by Norman Halls, contributor
Very few companies ever get to the top or stay there, and the few that do stay there because they diversified. Instant changes in competition demand having a growth mindset. Consider what happened to Kodak. Their primary business income was not from cameras but from the film in which the photos were taken. Kodak invented the first digital camera in the 1980s, but what did they do? They locked it up safely and told the engineer who invented it to keep quiet about it. Digital Equipment, a multimillion-dollar manufacturer of mainframe computers from 1950s to the 1990s, missed out on personal computers. Ken Olsen, CEO of Digital Equipment, said: “The personal computer will fall flat on its face in business.” Wang Laboratories stumbling block was that their MS-DOS was not compatible with other systems. A generation of industrialists are erroneously being led to believe that they can succeed alone. But you need to plan ahead and be ready to change. “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” Mario Andretti.
Carol Dweck, a Stanford University psychologist, “maintains that your mindset will play a important role in how you respond to feedback. Dweck distinguishes between people with a fixed mindset, who believe their intelligence and talent are fixed traits, and those with a growth mindset, who believe their basic abilities can be enhanced and improved through dedication and hard work. A person with a growth mindset will see constructive feed NOT as disapproval or criticism, but as an opportunity to learn how they can further improve and enhance their skills and performance”.
A successful businessperson will likely tell you that growth mindset is critical to your success in business. Professional people miscalculate how much mindset actually impacts all elements of their life, including business growth. “Definitions of mindset vary slightly depending on which source you refer too. Essentially mindset is the way you understand and respond to the world around you. It’s about your thinking, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and can influence everything from the way we build relationships, problem solve, our creative thinking, how we perceive success and failure, valuing our own worth and more” (Shevonne Joyce). A lot can be determined about our current mindset from what we prioritize and value.
Hewlett-Packard, at its foundation, calls for respect, integrity, teamwork, and innovation, among other core values. Reports: Tracy Keogh, Chief Human Resources Officer, HP. Building on the HP Way, we have defined practices and principles to guide employees as they go about their work. These will be shared early in the new year, helping to set expectations for how we work with each other when we’re at our best.
Among these practices are a few that reinforce a growth mindset:
- Anticipate, learn, adapt: Don’t become stagnant. The technology industry doesn’t allow for complacency. Proactively seek what’s next and understand what customers need, build your skills, be flexible, and resilient. In other words: Have a growth mindset.
- Make bold moves: Take informed risks, and dare to disrupt. It’s the big ideas that help us make big leaps forward. When those bold moves are successful, great! When they’re not, we want to be a company that shakes it off and asks, what did we learn?
- Connect, coach, empower: It’s not just about having a growth mindset for yourself, it’s about believing in the potential of your team and colleagues, and helping them learn and succeed, too.
“Growth Mindset Thinking = Innovation and Creativity”
