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How to Foster a Growth Mindset and Become an Agile Leader
Have you ever wondered what makes some people more successful than others? Why some people seem to learn faster, adapt better, and achieve more than others?
For me, I believe that the answer may lie in their mindset. What is a mindset, you might be asking?
Mindset is the way we think about ourselves: both our abilities, and our challenges. Mindset affects how we approach our goals, manage setbacks, and the way we deal with feedback.
In this blog post, I will explain how embracing and fostering a growth mindset can help you become an Agile leader. I will also explore how an Agile mindset can help optimize your growth potential.
Author’s note: This blog is a follow up article from one I wrote a few years back, see here for more: The Agile Mindset. Becoming agile starts with you | by Luke Pivac | Agile | Adapt | Medium
What is a Growth Mindset?
A growth mindset is the belief that our abilities are not fixed. Instead, they can be developed through effort, learning, and feedback.
Author’s note: To explore how a great process to help with this can work, check out my article on the Denning cycle, the Plan, Do, Check, Act model. A system I use in both professional and personal life.
So, getting back to what is a Growth mindset?
Well, from what I can see, many “growth mindset” people see challenges as opportunities to grow, failures as lessons to improve, and feedback as useful information to learn from, and even smarter — adjust their strategies!
People with a “growth mindset” are not afraid of making mistakes, taking risks, or trying new things. They are curious, resilient, and persistent. They believe that they can always learn something new, and that they can improve their performance with practice and feedback.
Author’s insight: A growth mindset, is something you practice, learn from and adjust. It is a practice, that we can all master overtime. For me, it not only helps you become more efficient and effective, and ultimately more productive in your work, but helps you become more optimistic, and a healthier approach with dealing with anything that comes in your way, is ultimately better for your wellbeing.
What is an Agile Mindset?
An Agile mindset is the attitude and approach that embraces the principles and values of Agile software development. Agile — or what some call “Agility” is a way of working that focuses on delivering value to customers, collaborating with stakeholders, responding to change, and continuously improving.
People with an Agile mindset, tend to be is customer-focused, adaptive, collaborative, and reflective (hence the PDCA is the perfect model to help practice this).
People with an Agile mindset tend to not be attached to a fixed plan. Instead, they are open to feedback and change. They are not siloed, and work on their own — but work in cross-functional teams. They are not complacent; they seek to learn and improve their processes and products.
How Does a Growth Mindset Become an Agile Mindset?
A growth mindset and an Agile mindset are closely related. For me, I believe they can reinforce each other.
As this table summary table highlights the characteristics and benefits of adopting both the Agile mindset and Growth mindsets.
Adopting a growth mindset to become an Agile leader
A growth mindset can help you become an Agile leader, because it enables you to:
- Embrace change and uncertainty. A growth mindset helps you see change as an opportunity to learn and grow, rather than a threat to your status quo (by doing nothing). You are not afraid of experimenting, pivoting, and iterating. You feel empowered, because you know that you can always improve and adapt. You are not fixed and rigid, but flexible and responsive.
- Collaborate and communicate. A growth mindset helps you value feedback and input from others. You know your team and stakeholders can help you learn and improve. It also means that you are not defensive, but receptive, respectful and open to feedback. You are not isolated and working in silos but connected and engaged with your team and stakeholders. You are not competitive, but cooperative and supportive.
- Deliver value and quality. A growth mindset helps you focus on delivering value to your customers, rather than satisfying yourself or meeting some kind of arbitrary standard. By having a growth mindset, you are not obsessed with perfection, but with excellence.
You are not satisfied with good enough, but with continuous improvement. You are driven by customer satisfaction and impact.
Adopting an Agile to help optimize growth potential
An Agile mindset can help you optimize your growth potential, because it enables you to:
- Learn and improve. An Agile mindset helps you adopt a culture of learning and improvement, where you constantly seek feedback, measure your results, and reflect on your actions (again see my article on PDCA on how to do this: How to Use the PDCA Cycle to Solve Problems in Your Program | by Luke Pivac | Agile | Adapt | Medium.
You are not afraid of failure, instead you use it as an opportunity to learn. You focus on the progress by being dynamic and evolving. - Innovate and create. An Agile mindset helps you harness your creativity and innovation. They are all opportunities to explore new ideas, experiment with different solutions, and deliver value in small increments (for example, via Sprints if you are using Scrum).
- Lead and inspire. An Agile mindset helps you become a leader and an inspiration, where you model the Agile values and principles, empower your team, and share your vision. You are not ruling by fear or authority, but serve your team, facilitate, encourage and inspire. You are not ruling the work and managing people, but participative and supportive. You are purpose-driven and influential.
Conclusion
Fostering a growth mindset and becoming an Agile leader are not mutually exclusive but are of mutually beneficial.
By adopting a growth and Agile mindset, these approaches can help you achieve more, learn faster, adapt better, and lead in smarter ways. Helping you to transform yourself, your team, and your organization.
These mindsets will help you thrive in a complex and changing world. So, what are you waiting for? Start cultivating your growth mindset and your Agile mindset today. And see the difference they can make in your life and work.
Interested in more of my content?
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