growth mindset in leadership.

Inspiring Others to Think and Do the Same

Companies that want to foster a growth mentality should devote time and resources to training and developing their employees. Providing opportunities for employees to learn and grow can aid in the development of strong leaders with complementary leadership styles. You may realize that you are much more conscious of the outcomes you generate with your actions and decisions when you adopt and maintain a growth mindset. Since you are in charge and have the ability to identify your own thinking patterns and behaviors it will eventually affect others and they will have such consciousness as you model growth thinking patterns. How you speak and act in front of your employees will influence how they speak and act. Your team will be more willing to follow you if you adopt a growth mindset.

When we observe changes taking place and allow ourselves to feel the benefits of learning new abilities and concepts, it becomes addicting, and we want to learn more. You may feel motivated to stay on the path if you continue to focus on improving your growth attitude. In this way, organizational executives and managers can use a variety of leadership skills to help people develop leadership qualities. Employees are more likely to continue attempting to develop themselves if their efforts at learning, growth, and innovation are recognized and praised. Even if the effort is unsuccessful, recognizing the effort will motivate staff to keep going despite the setback.

The Impact of Improvement

High-impact leaders refuse to accept the status quo. However rigid leaders despise it. Furthermore, a follower wants to keep things the same. High-impact leaders are always seeking new methods to improve. Followers are excellent at sustaining gains, but they are frequently averse to making changes. Leaders aren’t content to simply hold their victories. They are always looking for ways to enhance themselves, their team, and their company. There can be no improvement without change. There can be no impact without progress. 

There are leaders who are content brought by accidental progress. Yet high-impact leaders are intentional when it comes to their desire and will to grow since growth is their passion. The very air that drives them to live. They are always seeking a new territory to conquer, a fresh definition of achievement. Leaders with a high impact are intent on making a difference. They are the ones who make things happen. 

In the course of gearing towards the end of being a high-impact leader, one must reflect on its own thinking patterns. Strip off the sheets of denial and be humble enough to see one’s reflection in a clear mirror without reluctance. Are you willing to develop? Do you have what it takes to evolve no matter how uncomfortable and sometimes painful the process one must undergo? When confronted with annoying reality and the awkward situation it creates, are you prepared to deal with your own imperfections that run in the system of your own company? Growth mindset is both a professional and a personal issue. One cannot separate these two when it comes to mindset since it will be both a career and a lifestyle. Growth mindset is a habit a person must struggle to build and maintain. 

A Never-Ending Journey of Progress

The most crucial thing for growth mindset leaders is that they will never stop developing themselves. They understand that they can’t build other leaders or their organizations without first developing their own leadership skills. These high-impact leaders are tenacious in their pursuit of personal improvement, investing many hours and thousands of dollars just to make sure they reach their goals for development. To stop learning is to simply be another leader among the masses with average achievements. This would surely happen if they didn’t have this desire to grow and enhance their own leadership abilities.

When it comes to developing their own pool of leaders, growth mindset leaders are not selfish or stingy. They have a mindset of abundance. They put high-potential leaders on an expedited leadership development program once they’ve been identified. They want their top executives to be totally committed to leadership development at all times. As a result, they provide finances, guarantee time for development, and encourage them to participate in leadership training seminars and certification programs. Growth mindset leaders understand that, despite being difficult to quantify, the cost of developing their leaders outweighs the benefit.

Executives with growth perspectives elevate their organizations’ leadership to new heights. From the top to the bottom, they develop an internal, continuing leadership curriculum for their entire workforce. They are in charge of training the trainers. They not only hire outside leadership consultants to assist in the development of their top leaders and themselves, but they also actively train their lower-level leaders and followers. These one-of-a-kind types of leaders understand that teaching leadership is the most effective approach to learning leadership because it holds them accountable for demonstrating what they teach.

As a result of all the things discussed, we can examine the practice of leadership. We can see that it is made up of three aspects. Skills, practice, and mindset are the three main categories. Each of those components, whether we’re discussing practice, mindset, or skills, is insufficient. To actually have an impact on your company we must develop all three inside ourselves and the groups that we are cultivating. Growth mindset is crucial in developing skills and the habit or practice of all those skills.