Growth Mindset at Work: What It Is and How to Build It
Growth mindset at work: Dweck's definition, fixed vs growth mindset, what the research shows, and how to swap 'I must' for 'I want' in a new job or career.
A growth mindset is the belief that your abilities can grow through effort, good strategies and help from others. Carol Dweck, the Stanford psychologist behind the term, contrasts it with a fixed mindset: the belief that talent is something you either have or don't. At work, a growth mindset shows in what you do when a task is hard, when you get criticism, or when a colleague is better than you. You change strategy, ask for input and keep going. The research shows modest effects, so treat it as a tool for specific moments, not a personality to adopt.
I work as a career coach at International Motivation Training Deutschland (IMT), an approved provider, in programmes funded by the Jobcenter and the Federal Employment Agency. Since 2022 I have coached more than 2,000 adults in Germany's career and integration programmes, most of them starting over in a new country. In the programme I coach in, one session puts two German sentences side by side: "ich muss" (I must) and "ich will" (I want). The same session covers growth and fixed mindset and how emotions steer what you do. It runs before the CV and application sessions.
What a growth mindset is, in Dweck's words
In a 2016 Harvard Business Review article (opens in a new tab), Dweck summed up her research: "Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset." She adds that they "worry less about looking smart and put more energy into learning."
Note the three parts. Hard work alone is not in the definition. Strategy and input from others carry equal weight.
Fixed vs growth mindset at work
| Situation | Fixed mindset says | Growth mindset says |
|---|---|---|
| A new task you have never done | "If I fail, they'll see I'm not good enough." | "What's the first step, and who has done this before?" |
| Critical feedback | "They think I'm bad at this." | "What exactly should I change next time?" |
| A colleague who is faster | "I'll never be that good." | "What does she do that I don't?" |
| A rejected application | "Nobody wants someone like me." | "Which part of the application didn't work?" |
| A mistake in your first month | "Hide it." | "Report it early and learn the fix." |
Dweck names three common triggers for the fixed side: "When we face challenges, receive criticism, or fare poorly compared with others, we can become insecure or defensive." A new job or career puts you in all three at once. If you were confident in your old field and freeze in the new one, look here first.
Three misreadings of growth mindset
Dweck wrote the HBR piece because companies had started to misuse the idea. Three points from it:
- Everyone has both. People often confuse growth mindset with being flexible, open-minded or positive. Dweck calls that a "false growth mindset". In her words, "Everyone is actually a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets."
- Progress counts more than effort. "Unproductive effort is never a good thing." What counts is learning and progress, and the processes behind them: "seeking help from others, trying new strategies, and capitalizing on setbacks."
- Companies have to back it. A company has to back it with policies that reward learning, even when a project misses its goal.
What the research shows
Be careful with big claims. A 2023 meta-analysis (opens in a new tab) in Psychological Bulletin by Jeni Burnette and colleagues reviewed 53 samples of growth mindset interventions. For the groups expected to benefit most, run with high fidelity, it found small effects on academic achievement and larger effects on mental health, with wide variation between studies. An earlier pair of meta-analyses, Sisk and colleagues in 2018 (opens in a new tab), called the overall effects weak, with possible benefits for students from low-income backgrounds and those at academic risk.
Most of that research studied students, not adults at work. For the workplace, Dweck reports from her company studies that where entire companies embrace a growth mindset, employees "report feeling far more empowered and committed".
My reading: a growth mindset will not get you a job by itself. It helps at specific moments, after a rejection or in the first weeks of a hard task, if it changes what you do next.
From "I must" to "I want": taking ownership
Listen to how you talk about your career change. When you start over, it is easy to describe every step as an obligation: I must learn German, I must apply, I must take this course. The "ich muss / ich will" exercise in the programme asks you to check each sentence:
| "I must" | Ask yourself | "I want" or "I choose" |
|---|---|---|
| "I must learn German." | Why does this matter to me? | "I want German good enough to talk to patients again." |
| "I must apply for jobs." | What do I get out of it? | "I choose to send three applications this week, because I want my own income." |
| "I must do this course." | Which part of it do I need? | "I want the Excel part, because every office job I like asks for it." |
Some "musts" stay musts: a deadline is a deadline. The point is to find the reason that belongs to you, because that reason gets you through the hard week. When you can't find one, that's useful information too. Maybe the goal belongs to someone else.
How to build a growth mindset at work: six practices
- Name your trigger. Write down the last time you felt defensive at work. Was it a challenge, criticism or comparison? Dweck describes managers learning to notice when their fixed-mindset "persona" shows up and what it says.
- Add "yet". "I can't write a German email" becomes "I can't write a German email yet." Then ask what the next step is.
- Ask for feedback on the process. "What would you do differently in this report?" beats "Was it okay?"
- Change the strategy, not only the effort. If something fails twice, try another way: a template, a colleague's example, a course.
- Set learning goals. In a new field, goals like "learn three ways to do X by Friday" work better than "be perfect at X". I explain why in SMART goals for a career change.
- Keep a learning log. Once a week, write one thing you couldn't do a month ago. It's evidence the fixed voice can't argue with.
If a specific belief keeps stopping you, work on it directly with the method in limiting beliefs. For one-to-one support with a career change, see career change coaching.
Questions and answers
What is a growth mindset?
Carol Dweck defines it as the belief that your talents can be developed through hard work, good strategies and input from others. A fixed mindset is the belief that talents are innate gifts. Dweck writes that people with a growth mindset worry less about looking smart and put more energy into learning.
What is the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset?
With a fixed mindset, a mistake says something about who you are, so you avoid hard tasks and criticism. With a growth mindset, a mistake says something about your current strategy, so you change the strategy. Dweck notes that everyone has a mixture of both, and the mix shifts with experience.
Does growth mindset training work?
The effects are modest and depend on who takes part. A 2023 meta-analysis in Psychological Bulletin found small positive effects on academic achievement and larger ones on mental health for the groups expected to benefit most, with wide variation between studies. Use the idea as a tool for specific situations, not as a slogan.
How do I show a growth mindset in a job interview?
Tell a story about something you could not do at first and learned: the strategy you tried, the feedback you asked for, and the result. Show the learning instead of naming the phrase 'growth mindset'.
Is a growth mindset just positive thinking?
No. Dweck calls that a 'false growth mindset': confusing it with being open-minded or positive. A growth mindset is about how you respond to difficulty: trying new strategies, asking for help and learning from setbacks.