BOOK REVIEW: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (By Carol S. Dweck, Random House, 2006 ISBN #1-4000-6275-6)
BOOK REVIEW: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (By Carol S. Dweck, Random House, 2006 ISBN #1-4000-6275-6)
“Chainsaw” Al Dunlap, the notorious turnaround artist of Scott Paper and Sunbeam fame, slashed jobs and closed plants with a vengeance, then, bored with the idea of helping a company grow, he would move on. At Sunbeam, four days after he stormed out of a board meeting yelling that a major shareholder was trying to get the stock price to drop further so the company could be sold, the board sacked him.
Dunlap had been engaging in highly questionable accounting to sustain financial targets that he had promised but were not going to be achieved. Meanwhile, he had a book coming out about his being a “poster boy” for creating shareholder wealth. Current and former employees and fellow executives cheered his demise. Even his son said, “I laughed like hell” and his daughter commented, “He got what he deserved.”
These are two high profile examples of what Carol Dweck calls the “Fixed Mindset.” She contrasts this with the “Growth Mindset,” an approach to work and life that successful leaders follow. Here are some aspects of each:
Fixed mindset people…
A fixed mindset is a serious impediment to people’s willingness to grow as well as to their effectiveness as a leader. People with a fixed mindset refrain from effort because it removes their fallback explanation for failing: “I would have done better if I had tried harder.” Also, they tend to avoid learning, because, in an insidious way, it implies that they are less than the natural talent they think they are. It follows, then, that these people do not respond well to performance feedback or to coaching.
Fixed mindset leaders tend to work solo, not liking to rely on or acknowledge the efforts of their managers and staff. They prefer not to share recognition for good work, even sometimes going to the other extreme of showing contempt toward people lower than them on the corporate ladder. Steve Case and Jerry Levin at AOL intimidated others with their brilliance and grabbed more personal credit than was due them.
Some corporate cultures, particularly sports teams, reflect a fixed mindset when management relies too much on hiring star athletes or executives with “natural” talent, rather than developing the talent already within the team/company. They glorify the superstar, the genius, who can do (and decide) no wrong. In organizations headed by fixed mindset leaders, you cannot safely admit your deficiencies or that you were wrong. You keep your head down and don’t question “divine” decisions.
Growth mindset leaders are much less afraid to commit themselves to a calculated level of risk because they are not saddled with the fixed mindset added fear of damaging your self-esteem if you fail. A growth mindset encourages openness, candor, and the respectful challenging of management’s positions and opinions. If someone comes up with a better argument or idea, the growth mindset leader doesn’t resent the other person for being smarter or better.
Where do the mindsets originate? Many children in school acquire the belief that they are dumb in math or they will never learn to play the piano. In addition, psychologists Carl Rogers and Karen Horney believed that young children figure out what version of their “self” will win the approval and love of their parents. They adapt their self-image to that particular self and it works, for a while.
In order to mature, however, they need to let go of that single, fixed image of who they are and allow their personality to experience exploration, change and growth. If parents and teachers foster in them a self-image that they are able to try new things, fail, learn and grow, they will successfully trade in their fixed mindset for a strong vibrant one of growth and attainable possibilities.
Today’s leaders and those responsible for their development will benefit from Carol Dweck’s perspective. In her book she chronicles as well the tales of several noted growth mindset leaders: Jack Welch (GE), Lou Gerstner (IBM) and Ann Mulcahy (Xerox). As readers, you will become more aware of when you are dealing with a fixed mindset or a growth mindset individual at work (or beyond, as Dweck includes chapters also on mindsets in relationships and in the education arena).
When you invest resources to develop someone operating from a relatively fixed mindset, you will need to pay special attention to:
Which one of these are your top team leaders? Which one are you?
BOOK REVIEW Mindset The New Psychology of Success By Carol S Dweck Random House 2006 ISBN 1400062756 - To learn more about this author, visit Ian Cook's Website.
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John McEnroe reached great heights in the world of professional tennis but, by his own admission, he did not fulfill his potential. Whenever he lost, it was not his fault. Even his defeat at the 1984 French Open he blamed on sound coming from the headset of a network cameraman. As a world class athlete, he felt he had the right to abuse others. In fact, the image of him screaming at umpires is burnished in the minds of a generation.
“Chainsaw” Al Dunlap, the notorious turnaround artist of Scott Paper and Sunbeam fame, slashed jobs and closed plants with a vengeance, then, bored with the idea of helping a company grow, he would move on. At Sunbeam, four days after he stormed out of a board meeting yelling that a major shareholder was trying to get the stock price to drop further so the company could be sold, the board sacked him.
Dunlap had been engaging in highly questionable accounting to sustain financial targets that he had promised but were not going to be achieved. Meanwhile, he had a book coming out about his being a “poster boy” for creating shareholder wealth. Current and former employees and fellow executives cheered his demise. Even his son said, “I laughed like hell” and his daughter commented, “He got what he deserved.”
These are two high profile examples of what Carol Dweck calls the “Fixed Mindset.” She contrasts this with the “Growth Mindset,” an approach to work and life that successful leaders follow. Here are some aspects of each:
Fixed mindset people…
- Believe that their qualities–intelligence, personality, talent, etc.–are fixed and that they have little potential to learn and grow
- Have a deep-seated need to prove themselves, over and over again.
- Feel smart when they don’t make any mistakes or when something comes easy to them
- Are not open to feedback or new ideas from others
- When they hit a setback,
- they blame others, instead of wondering what they could have done themselves to avoid it.
- they run an internal monologue, such as, “This means…I’m a failure, bad husband, not smart enough, etc.”
- Believe that their true potential is unknowable.
- Want to learn, grow and get better
- Feel smart when they try hard and achieve something they couldn’t do before.
- In the face of a setback,
- they resolve to solicit feedback, make adjustments and try again
- they run an internal monologue, such as, “What can I learn from this? How can I improve? Where can I get help?”
A fixed mindset is a serious impediment to people’s willingness to grow as well as to their effectiveness as a leader. People with a fixed mindset refrain from effort because it removes their fallback explanation for failing: “I would have done better if I had tried harder.” Also, they tend to avoid learning, because, in an insidious way, it implies that they are less than the natural talent they think they are. It follows, then, that these people do not respond well to performance feedback or to coaching.
Fixed mindset leaders tend to work solo, not liking to rely on or acknowledge the efforts of their managers and staff. They prefer not to share recognition for good work, even sometimes going to the other extreme of showing contempt toward people lower than them on the corporate ladder. Steve Case and Jerry Levin at AOL intimidated others with their brilliance and grabbed more personal credit than was due them.
Some corporate cultures, particularly sports teams, reflect a fixed mindset when management relies too much on hiring star athletes or executives with “natural” talent, rather than developing the talent already within the team/company. They glorify the superstar, the genius, who can do (and decide) no wrong. In organizations headed by fixed mindset leaders, you cannot safely admit your deficiencies or that you were wrong. You keep your head down and don’t question “divine” decisions.
Growth mindset leaders are much less afraid to commit themselves to a calculated level of risk because they are not saddled with the fixed mindset added fear of damaging your self-esteem if you fail. A growth mindset encourages openness, candor, and the respectful challenging of management’s positions and opinions. If someone comes up with a better argument or idea, the growth mindset leader doesn’t resent the other person for being smarter or better.
Where do the mindsets originate? Many children in school acquire the belief that they are dumb in math or they will never learn to play the piano. In addition, psychologists Carl Rogers and Karen Horney believed that young children figure out what version of their “self” will win the approval and love of their parents. They adapt their self-image to that particular self and it works, for a while.
In order to mature, however, they need to let go of that single, fixed image of who they are and allow their personality to experience exploration, change and growth. If parents and teachers foster in them a self-image that they are able to try new things, fail, learn and grow, they will successfully trade in their fixed mindset for a strong vibrant one of growth and attainable possibilities.
Today’s leaders and those responsible for their development will benefit from Carol Dweck’s perspective. In her book she chronicles as well the tales of several noted growth mindset leaders: Jack Welch (GE), Lou Gerstner (IBM) and Ann Mulcahy (Xerox). As readers, you will become more aware of when you are dealing with a fixed mindset or a growth mindset individual at work (or beyond, as Dweck includes chapters also on mindsets in relationships and in the education arena).
When you invest resources to develop someone operating from a relatively fixed mindset, you will need to pay special attention to:
- Work with them to alter, consciously, their current internal monologues
- Challenge their fixed assumptions with contrary facts and logic
- Support them as they step up and risk, fall short and grow.
Which one of these are your top team leaders? Which one are you?
BOOK REVIEW Mindset The New Psychology of Success By Carol S Dweck Random House 2006 ISBN 1400062756 - To learn more about this author, visit Ian Cook's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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