Why a growth mindset is important for wellbeing

Why a growth mindset is important for wellbeing

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Why a growth mindset is important for wellbeing

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Do you have a growth mindset and what difference does it make to your wellbeing and relationships if you do? Here we explore how the theory on growth and fixed mindsets, first introduced by psychologist Carol Dweck, plays out in a work setting.

A person’s mindset can significantly influence their performance, their relationships with colleagues, and their overall success. It can make a difference to how individuals approach challenges, development, and collaboration.

Understanding how growth and fixed mindsets manifest in work environments can lead to improved cultures, greater innovation, and enhanced personal satisfaction.

Growth Mindset at Work

A growth mindset is the belief that skills and intelligence can be developed through dedication, hard work, and continuous learning.

People with this mindset thrive in environments that encourage experimentation, feedback, and collaboration.

They tend to see challenges as opportunities for improvement rather than as threats and they tend to focus on what they can learn from an experience and what improvements can be made rather than allowing perceived obstacles or uncertainties get in the way of progress.

In practical terms, employees with a growth mindset:

1. Embrace challenges: They willingly take on tasks that push their limits, seeing them as opportunities to expand their capabilities. Whether it’s learning a new skill or taking on a demanding project, they approach the situation with a problem-solving attitude.

2. Persist through setbacks: Rather than seeing a mistake or failure as a reflection of their abilities, they view it as a temporary issue that can be solved with effort and adjustment. This resilience allows them to bounce back from difficulties with a focus on improvement.

3. Seek feedback: Individuals with a growth mindset actively seek feedback to learn how they can improve. They view constructive criticism as a valuable tool for self-improvement and are more likely to use it to refine their skills and performance.

4. Collaborate openly: They are willing to share knowledge and ask questions, believing that learning from others is an essential part of growth. They support the growth of their colleagues, creating a cooperative and forward-thinking work culture.

 

A growth mindset in the workplace leads to a higher level of innovation, as employees are more willing to take calculated risks and explore new solutions without the fear of failure. It also creates a positive environment where teams support each other and are not afraid to make mistakes in the pursuit of progress.

Fixed Mindset at Work

On the other hand, a fixed mindset is the belief that abilities, intelligence, and talents are static traits that cannot be significantly changed eg I am who I am and you’ll just have to accept me as I am.

People with a fixed mindset often avoid situations where they may fail or appear less competent, leading to stagnation in their professional development.

In the workplace, this mindset can manifest in several detrimental ways:

1. Fear of failure: Employees with a fixed mindset tend to shy away from challenging tasks or projects that might expose their weaknesses. They prefer sticking to what they already know, which limits their opportunities for growth.

2. Avoidance of feedback: They often resist feedback, perceiving it as personal criticism rather than constructive advice. This can lead to defensiveness or complacency, hindering their ability to learn from mistakes.

3. Blame culture: People with a fixed mindset may place blame on external factors or colleagues when things go wrong, as accepting responsibility would challenge their belief in their fixed abilities. This can also be an issue when issues arise in workplaces and workplace processes are targeted on finding fault and applying consequences rather than exercising curiosity to generate consensus solutions.

4. Undermining collaboration: Because they see skills as static, they may be reluctant to collaborate openly, fearing that others will outshine them or highlight their weaknesses. This can result in a competitive, rather than cooperative, work culture.

People with a fixed mindset are more likely to be threatened by change because they want things to stay as they are rather than venture into the uncertainty of something new. This is one of the reasons why change management always comes up as a significant area for improvement in employee satisfaction surveys.

Fostering a Growth Mindset Culture

To foster a growth mindset in the workplace, leaders need to emphasise the importance of learning, effort, and improvement over natural talent or immediate success. Encouraging employees to take risks, learn from failure, and seek ongoing development is key. This can be achieved by:

1. Praising effort and learning: Managers should focus on recognizing the process employees go through to achieve results rather than just the outcomes. This reinforces the idea that effort leads to improvement.

2. Providing constructive feedback: Rather than merely pointing out mistakes, feedback should offer clear guidance on how to improve and grow. This helps employees see challenges as areas for development.

3. Encouraging collaboration: A workplace that encourages the sharing of ideas and learning from others will naturally promote a growth mindset.

What can also be helpful is aiding employees to understand their inherent strengths by using character strengths instruments like VIA Character Strengths and giving them opportunities to use their signature strengths as well as supporting them when they need to leverage their lesser strengths.

Fostering a growth mindset mentality plays an important part in developing and maintaining a psychologically safe workplace culture because it encourages people to speak up and to work together to eliminate or control psychosocial hazards and to not be bystanders.

If you would like to explore the ways that we might be able to help you to make yours a great workplace, please call us on 1300 108 488 or email info@poswork.com.au.

CONTACT US

PosWork

A Division of Ridgeline Human Resources Pty Ltd
ABN : 24 091 644 094

info@poswork.com.au

6 Ellesmere Ave, Croydon Victoria 3136

1300 108 488

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Do you have psychosocial strengths?

Do you have psychosocial strengths?

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Do you have psychosocial strengths?

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What a difference it makes if you look at challenges in life and business through the lens of positive psychology!  What would happen if you looked at psychosocial hazards that way?  

This morning, PosWork’s Lee-Anne Hunt and Peter Maguire presented at a Whitehorse Business Group breakfast where they spoke about the new positive duties to eliminate or control psychosocial hazards and to prevent sexual harassment and gender-based behaviours.

It was a highly interactive session with people engaging in groups to explore psychosocial hazards and how they can present in practice and discussing ways to deal with them.

Lee-Anne and Peter also spoke about psychosocial strengths – looking at the hazards in the context of the things you do well in each particular area of hazard and how you can leverage and build on those strengths to recognise what you do well and build on that in a positive way.

That totally changes the mindset and the conversations and the engagement and the outcomes…..and it is a lot more fun.

If you would like to explore how we can help you to deal with positive duties in a positive way for your people and organisation, please call us on 1300 108 488 or email info@poswork.com.au.

CONTACT US

PosWork

A Division of Ridgeline Human Resources Pty Ltd
ABN : 24 091 644 094

info@poswork.com.au

6 Ellesmere Ave, Croydon Victoria 3136

1300 108 488

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Are you micro managing?

Are you micro managing?

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Are you micro managing?

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You love the fact that this manager is always on top of everything that is going on in his team but is he actually micro-managing and creating risks to psychological safety for himself, his team and your business? Did you know that micro-managing is associated with a number of the psychosocial hazards in Safe Work Australia’s “Model code for managing psychosocial hazards at work”? 

So what is micro-management?

Essentially, micro-management happens when an employee is subjected to excessive scrutiny, overly constant supervision, and an intrusive level of management involvement in the performance of their work.

Often, the manager might not realise that they are micro managing – they might think that  they are just  ensuring productivity and quality or being available to help but they are inadvertently sending a message to the employee that they don’t trust them to do it themselves.  This can be extremely detrimental to both the professional and personal well-being of employees.

How does micro-management affect people?

When employees feel constantly monitored and questioned, it creates an environment of suspicion and unease. That erodes trust which is a foundational element of any healthy work relationship and, in turn, that leads to decreased morale and engagement among team members.

Employees may become hesitant to take initiatives or make decisions, fearing constant scrutiny and potential criticism. They can be reluctant to put their hands up to take on additional tasks or responsibilities if they believe that that will result in potentially more scrutiny and exposure to criticism.

That can also lead to people feeling pressured and anxious which can result in them experiencing increased stress and burnout.

That is why micro-management is associated with psychosocial hazards.

What does micro-management look like?

The truth is that different people need different levels of supervision and different people want different levels of supervision – and those needs and wants don’t always align. 

So it can look different for different people.

A common trap is to adopt the same approach with everyone doing similar roles or within a team – for example, if one person is consistently getting things right and has proven that they know their stuff, do they require the same level of supervision as someone who is less experienced or lower performing? And what message are you sending them if you do apply the same level of supervision?

Sometimes, there are supervision standards that have to be applied from a governance perspective eg in medical settings or government services or the like. However, that doesn’t mean that you have to have the same process or conversation with each employee – you should be able to tailor it to the needs of both the individual and the organisation.

Moving from managing to coaching

 Gallup tells us that we will get the best results in productivity and employee wellbeing if managers become coaches for their people and especially if strengths and wellbeing are part of the conversation.

Gallup encourages regular check-ins with people by their manager/coach but that isn’t micro-management if the focus is on supporting the employee in being successful in their work rather than checking up on what they have been doing or unnecessarily requiring your sign-off on the work that they have done.

They can simply be conversations about how things are going like we have in our EngageMentality coaching model where we essentially ask four questions:

  1. What’s gone well?  
  2. What’s not going to plan?
  3. What’s new?
  4. What are we going to do about all of that?

Then you work together on the plan  with the manager/coach’s input being what is needed for the particular employee in the particular circumstances – no more and no less.

Conclusion

Micro-management is bad for business, bad for people and risky when it comes to psychosocial hazards. It is also far from enjoyable for managers who have the misfortune to be doing it and creates real risks of burnout for them.

So, as the saying goes, “let’s work smarter not harder” because micro-management is hard on everyone. 

If you would like to explore our EngageMentality process or any other of our PosWork programs for your workplace, please call us on 1300 108 488 or email info@poswork.com.au.

CONTACT US

PosWork

A Division of Ridgeline Human Resources Pty Ltd
ABN : 24 091 644 094

info@poswork.com.au

6 Ellesmere Ave, Croydon Victoria 3136

1300 108 488

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Gallup tells us how to engage employees in 2024

Gallup tells us how to engage employees in 2024

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Gallup tells us how to engage employees in 2024

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Gallup has released a “2024 Employee Engagement Strategy Checklist” in which it tells us that 44% of employees worldwide say they are stressed and proposes some things that organisations can do to get people more engaged and less stressed. 

Here is Gallup’s list:

  1. Check in on your managers because they are more likely to be feeling burned out and stressed and you need them to feel supported and capable of leading their people effectively.
  2. Prepare managers to have meaningful conversations with employees in which they recognise strengths and achievements, set and refine goals and priorities and support then in relationships and collaboration.
  3. Prioritise promoting vision and purpose, especially among remote workers for whom Gallup’s research says that only 28% feel connected to their organisation’s mission and purpose.
  4. Measure engagement to show employees that you care about their feedback and want to know how they are doing.
  5. Take action on survey results – nothing builds positive momentum for an engagement initiative more than asking for feedback, doing something about it and sharing and celebrating positive results.

They say that their research shows that 80% of employees who say they have received meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged, regardless of how many days they worked in the office.

When it comes to having meaningful conversations with employees, Gallup said that they should include:

  1. Recognition or appreciation of recent work
  2. Collaboration and relationships
  3. Current goals and priorities at work
  4. Employee strengths and the things that they do well

How long should these conversations be? If they are done regularly (ie weekly), they should take no longer than 15 to 30 minutes.

Our EngageMentality Model

This is a continuous coaching model which incorporates all of the features that Gallup recommends plus more.

We did our own research on the things that we believe impact on an employment experience and by extension employee engagement and wellbeing – these “coaching lenses” are:

  1. Roles  – the job that I do plus any of those other responsibilities that I might take on as a leader or an employee or safety representative or first aider, etc
  2. Relationships – I rely on certain people for certain things and others rely on me for certain things
  3. Values and behaviours – the behavioural attributes that we want to see practised in our organisation to make it respectful, inclusive and high performing
  4. Strengths – using the VIA Character Strengths framework to use a strengths-based approach which optimises opportunities for me to use my signature strengths and to work on and be supported with my lesser strengths
  5. Wellbeing – using the PERMAH workplace wellbeing survey, build on my psychological safety, life balance and overall wellbeing. 

We explore and address each of those items through a process of:

  1. Positioning – doing a stocktake of where I sit in each of those areas
  2. Planning – identifying the actions that I want to take for my performance and development, timelines for doing that and supports that I need and any people who are involved
  3. Performing – implementing my plan and catching up with my manager each week for a coaching session
  4. Presenting – providing me with the opportunity to showcase my achievements in performance and development and areas for further development 

The coaching conversations simply involve asking and answering these 4 questions in the context of each of the 5 coaching lenses:

  1. What has worked well (celebrate)?
  2. What has been a struggle (recalibrate)?
  3. What has changed (update)?
  4. What are we going to do about all of that (activate)?

If you would like to explore our EngageMentality process or any other of our PosWork programs for your workplace, please call us on 1300 108 488 or email info@poswork.com.au.

CONTACT US

PosWork

A Division of Ridgeline Human Resources Pty Ltd
ABN : 24 091 644 094

info@poswork.com.au

6 Ellesmere Ave, Croydon Victoria 3136

1300 108 488

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Reflections on the Strength of Love

Reflections on the Strength of Love

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Reflections on the Strength of Love

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Love is one of the three character strengths that comprise the Virtue of Humanity.

Humanity describes strengths that manifest in caring relationships with others. These strengths are interpersonal and are mostly relevant in one-on-one relationships.

What is love?

Love as a character strength, rather than as an emotion, refers to the degree to which you value close relationships with people, and contribute to that closeness in a warm and genuine way. 

Where kindness can be a behavioural pattern applied in any relationship, love as a character strength really refers to the way you approach your closest and warmest relationships. 

Love is reciprocal, referring to both loving others and the willingness to accept love from others. 

There are four types of love, each with a biological and evolutionary base:

  • Attachment love: parent for child; child for parent
  • Compassionate/altruistic love: kindness
  • Companionate love: friendship
  • Romantic love: spouse/partner/boyfriend/girlfriend

Why is love of value?

  • Love tends to facilitate tolerance, empathy and forgiveness in relationships which contribute to the health and longevity of those relationships.
  • Loving and secure relationships can provide a sense of meaning and purpose in life.
  • Love is associated with healthy patterns of communication such as compromise and the ability to engage effectively in conflict with others.

A couple of questions to consider

  • What are the ways in which you express love to others and how is it received?
  • How well do you receive love? It is often harder to give than to receive but good relationships are a two-way street. Do signs of love make you uncomfortable or afraid of what others may expect from you

Some things that you can do to practise love

  • Journal about loving relationships in general, reflecting on what is most valued in a healthy, loving relationship. Put one of your insights into action.
  • Carve out some time each week to experience uninterrupted quality time in your closest relationship.
  • Go out of your way to offer support to co-workers when you see they are stressed or having a bad day. Give them the gift of supportive words and your honest concern. 

For more information on the strength of hope, go to https://www.viacharacter.org/character-strengths/love

If you are interested in exploring how the practice of Character Strengths might be of benefit to your business and culture, contact Peter Maguire on 0438 533 311 or at info@poswork.com.au.

Acknowledgement: the primary reference for this post is “The Power of Character Strengths: Appreciate And Ignite Your Positive Personality” by Ryan M. Niemiec & Robert E. McGrath (An Official Guide From The VIA Institute on Character)

CONTACT US

PosWork

A Division of Ridgeline Human Resources Pty Ltd
ABN : 24 091 644 094

info@poswork.com.au

6 Ellesmere Ave, Croydon Victoria 3136

1300 108 488

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Perspectives on the Strength of Fairness

Perspectives on the Strength of Fairness

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Perspectives on the Strength of Fairness

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Fairness is one of the three character strengths that comprise the Virtue of Justice.

Justice describes strengths that help you connect in community or group-based situations.

What is fairness?

Fairness is treating people justly, not letting your personal feelings bias your decisions about others. You want to give everyone a fair chance, and believe there should be equal opportunity for all, though you also realize that what is fair for one person might not be fair for another.

Fairness is a cognitive judgment capacity that involves reasoning and making judgments. It involves 2 types of reasoning:

  • Justice reasoning which emphasizes logic and weighing principles to determine moral rights and responsibilities.
  • Care reasoning which includes empathy and compassion; the ability to put yourself in somebody else’s shoes.

When you are at your best, you use fairness to actively work to establish equity and respect for all.

Why is fairness of value?

  • Fair-minded individuals are more likely to engage in positive, prosocial behaviours and less likely to engage in illegal and immoral behaviours.
  • A sensitivity to issues of morality and justice increases self-reflection and self-knowledge.
  • Having a good moral compass enables you to navigate conflictual situations more effectively.

A couple of questions to consider

  • What are the circumstances in which it is easier or harder for you to compromise to try to achieve a fair outcome for everyone?
  • How do you reconcile your sense of fairness with the reality that “life is not fair”?

Some things that you can do to practise fairness

  • Consider ways to be fairer with friends or family such as thinking about the amount of quality time you spend with each person and making adjustments accordingly. 
  • Include someone in a conversation who is as newcomer or typically excluded from groups.
  • Be fair to yourself by examining the amount of time you spend on your own health and self-care versus time spent on helping others. Take action based on what is fair for both you and others.

For more information on the strength of fairness, go to https://www.viacharacter.org/character-strengths/fairness

If you are interested in exploring how the practice of Character Strengths might be of benefit to your business and culture, contact Peter Maguire on 0438 533 311 or at info@poswork.com.au.

Acknowledgement: the primary reference for this post is “The Power of Character Strengths: Appreciate And Ignite Your Positive Personality” by Ryan M. Niemiec & Robert E. McGrath (An Official Guide From The VIA Institute on Character)

CONTACT US

PosWork

A Division of Ridgeline Human Resources Pty Ltd
ABN : 24 091 644 094

info@poswork.com.au

6 Ellesmere Ave, Croydon Victoria 3136

1300 108 488

LET'S HAVE A CHAT