Here's Why Experts Say a Growth Mindset Doesn't Work for Everyone
When you’re faced with a difficult challenge at work, what’s your instant reaction?
- I don’t know how to do this.
- I don’t know how to do this yet.
The addition of that one little word captures the essence of a growth mindset. Embraced by millionaires and large corporations everywhere, a growth mindset involves taking risks, innovating and being unwaveringly persistent in the face of setbacks, in order to learn and grow. You basically use your failures to improve.
But is a growth mindset even possible for everyone? And, if so, is it all it’s cracked up to be?
What Exactly Is a Growth Mindset?
A growth mindset is the belief that you can develop your skills, intelligence and emotional intelligence over time and with effort. Coined by psychologist Carol Dweck in her 2006 book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” it’s the exact opposite of a fixed mindset—the belief that your knowledge and abilities are unchangeable.
A growth mindset involves “intentionally and strategically growing skills and abilities that support your peak performance,” explains Brie Scolaro, LCSW, a clinical social worker and performance coach at Aspire Psychotherapy.
But while it’s easy to focus on just the advancement aspect of this approach, you can’t overlook the crucial mindset piece. Adopting a growth mindset isn’t only about pursuing growth—it’s about changing how you think about growth.
People who cultivate a growth mindset don’t view challenges, failures or critical feedback as setbacks. They’re springboards that launch them toward more learning and improvement.
Put simply, people who truly embody a growth mindset are eager to expand their knowledge and evolve—but they also recognize that the path to doing so will inevitably have some bumps.
Is a Growth Mindset Right for You? Pros and Cons to Consider
With that explanation in mind, it seems obvious that a growth mindset could positively impact your career. But there are some downsides to be aware of too. Here’s a closer look at the pros and cons of this perspective.
Advantages of a Growth Mindset
1. It Boosts Your Learning and Development
Feel stuck in your career? You aren’t alone. A whopping 90% of employees admit to feeling that way, and fortunately, a growth mindset can be an effective antidote.
A growth mindset—and the recognition that it’s okay to struggle and to fail—gives you the express permission to take risks, try new things and expand your horizons. Doing so helps you build your knowledge, refine your skills, focus on entirely new abilities and continue to advance.
2. It Increases Your Motivation and Commitment
With a growth mindset, you’re more willing to embrace challenges and see them as opportunities instead of obstacles. That fuels your motivation and encourages you to stick with it, even when the process gets hard.
According to Harvard Business Review, when entire companies embrace a growth mindset, employees say they feel more empowered and committed.
3. It’s a Competitive Advantage In Your Career
Particularly as AI continues to gain steam, employers are increasingly hiring for soft skills—and a growth mindset is one they’re actively looking for in candidates.
Talent development teams say that facilitating a growth mindset in employees is one of the top challenges they face. So, if you can do some independent work to embody this outlook (whether you’re on the job hunt or looking to advance with your current organization), you’ll already be a step ahead.
Drawbacks of a Growth Mindset
1. It Doesn’t Work for Everyone
It’s easy to talk about a growth mindset somewhat flippantly—just change the way you think and everything will fall into place. But the truth is that a growth mindset isn’t feasible for everyone.
For example, if you’re already a high-achiever and top performer, research shows that shifting your thought processes doesn’t do much for you. Additionally, people with perfectionist tendencies can struggle to deal with the inherent stumbles and sticking points that come with trying something new.
“Perfectionists fear making mistakes,” explains Niloufar Esmaeilpour, MSc, RCC, SEP, and the founder of Lotus Therapy and Counselling Centre. That fear can “affect one’s perception of failures as a mode of learning.”
2. It Emphasizes Personal Responsibility
Increased accountability sounds like good news. However, a growth mindset on its own isn’t always enough to make a meaningful difference in your skills and development. In most cases, you need opportunities, resources, and support from your company too.
Yet 54% of employees say they feel completely alone when it comes to their career development. While organizations claim to prioritize a growth mindset, they don’t back up their words with actions.
Additionally, there can be some bias baked into a growth mindset “often relating to poor socioeconomic conditions,” says one report for CNBC. In one study, a growth mindset led to better grades for kids from financially well-off families while those from poorer backgrounds didn’t experience as impressive of results.
When you’re unable to improve and make meaningful progress, a growth mindset pins it on you as a personal failure—when there could be a larger, systemic problem at play.
3. It Can Fuel Burnout
An alarming 65% of employees experienced burnout in 2023. But fortunately, the conversation about unreasonable demands at work has been shifting. From quiet quitting to the Great Resignation, more and more workers are pushing back on toxic cultures and expectations.
That can be in direct competition with the concept of a growth mindset—the belief that there’s always more to achieve and accomplish, provided you can stop mentally limiting yourself.
In that vein, if a growth mindset isn’t balanced with healthy boundaries, adequate self-care and reasonable standards, it can make you restless. You’re unable to celebrate your wins, recognize when you’ve done enough and take a well-deserved break.
How to Cultivate a (Measured and Meaningful) Growth Mindset
A growth mindset isn’t perfect, but there’s still plenty of good to be said about the benefits of challenging limits and embracing possibilities.
So, is there a way to take the good parts of a growth mindset and leave the bad? Here are three strategies to fuel your ambition and development without spinning your wheels.
1. Have a Candid Conversation With Your Boss
If you want to adopt a growth mindset, it helps to have your organization onboard. And fortunately, a company-wide growth mindset is a major performance advantage (in case you need compelling evidence for your boss).
Before approaching your manager, get a temperature check on your existing mindset as well as the mindset of your entire organization. Ask yourself questions like:
- How have I or my company responded to failure in the past?
- How comfortable am I and my company with risks and uncertainty?
- How do I or my company approach challenges and obstacles?
- How often do I or my company seek out new or innovative solutions?
- How do I or my company handle feedback and criticism?
This gives you a grasp of your starting point. From there, you can have an honest conversation with your supervisor aimed at improving psychological safety—the belief that people are safe to take risks and make mistakes without judgment—on your team and across your company.
Talk with your boss about ways your entire team can get more comfortable with failure and risk-taking. Changing your perspective is easier when you know you have the understanding and support of your company. Plus, this conversation with your boss is a learning and development opportunity in and of itself.
2. Actively Ask for Feedback
While most of us are eager to hear feedback about how we can improve, constructive criticism—especially when it isn’t delivered with tact—can make us feel threatened and stressed.
Yet seeking, receiving, considering and implementing feedback is a crucial part of building a growth mindset. Make an effort to actively ask for these insights whenever you can.
In a one-on-one meeting with your boss? Ask if they have any remarks about how you did on a recent project. Participating in a recap conversation with your team? Ask if there’s anything you could’ve done differently.
This might feel counterintuitive at first. But this not only gets you more comfortable with failure and criticism (which is crucial for a growth mindset), but also gives you different viewpoints on how you can move forward and improve.
3. Respect Your Limitations and Boundaries
“From a scientific perspective, the more a person exists in a stress state, the less a person is able to access the important growth areas of their brain, such as creativity and memory consolidation,” explains Scolaro.
So, it’s important to put guardrails in place to ensure that your growth doesn’t come at the expense of your balance and well-being. “Work-life balance is more than a stance and mindset,” Scolaro continues. “It is a series of real boundaries that you set between work and the other areas of your life.”
To prevent a growth mindset from becoming toxic, take steps to:
- Gut check your expectations: Can you improve your public speaking skills? Absolutely. Will you become a world-class brain surgeon overnight? Definitely not. While an eye toward growth is admirable, practicality matters too. When in doubt, run your ambitions by your boss, colleague or a trusted friend. They can give you honest opinions about whether you’re being reasonable and treating yourself fairly.
- Set aside time for rest and self-care: “Think of a growth mindset like a marathon,” Scolaro says. “The more distance you need to run, the more you need to equally invest in recovery and rest.” Your desire for growth shouldn’t be all-consuming. Balance it out with plenty of self-care and other, non-career-related activities you enjoy.
- Take time to celebrate: A growth mindset can make it tempting to always think about what’s next—which can often translate to glossing over achievements and milestones without a second glance. Growth doesn’t have to be about big transformations. Small, incremental progress matters too. When you take a step in the right direction, take the time to recognize and appreciate that win. Doing so will fuel your motivation (it’s called the progress principle) while also reminding you that growth is a journey, not a destination.
Growth Mindset: Embracing Evolution Without the Exhaustion
A growth mindset is often praised as the key to succeeding in the working world, and there are definitely some merits to expanding your horizons and believing you can do anything you put your mind to.
But if you aren’t careful, a growth mindset can quickly transform from ambition and adaptability to relentless hustle, unrealistic demands, toxic productivity and the pervasive feeling that you could always do more.
At the end of the day, the middle ground is likely the best place for most of us—where we have the space and support to learn and change, without feeling like we need to prioritize self-improvement above everything else.
So, the next time you’re presented with a challenge, perhaps it’s not the time to ask, “Can I do this?” Maybe the better and more illuminating question is, “Do I want to do this?”
