If that’s how you’re defining the concept, let’s stop using the term “growth mindset” and call it “trying hard” or “having a positive attitude.” That age-old belief also appears everywhere from the Bible to Buddha to Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking to the children’s book The Little Engine That Could. We agree, and the science-in areas from self-efficacy to goal setting to motivation -supports that exerting more effort often leads to better results. If you believe growth mindset means if you try harder, you can accomplish more, you can stop reading when you finish this section. That brief conversation raises the two most important questions about the concept of growth mindset: What do those words mean? And does growth mindset actually matter? What Exactly Is a Growth Mindset? Or perhaps the benefits he noticed were due to his personality traits that naturally predisposed him to work hard and be resilient. Sign up for the monthly TalentQ Newsletter, an essential roundup of news and insights that will help you make critical talent decisions. Regardless of what he meant, could he really be sure a growth mindset had a positive effect on his life? Or were the positive effects he attributed to having a growth mindset really due to other factors? He’s an intelligent individual, and intelligence is the largest predictor of our success in life and work.

Did the interviewer mean he always believed he could change and grow, and therefore he was successful? Did he mean he believed in his ability to become more intelligent, and therefore did become more intelligent? Was he saying he was resilient when going through challenges? Was he saying he had often been successful when he tried hard? Was he saying he had a positive attitude in life, and it had served him well? That interaction perfectly highlights the problem with the concept of growth mindset. “I was hurt by that section,” he said, “because having a growth mindset has had a very positive effect on my life.” But it’s time to separate positive intention from scientific proof.ĭuring a recent podcast interview, the interviewer called out the chapter in my book 8 Steps to High Performance, where I say a growth mindset isn’t proven to work.

Proponents of this principle say people can improve if they just believe.

Carol s dweck growth mindset