By Susan Letterman White
Leaders set the stage. They learn and practice noticing who speaks up in meetings and who is quiet. They pay attention to who gets the stretch assignments that make a career and who is left out. They encourage people, who have been marginalized in the organization, to speak up, ask for what they want, and share their ideas. They manage meetings so that no one person takes up too much space and when they see microaggressions in the workplace, like talking over others or not acknowledging contributions to the discussion, they call out the behavior. They also demonstrate their humanity and vulnerability before asking others to share their mistakes.
Explain the link between having a growth mindset and becoming a better professional. We build intelligence when we are challenged with changing our behavior and then practice self-awareness and self-management. People cope more effectively with challenges and setbacks when they embody a growth theory of intelligence.
Make a growth mindset culture a priority action step for attracting the best and brightest talent to work for your organization and creating an attractive brand when it comes to recruiting, hiring, and retention. Research has demonstrated that more people are attracted to organizations with a growth theory of intelligence because it suggests to them that this is a workplace where they can succeed and be rewarded with hard work.
Make having a growth mindset a criteria for performance evaluation and integrate the skill into the organization’s leadership development program. Developing a DEI culture asks people to change how they think, what they feel, and their actions. It is challenging and there will be setbacks. A growth theory of intelligence means that people are willing, able, and expected to practice new behaviors and new communication styles and have new and different conversations. They need to know that it is okay if they are less than perfect and the only way to do that is make it part of their performance evaluation.
Developing a culture of equity and inclusion depends on people telling their stories of facing and overcoming personal hardships with the support of sponsors, mentors, coaches, and affinity groups. Reward people, who share these types of personal stories. Publicize those stories. If you want people to embrace a growth mindset culture, make sure to signal that efforts are underway to change the culture. Emphasize the link between a new growth mindset culture and well-being by emphasizing stories of overcoming personal hardships and improvement through resilience, tenacity, practice, and hard work.
