I was very invested in being smart and thought to be smart was more important than accomplishing anything in life.
I've always been interested, since graduate school, in why some children wilt and shrink back from challenges and give up in the face of obstacles, while others avidly seek challenges and become even more invested in the face of obstacles. So this has been my primary question for over 40 years.
Think about being a teenager and feeling like school is just about taking tests you may or may not be interested in, after which someone will judge whether or not you're smart. No one's going to be inspired by that.
When I was in graduate school, I became very interested in why some kids took on challenges and were able to bounce back from setbacks whereas others shy away from difficulty and really crumble when they hit failures. I became fascinated with people who had that kind of courage to take on challenges.
Business leaders who openly acknowledge people's concerns about becoming obsolete and who invest resources in workers' growth can help create a nation of learners - and perhaps resolve some of the political chaos that's bubbling around us.
Some students start thinking of their intelligence as something fixed, as carved in stone. They worry about, 'Do I have enough? Don't I have enough?'
Chinese culture is already telling children to work hard. That's not growth mindset because they're working hard for the product, not for the growth or the joy of learning.
Maybe you don't know how to do something at work. Instead of asking the boss or seeking someone as a mentor, you might not want to show them your ignorance. So, you're depriving yourself of this learning and mentorship. All of these ways are ways that a fixed mindset will hold you back.
I grew up in an environment that promoted a very fixed mindset. It was an era that worshipped IQ and thought that your IQ was the most important thing in determining your future. My sixth-grade teacher even seated us around the room in IQ order.
Scholars are deeply gratified when their ideas catch on. And they are even more gratified when their ideas make a difference - improving motivation, innovation, or productivity, for example. But popularity has a price: people sometimes distort ideas and, therefore, fail to reap their benefits.
As the growth mindset has become more popular and taken hold, we are beginning to find that there are pitfalls. Many educators misunderstand or misapply the concepts.
As human beings, it is natural for us to pick up signals about what is valued in our environment and to want to embody those values. But being superior and infallible isn't something to strive for. Those values do not encourage people to do what is good for their organization in the long run.
Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control. They come to see themselves as in control of their success. Emphasizing natural intelligence takes it out of the child's control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to a failure.
We're finding that many parents endorse a growth mindset, but they still respond to their children's errors, setbacks or failures as though they're damaging and harmful. If they show anxiety or overconcern, those kids are going toward a more fixed mindset.
The loudest voices both in the U.S. and abroad often are those that preach hatred and exclusion. But hatred and exclusion will not bring employment.
Praise your child explicitly for how capable they are of learning rather than telling them how smart they are.
When I went into psychology, there were very few women.
My undergraduates, at first, get all starry-eyed about the idea of finding their passion, but over time, they get far more excited about developing their passion and seeing it through. They come to understand that that's how they and their futures will be shaped and how they will ultimately make their contributions.
Most experts and great leaders agree that leaders are made, not born, and that they are made through their own drive for learning and self-improvement.
The hallmark of successful people is that they are always stretching themselves to learn new things.
