Praise Effort

If you are a frequent visitor of the blog, you may have read a blog a few weeks ago called Mind Over Matter. This blog discussed the differences between fixed and growth mindsets and the effects each mindset may have on personal development based on the research by Dr. Carol Dweck. A key take-away was that individuals with a growth mindset believe that their talents can continuously be developed which has been shown to lead to great achievement and performance — pushing them to persevere and increase what they can do.

Dr. Dweck has conducted research to show that mindsets can change as shown by a series of interventions in academics. What this means is that there are very simple things that can be done in order to help others develop a growth mindset and set up a culture where this type of mindset is welcomed — and can be done by you as leader, coach, and instructor to accomplish this.

How the instructor approaches it may be even more important than the student, because the instructor has the ability to consistently reinforce this type of mindset.

Dr. Dweck discovered that when instructors praised effort and hard work, student performance improved beyond those whose instructors praised intelligence. This is analogous to praising effort instead of skill or natural ability.

Praise the students who put in the extra time to further develop, even if they haven’t quite achieved it yet. Emphasize that they can achieve their goal and making errors along with the way is okay. It’s natural to make errors during development. This will help them be able to be more open to take constructive criticism and use it to their benefit. If you believe in a growth mindset and want to develop your people, this is something YOU as leaders need to adopt as well. It’s your responsibility to teach and train, not just focus on an end result. It starts with you as leaders, instructors, and coaches and setting the stage where individuals can develop a growth mindset can be key in having them reach their full potential.