Sometimes, you get it wrong. That’s OK – we’re human and not supposed to get it right every hour of every day. But for business leaders, where every minute feels important, taking the time to learn from mistakes, explore options and consider alternative viewpoints can sometimes feel like too big a leap.
This is the second in a series of three blogs as to why curiosity is an essential skill for work and life.
To be curious is to adopt a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset. It’s to challenge existing ways of doing things and being open to making errors so we can learn from them.
In “Mindset”, Carol Dweck demonstrates that people who adopt a growth mindset are more successful than those who adopt a fixed mindset. Someone with a growth mindset views their abilities as capable of improvement through effort. Alternatively, someone with a fixed mindset views those same traits as inherently stable and unchangeable over time. Whether you adopt a growth or fixed mindset will influence the way you approach challenging tasks, which will either grow or limit your learning.
Dr Dweck discovered this through giving 10-year old’s a challenge that was a little too difficult for them. Children with a growth mindset saw it as an opportunity to grow and learn. Children with a fixed mindset felt that their core intelligence had been tested and devastated. They were more likely to either run from the next challenge or cheat on the next one. Growth mindset kids process errors to learn from them. Fixed mindset kids see errors as evidence of their inherent intelligence and give up trying.
Her research shows that when we adopt a growth mindset – when we see failures and setbacks as steps on a learning curve, we are more likely to put in the effort and persevere in the face of challenging tasks.
How about adults? In my work with leaders and leadership teams, people who see mistakes or setbacks as part of the learning process can fast track the performance of their teams because they give people permission to give things a go. Those who are intolerant of errors halt the learning process before it even occurs. They slow down progress because people around them are too tentative or too afraid to try something and fail.
Curiosity is a way to practice a growth mindset. To explore the opportunity, the next option, the insight or the lesson that we gain from trying and failing.
If you want to find out more about how you can harness curiosity as a key pillar for high performing teams, come to my free information session on Tuesday 28 May at 11am. Sign up here.