On June 30th 2015 Misty Copeland became the first African-American female
to be promoted to principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre in New York.
There is no question that Misty has incredible, natural,
DNA talent, but it is a talent that may very well have remained dormant.
Left undiscovered by Misty and
by the world, had it been based solely on her family's socioeconomics.
When Misty was 13, she was taking free dance lessons in the Boys and
Girls Club on a basketball court in the inner city.
She was discovered there and
made the commitment to start attending ballet school on a free scholarship.
Her teachers believed in her and her race was not presented as an issue.
But Misty heard things every so often,
like the fact that she didn't exactly look like a white swan.
Or the fact that her athletic, muscular body didn't fit the mold either.
None of this stopped Misty, who put herself on a course to grow,
mature and master the world of ballet.
I want you to predict the results of the following simulation by Robert Wood and
Al Bandura.
In this simulation management students,
MBA students, were given a complex organizational task, job assignments,
strategic decision making, productivity analysis, you get the picture.
Everyone knew this task would be very hard, very challenging.
Some people were told this task measures your basic, underlying abilities.
Other people were told management skills are developed through practice and
this task will give you an opportunity to cultivate these skills.
Otherwise, everything was exactly the same.
So the only difference were the words used to describe the task.
Not the actual task.
What do you think happened in terms of people's performance on this task?
The people who were told that the task was an opportunity to develop and
cultivate their skills, learned more, looked directly at their mistakes,
used feedback, altered their strategies, and enjoyed the task more
than those who were told that the task assessed their underlying abilities.
Why did this happen?
It wasn't because some people were more skilled or naturally better managers.
They were randomly assigned to conditions.
The reason why some people were able to excel,
is because they adopted a Growth Mindset,
a belief in their own ability to learn and respond in the face of challenge.
The other group was given a Fixed Mindset.
According to Carol Dweck, there are two fundamental mindsets that
people have when it comes to looking at themselves and others.
She calls these Fixed and Growth mindsets.
Notice how they correspond to nature versus nurture leadership.
People who have a fixed mindset believe that intelligence, personality,
talents, and skills are largely carved in stone and unchangeable.
In some situations, this could set one's self up for success or guaranteed failure.
People with fixed mindsets don't like trying new things because the risk of
failure looms large.
In contrast, people who have a growth mindset don't see intelligence,
personality, talent, and skills as fixed or stable.
Rather, they see themselves as having potential, and
even more important, they see others as having potential.
What are the implications of a growth versus fixed mindset?
First in terms of bouncing back from hardship,
people who have a growth mindset are more resilient.
Second in terms of happiness, people with growth mindsets are happier and
less depressed.
Third in terms of facing challenge and
adversity people with growth mindsets are more persistent.
Let's talk about failure for a moment.
Failures are unpleasant, but
they grab our attention and focus us to integrate new information.
According to post-traumatic growth theory,
we should hope for exposure to failure early and often.
Indeed, there's a sensitive period for growth in our late teens continuing
through our early 30s where we quite simply learn how to fail.
Did you know the businesses in Silicon Valley and
Wall Street like to hire ex-pro athletes?
Because they can perform, fail, and learn without falling apart.
Okay, let's sum up.
When it comes to looking at ourselves and
others, there are two kinds of mindsets, fixed and growth.
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