Why is a growth mindset essential to startup success?

What’s a growth mindset?

Growth mindset, a term created by Dr Carol Dweck, is more than a competency; it’s a belief and thinking system. It works on the premise that the brain is plastic, designed to adapt, learn, change and grow.

Why is a growth mindset important?

Essential to a startup’s success is the team’s ability and willingness to grow, particularly beneficial where new starters are thrown into the deep end to navigate the chaos with minimal support. They’re often required to pivot quickly, solve problems and branch out into different areas.

A lot of founders see employees with a growth mindset as more open and resilient, ready to bounce back and move on from mistakes and failure. Most importantly, a growth mindset allows for a higher level of agility and prevents even the best performers from slipping into the habit of complacent acceptance. Individuals trapped in this state often find little to no motivation to learn or improve.

On the flip side, perfectionists can wrongly equate “success” with flawlessness and excessive standards, which may have an adverse effect not only on their performance but also on their psychological wellbeing – due to constant doubts and severe self-criticism.

That said, when it comes to growth, perfectionism isn’t all bad.

Growth mindset versus perfectionism

There are two dimensions of perfectionism: vice and virtue. The former is motivated by fear of failure. It hinders performance. The latter is driven by the pursuit of excellence and achievement. It helps cultivate a growth mindset.

To combat vice perfectionism, you should promote learning through failure. A few initiatives that have successfully implemented such a practice include the famous F*Up Nights and the issue log, a tool used to publicly record mistakes for the purpose of learning, first introduced and made popular by Ray Dalio.

Once you’ve recognised that a growth mindset is vital to the survival of early-stage startups, you’re already on the right track. The next important step is to build an environment where each of your team members is encouraged and enabled to cultivate it themselves.

Before we explore different ways you can foster a culture of growth, it’s important to examine the common myths pertaining to how the growth mindset really works.

The ‘growth mindset’ myths

Since its inception, many organisations have worked “growth” into their mission statements. Misconceptions remain widespread however due to the complex nature of the concept, and below are three most common myths that founders are falling for.

1. A growth mindset is absolute

This belief is based on the assumption that a growth mindset is an all-or-nothing phenomenon. This is inaccurate since a mindset is a spectrum, and ours can vary between the two extremes – growth and fixed - to various degrees under different circumstances. In essence, a growth mindset isn’t absolute. It will continually evolve with experience.

2. It’s enough to put in effort

This misconception downplays outcomes in favour of effort. If you reward your team just for showing up and putting in effort with little regard for the outcomes – or lack thereof – progress will stall. To truly champion growth, recognition should focus not only on the effort your team put in but also what they learn and the progress they make from it.

3. Words on the wall will help

It’s not enough to have values written on the walls in your office. It’s imperative that the growth mindset be demonstrated through actions and given the opportunities to flourish. This can be done through developing concrete policies and processes that encourage appropriate risk-taking and collaboration within your team.

How to recognise a growth mindset

If you’re after a career with a startup, a growth mindset will help you cope with ambiguity and adapt to changes as your team works towards conquering new frontiers with emerging technologies.

Having a growth mindset means:

• you don’t accept failure and setbacks as final
• you believe that challenges can be overcome
• you proactively seek learning opportunities
• you explore ways to improve your craft without severe self-criticism.
• understand where you are on the spectrum of growth–fixed mindset
• identify practical ways to learn and grow at work
• ask your leaders for support while you experiment and expand your skill set
• spend time reflecting on your past outcomes – both negative and positive – and focus on the insights and progress you’ve gained.
• running experiments and sharing learnings
• hosting blameless post-mortems
• role modelling and recognising the behaviour you wish to promote
• implementing an issue log within your organisation
• being clear with your team, from day one, on the value you put on growth
• allowing your team to make their own decisions and take responsibility for the outcomes
• creating a psychologically safe environment where everyone can ask questions.

How to cultivate a growth mindset

To cultivate a growth mindset, as a team member, you should:

• you don’t accept failure and setbacks as final
• you believe that challenges can be overcome
• you proactively seek learning opportunities
• you explore ways to improve your craft without severe self-criticism.
• understand where you are on the spectrum of growth–fixed mindset
• identify practical ways to learn and grow at work
• ask your leaders for support while you experiment and expand your skill set
• spend time reflecting on your past outcomes – both negative and positive – and focus on the insights and progress you’ve gained.
• running experiments and sharing learnings
• hosting blameless post-mortems
• role modelling and recognising the behaviour you wish to promote
• implementing an issue log within your organisation
• being clear with your team, from day one, on the value you put on growth
• allowing your team to make their own decisions and take responsibility for the outcomes
• creating a psychologically safe environment where everyone can ask questions.

How to foster a culture of growth

To increase your startup’s likelihood to survive, your team members need the motivation to get out of their comfort zone – out of necessity or otherwise. The right workplace culture will help empower them to take risks, make mistakes, learn and grow.

Below are several ideas that you as a founder can try to foster a culture of growth:

• you don’t accept failure and setbacks as final
• you believe that challenges can be overcome
• you proactively seek learning opportunities
• you explore ways to improve your craft without severe self-criticism.
• understand where you are on the spectrum of growth–fixed mindset
• identify practical ways to learn and grow at work
• ask your leaders for support while you experiment and expand your skill set
• spend time reflecting on your past outcomes – both negative and positive – and focus on the insights and progress you’ve gained.
• running experiments and sharing learnings
• hosting blameless post-mortems
• role modelling and recognising the behaviour you wish to promote
• implementing an issue log within your organisation
• being clear with your team, from day one, on the value you put on growth
• allowing your team to make their own decisions and take responsibility for the outcomes
• creating a psychologically safe environment where everyone can ask questions.

Want more information on finding the right people for your startup? Download this free study for further insights into how founders at Stone & Chalk have successfully recruited for their businesses.