Having an emotionally intelligent mindset will increase your personal and interpersonal effectiveness.
Carol S.
Dweck sheds light on mindsets in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success, Random House, 2006.
You may ask, isn't emotional intelligence about doing the right things? Yes, but how you start out to do them is important too.
What is your mindset going in to the situation? Are good leaders "made" or "born?" Some leaders think leadership talent is more born, innate.
For example, a large company recruits big talent, people with impressive degrees, and puts complete faith in them.
Leaders create a culture that praises and rewards the "innate" talent of its star performers.
Successful company? No - Enron.
This is an example of what Carol S.
Dweck calls the fixed "talent mindset" which she describes in her book.
In it, she differentiates between the "fixed" mindset and the growth mindset.
" The fixed mindset sees talent (or a deficiency) as an innate quality that is unchangeable.
The growth mindset sees talent as something that can be developed and nurtured, and deficiency as something that can be overcome.
She cites companies such as Kroger, Circuit Cities, and other companies that Jim Collins reports in his book Good to Great, as successful companies that model a growth mindset.
People who have a fixed mindset often have an image to preserve and are less likely to ask questions, seek feedback and accept remedial help.
Leaders with fixed mindsets will tend to prematurely judge subordinates seeing them as either competent or incompetent.
For those deemed incompetent, growth will not be recognized and job satisfaction will suffer.
In addition, these leaders may not recognize deteriorating performance in an employee deemed competent.
In either case, coaching, mentoring and remediation will be ignored.
This is what happened at Enron.
People with a "growth mindset" are more likely to keep on learning and are less worried about protecting their "fixed identity".
They are willing to look at mistakes, use feedback and alter strategies.
Because they know they can grow and learn, they can feel confident in the face of perceived failure.
In my Executive Coaching I seek to have a growth mindset so that I can appreciate a client's potential for growth.
I also want to see the small steps a client does take toward improving and encourage them.
With a growth mindset, I am on the alert for them.
If I had a fixed mindset, I would tend to overlook them.
How does this play out in your work? So the question is how malleable are these mindsets? Are the mindsets "fixed and innate", or can they be altered? Your answer to that question may indicate which mindset you favor.
Carol S.
Dweck describes in her book how to improve mindsets.
I recommend you read it.