To Build Resilience in Turbulent Times, Shift Your Mindset

With today’s dynamic and unpredictable working environment testing the capacity of individuals, teams and companies to manage change, it’s important for leaders to build resilience. As situations change and evolve, resilience allows you to craft new or different responses that challenge beliefs or practices which were once effective but no longer are.

Building resilience helps you:

  • Deal with stress, uncertainty and adversity.
  • Increase capacity to learn and grow over time.
  • Shift perspective to be forward-looking and solutions oriented.

Leaders who possess a growth mindset build resilience and shift their perspective from seeing challenges or obstacles as threats to opportunities for learning and growing much more effectively than those with a fixed mindset.

Developing a growth mindset allows you to:

  • Encourage experimentation, continuous learning and innovation – This enables you to develop new approaches for solving problems or seizing opportunities.
  • Increase comfort with receiving constructive criticism – In addition to identifying areas for growth and development, it creates an open, more trusting environment to allow for the free flow of thoughts, ideas and constructive feedback.

Growth vs. Fixed Leadership Mindsets

Mindsets can impact your outcomes by determining how you think, feel and even physiologically respond to some situations. “Growth” and “fixed” mindsets were coined by Stanford University researcher, professor and psychologist Carol Dweck, Ph.D., to describe belief systems about your ability to change, grow and develop over time. 

People with a growth mindset believe that abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort and learning. They see failures and challenges as opportunities for growth and continuous learning, with a focus on how they can improve their performance the next time they’re called to do so. Those with a growth mindset tend to be resilient, adaptable to changing circumstances and open to new ideas.

A fixed mindset, on the other hand, is the belief that abilities and intelligence are fixed traits and cannot be changed. Individuals with a fixed mindset will avoid situations where risks are high, or success is uncertain. They’re inclined to avoid challenges and fear failure. As a result, those with a fixed mindset typically experience lower achievement levels and less satisfaction in life.

Shift to a Growth Mindset

Here are ways to shift your mindset to build resilience in turbulent times:

Mindset Shift #1: You Cannot “Make” a Mistake

It’s the analysis of an outcome that alters your mindset. Ensuring a “mistake” shows up in your rearview mirror is the precise moment when you choose how you will move forward and be successful.

Mindset Shift #2: Go Ahead, Be Nervous

Follow the “5 Word Rule” and unlock your productivity by asking yourself powerful questions that zero you in on what you are experiencing and how you are moving forward.

Mindset Shift #3: Be Fearless

Shift your focus and energy from what you want to avoid to what you want to create, and apply mindset shifts 1 and 2 to your execution plan.

Mindset Shift #4: Create Your Value Proposition from the Inside

Bring confidence and clarity to your value proposition by stripping away outside judgments and comparisons.

Mindset Shift #5: Break Out of Your Career Comfort Zone

There’s no growth in your comfort zone and no comfort in your growth zone. Find out how to break free of what keeps you in your career comfort zone and shift to performing at higher levels with confidence and consistency.

Leadership Coaching Drives You from a Fixed to a Growth Mindset

Individuals, their teams and their employers are facing a convergence of challenges that are surfacing faster than at any other time in history. Their ability to respond, rather than react, to these challenges will ultimately determine their success.

That simple selection of words — whether to respond or react — indicates whether you’re at choice in your actions or at the effect of what’s happening around you.

The executive who says, “We aren’t equipped to face this challenge,” will be in full reactive mode and have a fixed mindset focused on the process of resetting and retrenching. They’ll see only a small set of options as feasible, and they’ll take those actions grudgingly and with regret.

The executive who asks the question, “How do we equip ourselves to face this challenge?” has a forward-looking and solutions-oriented point of view. With this growth mindset, they’ll likely look beyond the obvious levers of cutting headcount and costs to solve this problem. They’ll instead harness creativity, resilience and inspiration to create a strong company culture and lead their team through this challenge.

A growth mindset is critical to surviving and thriving in today’s environment of uncertainty and rapid change. When you discover that old playbooks or practices no longer serve you or yield the results they once did, you can discover new actions to take by changing how you think and feel about what you’re currently experiencing.

Leadership coaching coupled with a growth mindset allows individuals, teams and corporations to feel comfortable and achieve:

  • Greater success
  • Better performance
  • Increased sense of well-being

With so many companies and individuals focused on scarcity and driven by reactiveness, developing a growth mindset can be a differentiator and game-changer for your effectiveness as a leader.

Do you want to find out more about how to adopt a growth mindset and how it benefits and determines your effectiveness as a leader? Contact Leading Edge Coaching & Consulting to schedule a Discovery Call and learn how our 4D Executive & Leadership Coaching program can work for you.