Building a Growth Mindset Through Behavioural Skills Training
A growth mindset is a set of behaviours, including setting clear goals, meeting mastery criteria and using behavioural skills training to teach. Organizations that foster a growth mindset build resilience, persistence and continuous improvement within their teams.
A growth mindset or belief that one’s abilities and traits can always be developed is essential for personal and professional success.
Growth mindset interventions help individuals see challenges as opportunities to learn rather than threats to their competence.
To be effective, these interventions should identify objective behaviour goals with clear performance criteria (what success looks like and how it will be measured).
To ensure competency when teaching new skills, include:
an explanation or rationale for the skill, and description of the required behaviours
a model of the behaviour or skill demonstrated to mastery or expert level (i.e. frequency, accuracy, and fluency)
opportunities to practice the skill in a safe, supportive environment
corrective and positive feedback until mastery is observed across multiple opportunities
Gradually increase difficulty to build confidence and competence
Bottom Line
A growth mindset is a set of behaviours, including setting clear goals, meeting mastery criteria and using behavioural skills training to teach. Organizations that foster a growth mindset build resilience, persistence and continuous improvement within their teams.
Driving Performance While Supporting Employee Wellbeing
Sustainable workplace engagement is about creating an environment based on shared values, appropriate resources and building resilient employees. The result is a workforce that is more engaged and ready to meet the challenges ahead.
Individuals are motivated to act in ways and pursue goals that align with their values and what matters most. When management, organizational and personal values align, research predicts:
higher job satisfaction
lower employee turnover
greater trust and collaborations among teams
Values alone, however are not enough. Employees require the right job resources, both workplace and personal and access to these resources show:
reduced stress and discomfort
increased engagement and performance
more effective responding to challenges
The Case for Resilience
Developing employee resilience should be a core goal for organizations because while workplace challenges inevitably do increase job stress, resilient individuals:
demonstrate less distress,
greater persistence, and
ability to adapt to meet goals.
Resilience is about more than just coping, it’s about the ability to thrive under pressure.
The Missing Link: Engagement
Engaged employees who see value in their work are motivated to invest time and effort into organizational goals. Engaged employees are also tend to experience greater personal life satisfaction.
Yet most employees are not engaged at work, resulting in billions lost in productivity (Lu et al., 2023).
Happy and engaged employees are productive employees, so how do we increase engagement?
Strategies for Sustainable Engagement
Identify and provide appropriate job resources to help reduce stress and boost motivation.
Connect work tasks to employee values and identity, helping them see why their work matters.
Reinforce engagement behaviours consistently and regularly, through recognition, positive feedback and growth opportunities.
Have leadership model value-driven behaviours, for employees to look to for guidance.
Bottom Line
Sustainable workplace engagement is about creating an environment based on shared values, appropriate resources and building resilient employees. The result is a workforce that is more engaged and ready to meet the challenges ahead.