Mindsets don’t just happen in individuals, they invade and overtake our organizations, as well.
And they have a tendency to cascade down from the top…
And as much as the leader is responsible for the culture and climate of the organization, they are just as much responsible for the overall mindset of that organization.
And just as much as we can engage and develop a growth mindset unfortunately, the same can be said for a fixed mindset.
And yet, many leaders choose to lead in ways that cascade a ‘fixed’ over a ‘growth’ mindset in many of today’s organizations. They create and cascade an organizational mindset through their words, their actions, and even their reactions.
As we consider these leaders and organizations, consider the words of Carol Dweck from her work Mindset…
”Key weapons of the fixed mindset – blame, excuses, and the stifling of critics and rivals.”
And then think about how many of the leaders in our organizations, even in our modern times, still incorporate these “key weapons of the fixed mindset…”
- Leaders who choose to lay blame, than take responsibility.
- Leaders who choose to make excuses, than make change.
- Leaders who choose fake praise, over authentic feedback.
The kind of feedback that not only improves their leadership, but the overall effectiveness of the entire organization.
As Dweck adds…
“When bosses become controlling and abusive, they put everyone into a fixed mindset. This means that instead of learning, growing, and moving the company forward, everyone starts worrying about being judged. It starts with the bosses’ worry about being judged, but it winds up being everybody’s fear about being judged. It’s hard for courage and innovation to survive a companywide fixed mindset.”
So the questions remain…
- When will we learn?
- When will learn to lead in ways that grow our people and our organizations?
- When will we learn to quit ‘fixing’ and start growing?
When will we learn to lead and serve in ways that do less to feed the ego of the leader, as the growth, trust, capacity and success of the organization and the people within…
“When leaders feel they are inherently better than others, they may start to believe that the needs or feelings of the lesser people can be ignored. None of our fixed mindset leaders cared much about the little guy, and many were outright contemptuous of those beneath them on the corporate ladder.” -Carol Dweck ‘Mindset’
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