Image credits: https://evolutioneat.com/fixed-mindset-vs-growth-mindset/

The one mindset to make or break careers

Let’s talk about one of the most oft repeated mindsets for a professional — one of ‘Growth’. A ‘growth mindset’ as a defining characteristic has been talked about enough in contemporary business literature.

So what is this growth mindset? Is it about continuous learning, adapting, taking on bigger roles and designations, hitting big outcomes and wins, and possibly earning more money in the process? Well that’s just one obvious part of growth.

Before talking about the other non-obvious parts of the growth mindset, let me explain why a growth mindset is will become more critical in the coming decade -

1. Changing nature of industries and jobs — Most of the jobs and industries that are going to be relevant in the next decades are either largely undiscovered or are going to change at such a rapid pace that’s not possible to keep tab of — think AI, robotics, genetics, happiness/mind health, AR/VR, etc. There’s going to be a whole lot of skills that’s going to be automated and a whole new lot that’s going to be important in the coming years.
2. Telecommuting / VR / global companies — You will be working with a multi-cultural workforce for a company that’s possibly global. Borders (other than those artificially managed via regulatory environments) are disappearing. The next wave of successful companies will be global with a lot of local context baked in. And given better tools & processes, technology will make remote working a reality. You are going to be working with a whole lot of new kinds of people, skillsets, cultures, languages, etc. in the coming years.
3. Increasing career spans — What used to be 58 as a retirement age is continuously increasing as human life span increases — that means there’s a good chance that all professionals (irrespective of whether they have earned ‘retirement money’ or not) will want to keep their mind active for around 50 years or 5 decades (assume early 20s to early 70s). That essentially means even a 50+ aged CEO today will have to keep themselves abreast of what’s happening (look at e.g. of Vinod Khosla, Mike Moritz, Narayana Murthy etc.)

Hence, these are the critical aspects, in addition to the standard aspects of a growth mindset, you will need to have to be ready for the workforce —

1. Shift functions, industries or nature of companies — Going back to (1) & (3) above , you are never sure as to which of the roles, functions, industries are going to be outdated. While conventional wisdom asks you to go deeper and stronger in your own function or take on bigger roles, that’s awesome for some time, but if you become too stuck there without growing to understand / appreciate allied functions or industries, there’s a chance that you are going to be left behind. So take those bold calls to grab opportunities in your company which tests you in different functions. Or maybe join that startup that you have always desired. Or take that global opportunity. And learn what it is to perform there.
2. Fail — The hyper-competitive business environment can make even the biggest of companies and the smartest of professionals go through ups and downs. No one wants to openly talk about failures and screw-ups. It’s always well masked as a learning and an experiment that didn’t go well. Assume that you are going to fail multiple times, and fail big — otherwise you probably never took a risk worth it, like Jeff Bezos says. Failing is part of growing. This is more so when you are taking on opportunities in areas far beyond your comfort zone. Join an environment that openly bets on you, and talks about mistakes and learnings. There’s no fun in playing safe always.
3. Sacrifice growth on some dimensions to grow on others — there’s going to be times when you will need to sacrifice a designation, or take a pay cut, or multiple aspects of life to be able to make the next career shift. This could be either because you are shifting industry or starting up or a variety of other reasons. While growth on multiple dimensions is ideal, don’t give up on these opportunities that ask you to sacrifice on some dimensions. In the short term while it may feel painful, these are potentially the same ones that will come and aid you in the longer term.

It does not matter whether you are fresh out of college, or a CEO in a successful company today. Unless you have a holistic growth mindset that’s going to guide you for the next few decades of your career, you will find the going tough in the future.

Do add to any other non-obvious aspects of growth in the Comments section.