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3 Signs of a Growth Mindset Employee

The business landscape today is lightning-fast and dynamic. It makes sense that employers want employees ready to help them face the challenges in such a kinetic environment.

A growth mindset is a company’s strategic differentiator, and businesses need them now more than ever before. These individuals are continuously open to setting new goals, exploring new information, trying new tactics, and enhancing their skills.

As a huge bonus, a growth-focused workplace is the perfect atmosphere to create and foster engaged employees to boost employee retention.

What Is a Fixed Mindset?

Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that they have certain talents, qualities, and traits that are inherent and fixed. They tend to believe that there’s no way to overcome or rise above their limitations through education, training, or adaptability.

Who Are Growth Mindset Employees?

Growth mindset employees view abilities, intelligence, and talents as learnable through effort and commitment. They avoid looking at new tasks or disciplines as impossible or limited by their core knowledge and capabilities.

Employees with a growth mindset see possibilities everywhere and are more likely to take risks, channel their skills to take on new challenges, and remain hungry to continue learning. Everything is dynamic and susceptible to change and improvement with education, training, and other forms of professional development.

What Is a Growth Mindset in a Workplace Environment?

A growth mindset workplace is one where employees believe they can continually enhance their most basic abilities through hard work, dedication, and continuous education. Their core skills, talent, and educational background are just the beginning.

With a growth mindset perspective, employees relish learning and develop resilience, which is fundamental for making great personal and professional achievements.

3 Ways to Identify Growth Mindset Candidates in the Interview Process

Recruiters and hiring managers actively seek talent with excellent potential, an appetite for learning, and a willingness to take risks to advance in the company, which ultimately provides exponential value to their employer.

During the screening processes, top hiring leaders try to identify skills and attitudes in candidates that reveal enthusiasm for development and plenty of resilience.

Here are three ways to identify growth mindset employees.

1. A Willingness to Reflect on How They Would Do Things Differently

Candidates or employees with a fixed mindset might feel uncomfortable when asked how they might tackle a previous issue differently. Someone with a growth mindset sees it as an opportunity to avoid a problem in the future, identifying areas where they can and intend to improve through what they learned from the experience and any additional education or training they pursued.

2. The Confidence to Handle Constructive Criticism Well

Employees with a growth mindset can take the criticism and use it to improve their work. Challenges and errors brought forth by leaders now serve as building blocks for improvement for individuals with a growth mindset.

3. The Desire and Commitment to Keep Learning

If a candidate asks about learning opportunities during the interview, that’s a growth mindset and someone worth seriously considering. Employees with the assertiveness to ask about training sessions, seminars, and other professional development possibilities are the face of growth mindset. Get ready to run with it and foster their desire to improve and grow with your company.



How Can Leaders Instill Growth Mindsets in Workers Who Need a Little Push?

Ideally, your hiring team will home in on growth mindset team members and get them on board. Once they are on the payroll, provide plenty of opportunities, and they’ll likely dive right in.

But what about workers who need a little push? Try the following to see if you can nudge someone with a fixed mindset in the other direction.

  • Become a cheerleader for professional growth and development.
  • Reframe ideas about “failure,” positioning past issues as learning opportunities.
  • Encourage employees to stretch beyond their comfort zones. For example, ask them to cross-train with a patient, trusted co-worker, to learn a new skill in a safe atmosphere.
  • Develop a culture filled with multi-directional feedback, from manager to employee, employee to manager, and from peer to peer. Frame feedback as constructive conversations about everyone making improvements.
  • Anticipate questions fixed mindset employees may think of as “stupid” or “obvious,” and provide answers in advance.
  • Further, and as always, let team members know there are no “stupid questions” and that there is no judgment about any question, especially if it is intended to help the team and the company.

Do You Think You Can Identify Growth Mindset Team Members?

Do you feel more confident about identifying, developing, and fostering a growth mindset workforce? Insight Global is here to help you find candidates with talent, skills, and plenty of potential to help your business thrive.

Need to Hire Growth Minded Employees?

Let us know your needs below, and a recruiter will reach out in as little as 10 minutes! Questions? Call us toll-free: 855-485-8853