How profitable is it to have this kind of thinking in the workplace
There is a saying that is quite right, the biggest gap between people is not education, IQ, or even ability, but the gap in thinking. Especially in the workplace, people with different thinking, even if they work in the same company, work in the same position, and have the same situation, after a few years, there will definitely be a big gap.
If you pay attention, you will find that there are two types of people in the workplace. One type of people likes to say it's okay, it's almost done, and I'll try again. Don't waste your energy; and the other type of people like to say, I will try again, I will work harder and see the situation; these two kinds of people are people with different thinking, and "Lifelong Growth" calls these two different thinking: fixed thinking and growth thinking.
How profitable is it to have this kind of thinking in the workplace
The famous American psychologist Carol Dweck, author of "Lifelong Growth", through research, found that in the process of success, it is not the ability and talent that play a decisive role, but the mode of thinking. In this book, she introduces two mindsets, the fixed mindset and the growth mindset we mentioned earlier.
01 What is a fixed mindset and a growth mindset
The difference between the two thinking modes is reflected in the two basic mentalities when dealing with success and failure, achievements and challenges.
A fixed mindset believes that human abilities are fixed and need to be proven. For example, when faced with a new task, a person with a fixed mindset will choose to avoid it because he feels that his ability at the moment is not up to the job. But in order not to show that his ability is poor, because he feels that his ability needs to be proved, he will not directly reject the job because of his lack of ability, but will postpone it for other reasons, such as there is still money at hand. Other jobs, discomfort, etc. In short, as long as you don’t take over new tasks, there is no way to prove that you are not good enough. This is typical fixed thinking.
A growth mindset, on the other hand, sees things from a developmental perspective. Similarly, when faced with a new task, people with a growth mindset will tell themselves that although I may not be able to do the job now, I can learn and ask others for advice, I am just not familiar with the field , but that doesn't mean I'm not capable. In the eyes of people with a growth mindset, abilities can be learned and improved.
02 Why are people with a fixed mindset not conducive to our development, while those with a growth mindset allow us to break through ourselves?
People with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence is constant, and in order to prove that we are not stupid, we tend not to accept challenges, because if you don't try, you won't fail again. Therefore, when the leader says that you are ready to speak at the staff meeting and show yourself well, in order not to embarrass yourself, you will refuse; when the leader says that there is a major customer who needs you to follow, you will choose not to accept it, because You are afraid of screwing up, so you will not accept new challenges, and you are always standing still in the workplace. This is a good self-protection for you. It is easier to give up than to show yourself embarrassed. many.
How profitable is it to have this kind of thinking in the workplace
People with a fixed mindset also believe that hard work will lead to no results, stupid people will work hard, smart people will always get everything they want easily, their own efforts will not bring results, and they may make themselves look better. "stupid". In addition, people with a fixed mindset tend to value other people's attitudes and denials when they treat others' criticisms. So when others criticize, they are always negative and even contradictory.
So, people with a fixed mindset give up early on, stagnate, give up their potential for success early on, and surrender, and this mindset becomes a vicious cycle that leaves them unable to act, let alone succeed. .
On the other hand, people with a growth mindset are just the opposite. They believe that intelligence and abilities can be improved, so they always like a challenge, which they see as an opportunity to learn and improve themselves. Even in the face of setbacks, they will persevere, not give up easily, but analyze the reasons and think that the method is always more difficult than the difficulty. They also have different attitudes towards criticism, and they also have negative emotions, but they will listen to effective information from criticism to correct their behavior, so they are always more likely to succeed.
03 Why is fixed thinking so ingrained?
The generation of thinking patterns is affected by many factors, but there are two main reasons, one is the influence of others, and the other is the needs of self-psychology. How to understand, we tell two stories.
Let’s talk about the influence of others first. In fact, it includes the influence of social stereotypes and the influence of others’ evaluation.
How profitable is it to have this kind of thinking in the workplace
Everyone has heard the story of the race between the tortoise and the hare. The clever and lazy rabbit races with the clumsy and hard-working tortoise, but because of the hare's negligence, the clumsy and hard-working tortoise wins the race. The original intention of this story is to educate us that hard work is important, but this is not a story of positive energy, because the subtext of this story is that intelligence is the key to success. If it is not for the negligence of intelligent people, the tortoise will work hard for nothing. It reduces the effort by a level, and only the unsmart people work hard.
Think about the adults around you when they praise children, they always say that you are so smart, but few people say that you are so hardworking. This creates such an impression in our minds: hard work is stupid I am so smart that I don't need to work hard. Therefore, when your boss and colleagues praise you for your hard work, you feel uncomfortable and praise me for your hard work. Do you mean that I am not smart?
The generation of fixed thinking mode, on the one hand, is due to the subtle influence of some social values and the influence of others' evaluation on us.
The second is due to our own need for a sense of security in our own hearts. The reason change is difficult for people with a fixed mindset is because fixed mindsets fit people's psychological needs. This is a bit of a twist. For example, you have achieved a little in your work, and your leaders and colleagues value you very much and call you an expert. In other words, you are put on an altar and you enjoy it very much. In order not to let yourself down from the altar, not to lose this title, and to continue to win the respect and inner satisfaction of your colleagues, you chose not to accept new challenges. Because not accepting means not making mistakes, then the expert will always exist.
04How to develop a growth mindset?
Fixed thinking will make us temporarily live in a safe atmosphere, but this safety is an illusion, because we limit ourselves to a circle and close ourselves. Only by developing a growth mindset and looking at problems with the correct way of thinking can we become a life-long growth person and achieve our goals in life.
So how do you develop a growth mindset?
First of all, we have to make it clear that there are two kinds of thinking in everyone, that is to say, you may be a fixed mindset on one hand, but you may be a growth mindset on the other hand. For example, you hate speaking at staff meetings, you don't think you're up to the job of speaking, you'll make a fool of yourself, but you're happy to accept a different type of job, and you think you can. This is how different mindsets manifest in different ways.
Second, when you realize that you have a fixed mindset in a certain area, try thinking about it with your growth mindset. For example, if you don't like to speak, think about what causes you to feel that you are not competent in this area? Is it because you were not ready to speak in class when you were a child, and were ridiculed by your classmates? Or do your parents keep saying that you are a very well-behaved and hard-working child, but you are just a little shy and don’t like talking? After finding out the reason, think with a growth mindset. Is communicating with people an irreversible ability? So what changes can you make to improve your communication skills?
Third, create an actionable plan for your own change.
How profitable is it to have this kind of thinking in the workplace
After you have determined your goals, you must set a goal for your own change and develop a specific and achievable plan. What is a concrete and feasible plan. Because we are always afraid of failure, afraid of being labeled as useless, so we need to learn to decompose big goals into small achievable plans, and improve our self-confidence with the completion of such small plans , to improve your sense of achievement.
How small is it?
What time? what to do? What are you going to do? It is to consider specific details, which will help you to act, which will also improve your probability of success.
For example, if you hate speaking at workplace meetings, you can decompose this goal, from speaking to a group of people at the conference, to speaking to a few people at small class meetings, and then to speaking for yourself, so that you can adapt first In this environment, adapt to the feeling of speaking.
You can put it this way, tomorrow afternoon after get off work, I need to speak to myself for ten minutes in the meeting, the theme is, how to write a copy better? So what do you need to prepare for this speech, etc., these are small specific planning details, because of the specifics, you will rehearse in your mind, because it is not so difficult, then the probability of action will increase, when you take a step After the first step, you will find that speaking is actually not difficult.
Finally, we need to constantly try new strategies and find a specific and feasible method that suits us.
How profitable is it to have this kind of thinking in the workplace
A growth mindset requires us to step out of a strong-or-weak, black-and-white mindset, where the results don’t say anything, and focus our attention on how to achieve our goals. During this period, we need to constantly try different effective strategies, constantly feedback and analyze, summarize the gap between the plan and the actual, and make adjustments. This is a very complicated and even a long process. Before we find the right method, we may need to keep trying, just like Edison tried more than 1,000 materials before inventing the electric light. Before finding the right method , we need to keep trying, and feedback and analysis, summary is a must.
Lyubishev, who is familiar with time management knows him, he recorded time for 56 years, not a single day, and completed many impossible tasks. He has completed 70 books in his life, and has made great achievements in the fields of biology, entomology, agriculture, science, etc., and he is not a scientific monster. He replied 1250 typescripts to others, and his life is very rich, so his life called a strange life.
When I say Ljubyshev, I mean why his time management is always effective, and we always make a plan for a period of time and then make a prototype, because we have no analysis, no feedback, no trying different methods, To find out the reasons for the difference between our plan and the actual. So we always persist for a while and then give up.
Finding a positive and effective strategy to keep trying is a step we must stick to. Only after this step can be found, can we practice deliberately. Otherwise, the method is wrong, and no amount of practice will help. Of course, we can always quickly find effective strategies from our own feedback, from the experience of others, and even from the criticism of others, so this is not a difficult thing. Therefore, when others criticize you, don't pay too much attention to the attitude and tone of others, and listen to why they criticize you. This is also a way of feedback.
Develop a growth mindset, keep studying and working hard, you will find that many difficulties are not as stubborn as you imagined; with a growth mindset, you will find that you are becoming what you dream of.