Coaching a Growth Mindset
The past two weekends revolved around my colleague, Elysse, and my design workshops. We have different NPOs, but they are closely related. The workshops addressed, in different ways, the lack of collaboration between Mauritanian communities and non-profits, the government, and other leaders. All workshop participants said that the solution is a societal change of mentality. How does one cultivate a mental shift for an entire community? This is where the participants would get stuck. I kept this question at the forefront of my thoughts as I read Dr. Carol Dweck’s book Mindset: Changing the Way You Think to Fulfill Your Potential, hoping to find some guidance.
Dr. Dweck addresses two different mindsets in her book. The fixed mindset is the belief that one’s intellect, qualities, and abilities are static and define who and what one can become.[1] In contrast, a growth mindset is a perspective that one’s qualities and potential can be developed and changed over time.[2] Throughout Mindset, Dr. Dweck refers to numerous studies and examples of these two ways of thinking and the outcomes. When faced with failure or challenges, those who maintain a fixed mindset become defensive and paralyzed to change themselves or their circumstances. In Dr. Dweck’s words, they become “nonlearners.” [3] Those with a growth mindset embrace opportunities to learn and grow through difficult circumstances and challenges.[4]
The book’s principles about a growth mindset align beautifully with the concept of coaching. Coaching is walking with people, helping them to learn, grow, and move forward, essentially engaging a growth mindset.[5]The answer to the question left by my workshop, “How does one cultivate a mentality change for an entire community?” can be found in coaching a growth mindset. How does one do that? Here are three principles I discovered in the book to help develop a growth mindset in others. I have paired these principles with some coaching questions I often use that I find helpful and relevant to the principles, perhaps you will find them helpful as well.
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- Encourage the process. The growth mindset is not about praise of ability and accomplishment but rather about the process of getting there.[6]
What went well during the process?
What do you wish you would have known before you started?
What would you tell yourself if you could go back in time?
What do you want to do with this as you move forward?
Who would you like to invite to join you?
- Encourage the process. The growth mindset is not about praise of ability and accomplishment but rather about the process of getting there.[6]
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- Embrace the obstacles. Hindrances, failures, and challenges are areas to learn, grow, and move beyond, not to utter defeat.[7]
What specifically bothered you about this obstacle?
What did you learn that you did not know before?
What is left unanswered or unresolved for you?
What do you want to do with this? - Develop understanding. Knowledge and data are essential, but understanding is where actual growth comes from.[8]
What do you want to explore more?
What are some highlights of this experience?
What do you not want to forget?
What is God inviting you to?
- Embrace the obstacles. Hindrances, failures, and challenges are areas to learn, grow, and move beyond, not to utter defeat.[7]
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I want to use these to encourage others to have a growth mindset. Before a coach can be effective, she must first look at herself. Where am I having a fixed mindset? I admit I had one concern concerning the outcomes of my workshop and potential solutions for my NPO. Here are some things I need to remember from the coaching process.
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- I must remember this is a process, and, overall, the workshop went very well.
- There are obstacles, and I have seen God use them to motivate me to work with others to find a solution.
- I am learning through my insufficiencies, and God invites me to trust His strength in my weaknesses.[9]
As I continue my journey of having a growth mindset, I want to remember the impact we can have as we coach leaders to do the same. This is a personal, leadership, and spiritual journey. Tom Camacho encourages leaders to join the Lord in developing leaders, “Jesus is ever calling and equipping leaders to join him in his kingdom work. Let’s cooperate with him in that mining and refining process.”[10] Keith Webb shares three ways Christian leaders can develop a coaching mindset in his book The COACH Model for Christian Leaders: Powerful Leadership Skills for Solving Problems, Reaching Goals, and Developing Others:
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- “Look for the Holy Spirit to teach and remind.
- Move from problem-solver to solution-discover.
- Value the {person being coached] ideas and solutions over your own.”[11]
As I progress in my NPO journey, I am thankful for what I have learned, even in writing this blog. Mindset has given me tools to help others along with myself to develop a growth mindset. Mining for Gold has reminded me of our calling to invest in developing Christ-following leaders. The COACH Model for Christian Leaders has reiterated the importance of a coaching growth mindset that the Holy Spirit leads. Ultimately, God will bring growth in and through our lives. “And now I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6 ESV.
[1]Carol Dweck, Mindset: Changing the Way You Think to Fulfil Your Potential, Revised Ed. (London, UK: Robinson, 2017), 6.
[2] Ibid, 7.
[3] Ibid, 18.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Keith E. Webb, The COACH Model for Christian Leaders: Powerful Leadership Skills for Solving Problems, Reaching Goals, and Developing Others (New York, NY: Morgan James Faith, 2012), 29.
[6] Dweck. Mindset, 219.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] See 2 Corinthians 12:9-11.
[10] Tom Camacho, Mining for Gold: Developing Kingdom Leaders Through Coaching, Kindle ed (London, England: InterVarsity Press, 2019), 20.
[11] Webb, The Coach Model for Christian Leaders, 165.
About the Author
Kari
Kari is a passionate follower of Jesus. Her journey with Him currently has her living in the Sahara in North Africa. With over a decade of experience as a family nurse practitioner and living cross-culturally, she enjoys being a champion for others. She combines her cross-cultural experience, her health care profession, and her skills in coaching to encourage holistic health and growth. She desires to see each person she encounters walk in fullness of joy, fulfilling their God-designed purpose. “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Romans 12:12 ESV16 responses to “Coaching a Growth Mindset”
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Kari,
I love your question “How does one cultivate a mental shift for an entire community?” I’m wondering if you look at the cultural differences between Mauritania and the United States, do you feel that it would be easier to change the mindset in a similar sized community in Mauritania or in the US? Which culture would be more likely to adopt a growth mindset?
Great question, Jeff. Hands-down American culture would be easier to adopt a growth mindset. The individualist culture of America already promotes personal success, asking questions, and hard work. There would be barriers, but I think it would be much more accepted culturally. Mauritania has a very traditional, community-centered culture that has a fatalistic mentality. Decisions are determined by the eldest in the family or society. The religion promotes the religious leaders as having the answers, not personally asking questions or exploring for themselves.
Hi Kari, Changing a mindset of an entire community is one BIG task. How might you consider breaking it into some smaller parts?
Hi Diane, Indeed, it is a big task, not one I expect to conquer! But it is a perceived need because no one seems to know how to do it. I think it starts with key leaders or generations and, in this society, family units. From there, it can branch out into tribes and communities.
Hi Kari, great connection between coaching and growth mindsets!
For the people you are working with, what are some of their strategies to cultivate a mental shift for their entire community? Do you see any differences amongst age groups?
Hi Christy, The strategy I keep hearing is “wait until the old generation is gone.” In my assertive, anti-passive, aggressive thinking, this is not a strategy!
Each generation has more growth mindsets about different areas of life. Social media has opened up possibilities and the minds of Gen Z here. But even before that, their parents have shown more openmindess than their parents. What seems to be the same undertone is the honor-shame drive to not go “too far” in implementing a growth mindset.
Kari, I love how you turned Dweck’s model into a model for Christian leaders by referring to Camacho and Webb.
Are there other areas of your life in which you recognize a potentially fixed mindset besides the workshop? And as you coach others, how will you explain the options to them (between fixed and growth) in such a way that they are receptive to hearing it?
Thanks for your comment, Debbie. Learning Arabic is also an area in which I have a fixed mindset. I am working through that with prayer and a coach! When I coach, I try to stay true to not teaching, instructing, and guiding, but rather to ask Spirit-led questions and allow the Holy Spirit to do that work. It is so hard because I often want to share things (and sometimes I do, when appropriate, off the record). Since coaching is about getting people unstuck, and to get unstuck, you have to have a growth mentality, I think the whole coaching process is helping to bring awareness to the fixed versus growth mindset. To your question, I don’t plan to explain it but rather let the process do that work.
Hi Kari, thank you for your post.
What role do obstacles and failures play in the growth mindset, and what questions can help individuals learn from these experiences?
Hi Shela, Dr. Dweck summaries failures as “motivating,” “informative,” and a “wake-up call” towards a growth mindset (Dweck, 99). If you refer to the questions I listed above, all of them have different parts in finding understanding, meaning, and purpose through failures and obstacles. In the end, the person must be self-motivated and want learn from the experience. That is probably where most people get stuck between growth versus fixed mindset.
Hi Kari. I enjoyed your post and your perspective and parallel to coaching. Some of what you mentioned are excellent ways to transition from a fixed to a growth mindset. As an American, I am interested in knowing how you would describe the mindset of the people you currently serve and work in a foreign culture.
Thank you for your question, Daren. There are many cultural layers where I live that are so different from a US/Western independent mentality. There is an underlying honor-shame that runs through the community and helps to maintain a strong traditional mindset. The majority religion here encourages trust in the teachers and not questioning the religion. These are two big factors that contribute to what I would consider a fixed mindset.
Hi Kari, Thank you for providing a helpful tool for asking good questions. I’m curious to know what questions you ask yourself daily to help you maintain a growth mindset in a challenging environment. What question(s) has proven the most beneficial for you to keep learning and developing?
Thank you for your questions, Elysse. These are some of the questions I ask myself regularly, and that have been very beneficial to my spiritual growth and development:
What does God want me to do with [current challenge]?
What is He inviting me to?
What is my next step in this?
Kari, thank you for sharing your journey. Given your experience in facilitating design workshops to promote collaboration between Mauritanian communities and non-profits, what strategies would you recommend for encouraging participants to adopt a growth mindset, particularly in overcoming resistance to societal change?
Thank you, Chad, for your question. At my workshop, having the participants dream without limits really helped to stimulate brainstorming and to get out of the “this will never change” mindset. Afterwards, I encouraged them that change must start with people willing to try something new and different. I challenged them to try something small first and to invite others along in their journey.