By Coaching Culture

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Coaching for growth mindset

COACH Exercises Questions Summary

WHAT IS growth mindset?

Let’s agree what we mean by a growth mindset…

Growth mindset is when people believe that their intelligence, character and creative ability are not fixed and that they can be developed through hard work, strategies and input from others. A person with a growth mindset is willing to try new things, step out of their comfort zone and see failure as an opportunity to grow and learn.

The most successful people have a growth mindset, they have a desire to learn and develop and are not limited by their current skills and talents.

WHY IS HAVING A GROWTH MINDSET IMPORTANT?

Why does it matter to have a growth mindset?

Being willing to learn and develop generates new innovative ways of doing things.

What benefits are there for someone who has a growth mindset?

People with a growth mindset tend to perform better as they are more open to feedback, learn from others and see challenges as opportunities to learn and develop.

What happens if coaching isn’t used to improve growth mindset?

When people have a fixed mindset rather than a growth mindset they are unlikely to enjoy challenges faced at work, they may respond negatively to feedback and may be unwilling to develop.

Before we explore how to help others to master this skill, let us first look at how to identify when someone needs your support with improving their growth mindset.

In an ever changing world it is important that people have a desire to learn and develop.

People with a growth mindset:

Seek opportunities to learn

Embrace feedback

Learn from those around them

Continuously develop

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HOW TO IDENTIFY IT

It is useful to understand how to recognise when a person needs support to develop a growth mindset. There are things to look out for, and things to listen out for.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR: Make sure you are tuned in to other people’s behaviours and look out for the following signs.

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Giving up easily - When faced

with a new challenge a person with a fixed mindset,

rather than a growth mindset, is likely not to see the benefit of putting effort into something that may be difficult or out of their comfort zone. Look out

for people who give up easily when faced with

a challenge.

Avoids Challenges – People

with a more fixed mindset often dislike failure, they may avoid challenges and prefer

to stick with what they know staying in their comfort zone.

Look out for people who rarely show willingness to try new

things or face challenges with a creative attitude.

Resistant to learning –

People with a fixed mindset rather than a

growth mindset tend to resist learning new things, as they may feel like a fruitless

exercise that has little benefits. Look out for people who are

unwilling to take part in learning or trying new

initiatives.

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HOW TO IDENTIFY IT

WHAT TO LISTEN OUT FOR: Make sure you are tuned in to what other people are saying and how they are saying it.

Defensive language - People

with a more fixed mindset tend not to appreciate

developmental feedback or take responsibility for their mistakes as

they often believe that it is a personal shortcoming rather than an area

to develop. Listen out for defensive language which will often focus on the

problem resting with other people, things like “I wasn’t given enough

time” “It was someone else’s fault” “He didn’t send me his

stuff”

Can do/ can’t do

- When a person has more of a fixed mindset than a growth mindset they often

describe their talents and skills or areas that they may lack skill in,

with a ‘can do’ or ‘can’t do’ mindset, believing that their skills or talents

are fixed. Listen out for things like “I can’t work on the new system, I’m

only good on the old one” “I can do this but not good at that”

“I would never be able to do that.”

Making excuses - You

may find that people with a fixed mindset tend

to make excuses more often. This could be to avoid taking part in activities out of their

comfort zone or as a way to deflect possible failure. Listen out for

people making excuses, things like “I’m too busy to try that”

“I wouldn’t enjoy doing it” “I’m just not that

interested”

When you notice some or all of these signs it’s important to step in and help, by coaching for a growth mindset.

TIME TO COACH

Now that you know how to identify when there is an opportunity for someone to improve their growth mindset, let’s look at how coaching can help.

When we are coaching someone to develop their growth mindset, we facilitate them to raise their awareness, change their perspective and ultimately to take action. A really simple way to remember this is to use our ACT model.

The ACT model is great for in the moment coaching conversations. It provides a simple structure to guide a conversation to an effective outcome.

Let’s see how you could use the ACT model to go through some key areas when coaching for a growth mindset.

AWARENESS: Raise your coachee’s self-awareness on how much of a growth mindset they currently have and how this is impacting themselves and others.

CHANGE PERSPECTIVE: Ask powerful questions to help your coachee to think differently about how they could develop a growth mindset. Allowing them to approach learning new things with a more positive attitude.

TAKE ACTION: Unlock your coachees potential through the development of strategies, effective goal setting, and practical change.

TIME TO COACH

EMBRACE FEEDBACK

People with a growth mindset understand the importance of feedback when it comes to developing personally and professionally. Feedback is a positive way that enables people to explore areas in which to further develop.

AWARENESS: How do you feel when you are offered feedback?

How does this impact yourself and others?

CHANGE PERSPECTIVE: Who do you know that is great at accepting feedback?

What could you learn from them?

TAKE ACTION: What steps could you take to receive feedback more positively?

What can you commit to doing differently?

TIME TO COACH

LEARN FROM OTHERS

When people have a growth mindset, they are happy to learn from other people in order to further their own development.

AWARENESS: What are you currently thinking and feeling about your own ability to learn from others?

How could you approach learning from other people?

CHANGE PERSPECTIVE: When in the past have you used other people’s knowledge or experience to help you?

What were the positives in this situation?

TAKE ACTION: How could you improve your ability to learn and seek help from others?

What will you commit to doing differently?

TIME TO COACH

FAILURE IS A LEARNING

People with a growth mindset are not afraid to fail, in fact they are happy to view failure as an opportunity to learn and would much rather try something new and take the risk than never try at all.

AWARENESS: What is your current perspective on failure?

How does this make you feel?

CHANGE PERSPECTIVE: What is the worst thing that could happen if something didn’t go to plan?

What is the best that could happen if something didn’t go to plan?

TAKE ACTION: How could you embrace failure as an opportunity to learn?

What will you commit to doing differently?

Now that you’ve had a coaching conversation it’s time to build on your coaching skills with a specific exercise that can help your coachee to change their mindset and improve their growth mindset.

COACHING EXERCISE: GIVE IT A WHIRL

INSTRUCTIONS

Grab a pen and paper

Draw the table on the following page.

Ask your coachee to think of something that they would like to try but they don’t because it feels out of their comfort zone. This could be something personally or professionally. Maybe they would like to try a new skill or create something, whatever it is ask them to write it in the first column.

Now ask them to list all their worries about trying this new thing, what has been stopping them? What is the worst that could happen? Ask them to write this in the second column.

Next ask them to think about all the positives of trying this new thing, what are the benefits to themselves and others?

Finally ask them to look at their table... what could they learn from what they have written?

A great coaching exercise for developing a growth mindset is ‘give it a whirl’. When we open our minds to learning new things our brains form new neural pathways that help us to learn new information faster, be more creative and find better solutions.

This exercise works for a growth mindset because it helps a coachee to step out of their comfort zone, try something new and learn from the experience.

COACHING EXERCISE: GIVE IT A WHIRL

Now ask your coachee the following coaching questions:

1. What do you think and feel about stepping out of your comfort zone?

2. What impact could staying in your comfort zone have on you?

3. What could you learn from this exercise?

4. How could you improve your mindset to be a growth mindset?

5. What actions could you take?

Now encourage your coachee to take action by asking the following questions:

1. What are your key learnings from this session on growth mindset?

2. What one action will you commit to doing straight away?

3. How will you know that you have successfully improved your growth mindset?

ACTIONSQUESTIONS

Something I would like to try

What’s the worst that could happen?

What’s the best that could happen?

What could i learn?

Draw out this table

QUIZ ANSWERS: Question 1 [A], Question 2 [C], Question 3 [A]

QUIZ TIMEA great way to check your knowledge so far, is to answer the

following questions...

Question 1: Having a growth mindset is important because:

A. It enables you to continuously develop

B. It allows you to stay in your comfort zone

C. It helps you to focus on the talents you already have

Question 2: When someone has a growth mindset they:

A. Give up easily

B. Avoid challenges

C. See opportunities to learn

Question 3: Which of these is a sign that a person may need coaching on growth mindset:

A. They use defensive language

B. They embrace feedback

C. They see failure as an opportunity to learn

key summary

By completing this module on coaching for a growth mindset you are able to:

Describe what a growth mindset is and how it can help people to be open to personal and professional development.

Identify people who need support to embrace a growth mindset.

Use effective coaching skills to improve peoples growth mindset.

What are your key learnings?

How will you put your new knowledge and skills into practice?

What support do you need to make this happen?

What will you do differently when coaching for growth mindset in the future?

Well done for completing the topic, you have now added COACHING FOR growth mindset to your toolbox

Great things never came from your comfort

zone