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How are mindsets shaping your organisational strategy?
A mindset refers to the beliefs, attitudes and values that filter the way that we look at the world. The mindsets we hold influence our thought processes, which ultimately influence how we act and what we do.5 Similarly, the reverse can be true, with our actions and experiences influencing our beliefs, attitudes, and values. Carol Dweck, for example, made famous the idea of holding a ‘growth mindset’, showing how students, who believed their intelligence could be developed, performed better at school compared with students who had a ‘fixed mindset’ and believed their intelligence to be set and predetermined by natural ability.6
Our mindsets are also inextricably linked to the times and society we live in. For example, during the industrial revolution, leaders were more likely to perceive their business through a ‘machine lens’, focusing on improving efficiency and treating employees as cogs to control within the bigger company machine.
A key watch out for leaders is whether their mindsets are outdated for the times they are in. For example, retailers have had to move away from a transaction mindset focussed on ‘how do we sell more stuff?’, to a value-creation-oriented mindset focussed on ‘how do we create value beyond the transaction?’7
To be future-fit, it’s imperative for leaders to keep checking in with their mindsets, making sure their beliefs, attitudes, and values move with the times they are operating in.