When a tough project fails or a big setback happens, the reactions reveal everything. One employee gets defensive, seeing the dead end as a personal failure. Another starts asking new questions, treating the obstacle as the actual starting line.
And it all comes down to a fixed mindset vs. a growth mindset.
In a personal growth mindset one pursues individual fulfillment. In a business context, this mindset is uniquely different. A corporate growth mindset is built around growth for the company as a whole.
Organizations that cultivate a growth mindset in the workplace build teams that solve harder problems. In fact, according to TalentLMS research on the Growth Mindset, 80% of executives say that a growth mindset directly contributes to revenue growth.
What is a growth mindset?
A growth mindset rejects the idea that talent or skills are fixed traits. Instead, it’s the belief that dedication and consistent effort help in developing skills and overcoming challenging situations.
The term was coined by researcher Carol Dweck in 2012 and it centers around belief that “becoming is better than being.”
But what does having a growth mindset actually mean? Growth mindset examples include embracing challenges, accepting feedback, and adapting to changes.
In practice, the difference plays out as one sales team with a fixed mindset that sees a missed target as a final verdict on their ability. While the team with a growth mindset sees the same miss as a valuable data point, asking, “What part of our process can we test and improve tomorrow?”
What are the five characteristics of a growth mindset?
A growth mindset is made from intentional habits built around a core belief in continuous improvement, a concept explored in research from Southern New Hampshire University.
What was found is that 5 key characteristics are often at the forefront of people with a strong growth mindset.
The most common characteristic is embracing challenges. A person with a fixed mindset sees a difficult task outside their comfort zone and thinks, “That’s not my responsibility.” In contrast, the person with a growth mindset sees the same task and asks, “What can I learn by trying?”
Embracing those challenges requires a deep belief in persistence and in seeing effort as the path to mastery. When a project hits a wall, the response is to re-examine the data, interview a different set of customers, or build a smaller prototype to test a new assumption—treating roadblocks as detours, not dead ends.
Finally, the entire system is fueled by a hunger for feedback and the ability to learn from criticism. A growth mindset means believing that input is not a personal attack, but a free lesson. It’s the difference between asking, “How did I do?” and the far more powerful question, “What’s one thing I could do better?”
How does a growth mindset benefit the workplace?
A growth mindset directly overhauls the entire work culture, shifting it from a “culture of proving” to a “culture of improving.” The former sees employees constantly defending their existing talent. The latter focuses on personal and professional development as a collective, a shift that unlocks powerful and compounding business results.
It fuels performance and innovation
Innovation depends on taking intelligent risks, an act that is impossible in a culture paralyzed by a fear of failure.
On the flip side, when teams are taught to experiment and learn from what doesn’t work, they discover what does much faster. It’s a process that becomes the true engine for creative problem-solving and breakthrough performance.
It forges resilient and engaged teams
Freedom to fail is the bedrock of psychological safety. When mistakes become data points instead of personal indictments, colleagues collaborate with honesty and trust. The result? A resilient team that’s engaged and shows a clear sense of ownership.
It creates true adaptability
Fostering a growth mindset also creates the most prized competitive advantage of all — true adaptability.
An organization filled with innovative, engaged, and resilient people does not fear market shifts or new technology. It sees change not as a threat to be weathered, but as a new set of problems to be solved.
How to foster a growth mindset in the workplace
Employees are highly in tune with a company’s culture. They listen to what leaders say, but they watch what the company actually rewards or punishes. That’s why you cannot declare a culture of growth on Monday and then, on Friday, praise only the safest projects or punish failure.
Fostering a genuine growth mindset requires intentionally changing leadership actions, daily cultural norms, and the formal systems that recognize value.
So how do you foster a growth mindset and the learning culture that comes with it?
Model it from the top
Leaders must become the most visible learners in the room, openly admitting when they are wrong and actively discussing the skills they’re trying to develop. They can use and model constructive criticism to help show how a positive outlook can help them achieve success.
Their public vulnerability gives the entire organization permission to prioritize growth over perfection.
As Neena Newberry says in the TalentLMS podcast episode What most leaders get wrong—and how to do it right, “Some of the most powerful and influential leaders, I think, are the ones who are willing to say when they don’t know something or when something’s really challenging and or saying that they don’t have the answers and they need to open up the discussion to more people and get more input.”
How to model a growth mindset as a leader
- Leaders can share a story of how their critical thinking skills lacked for a project, but through conscious effort and training programs they were able to fill in the gap.
- At the start of a weekly team meeting, managers can spend two minutes on a mistake they made that week and what they learned from it.
Build a culture of safe feedback
Honest feedback can only exist in a culture of absolute psychological safety.
The impact of this type of psychological safety is hard to overstate. When Google’s Project Aristotle studied its highest-performing teams, psychological safety was their most important shared quality.
Leaders can meet this need for safety and capitalize on a ready audience, as 65% of employees already say they want more feedback.
How to build a culture of safe feedback
- Reframe stressful “post-mortems” as collaborative “learning reviews” and normalize feedback by making it a predictable habit.
- End every one-on-one meeting with the same question, “What’s one thing I could do better to support you?”
Reward the process, not just the results
A growth culture dies if only flawless victories get praise. Managers must be trained to use specific language that praises smart work, even in a failure.
For example: “The outcome wasn’t what we wanted, but your data analysis was groundbreaking. We are using that exact process on the next project.”
Connect that praise to a tangible investment in professional development opportunities.
It’s also good to know that your team is ready for this investment. In the same TalentLMS report on the Growth Mindset, we see that 77% of employees believe their skills can be developed through a company learning process.
How to reward the process, not just the results
- Systematize this by adding a “Key Learnings” section to every project report, making the discussion of what was learned just as important as the final metrics.
- Celebrate contributors in company channels for their effort – even when it means they participated in unsuccesful projects or ones where the results were less than optimal.
Train employees for a growth mindset
You may argue that a growth mindset cannot be inherently trained. But that’s where you would be wrong. The core of a growth mindset is that anything can be trained. Why not a shift in mindset?
To help break this down you need to understand that a growth mindset is simply a summation of a set of skills. Here are some essential growth mindset skills that you can (and should) train for: Active listening, Adaptability, Creative thinking, Critical thinking, Emotional intelligence, Flexibility, Goal-setting, Persistence, Problem-solving, Resilience, Receptiveness to feedback, and Self-reflection (among many others).
Train employees for a growth mindset
- Invest in tools that promote ongoing development such as an LMS for continuous training to further foster a growth mindset culture.
- Map out the necessary skills needed to nurture a growth mindset culture (named above) using a skills gap analysis template or a tool (such as Skills) that maps talent fast, spots skills gaps easy, and assigns training in clicks.
How do you demonstrate a growth mindset at work?
It’s easy to mistake a growth mindset for a personality type.
However, it’s not a fixed trait. A growth mindset is something you do, not something you are.
It’s a set of deliberate, observable choices you make every day, and with the proper training and resources, you can build on the relevant skills for your team and your organization as a whole.
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Be ready to embrace challenges (not shy away from them)
Demonstrating a growth mindset begins with how you approach and start your work. Actively volunteer for the difficult assignment that others avoid.
In terms of how, be the one to ask, “What new skill can I build by taking this on?”
In meetings, verbally shift your team’s focus from “Did we hit the target?” to “How can we improve our process for getting there?”
A strong focus on learning agility is what separates future leaders from the rest. In fact, a Korn Ferry study found that it’s one of the highest predictors of long-term leadership success.
View failure as a learning opportunity
The most visible sign of your mindset is how you react when things go wrong. A growth mindset embraces challenges, which replaces blame and frustration with curiosity.
Instead of saying, “The project failed,” practice framing it as, “This attempt taught us our initial assumption was wrong.” Keep a personal “learning log” to write down one key lesson from every setback.
Such a daily habit turns reflection into a tangible asset and proves you see failure as education, not a final verdict.
Seek and utilize feedback
A growth mindset is proactive. It hunts for feedback and learning opportunities instead of waiting for them to be assigned.
Instead of waiting for your annual review, go to a trusted colleague after a presentation and ask, “What’s one thing I could have done differently to make that better?” Then, visibly act on the advice you receive.
This commitment to continuous learning is something companies require. The World Economic Forum reports that more than half of all employees will require significant reskilling in the coming years, making self-directed learning a career necessity.
Collaborate and share knowledge
You must turn your individual mindset into a team asset.
Actively share what you learned from a new course or a challenging task. When a colleague succeeds after a long struggle, praise their persistence and effort in a team channel.
Your positive framing of challenges and your public praise for others’ processes can elevate the entire team’s dynamic, fostering the kind of collaboration that makes organizations thrive.
Reflect and adjust
Finally, you must regularly reflect on your progress and identify areas where you can improve. You should always be willing to adjust your strategies and approaches based on feedback and training you receive.
By reflecting and adjusting, you’ll continuously strive to learn and grow, both personally and professionally.
Harness the power of a growth mindset
Answering the question of how to develop a growth mindset is just one piece of a bigger puzzle.
The real work is building an organization that is capable of constant reinvention. As futurist Alvin Toffler wrote, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
The primary job of any modern leader is, therefore, not to manage people, but to lead the learning.
Make learning easier for your team and company with an LMS. An LMS can help create, deliver, and track training, all in one place. Every employee gets a clear path for career development. Every leader gets a clear view of their team’s skills.
Are you ready to build your learning culture with TalentLMS? Get started free.
