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Growth mindset for managers and leaders

As you will learn during any training that you undertake, the career of a project manager is not for the fainthearted. Due to the nature of the role, a project manager is placed under a number of constraints that can make the role that little bit trickier things like technology, process and even culture can hamper at every level. This can be stressful and if not managed correctly, could lead to project burnout, not just for the project manager, but the whole team. The one thing that links all good project managers together however is a growth mindset. Here we will take a look at the growth mindset and how it can help the project manager.

growth mindset

The different mindsets


Before we can look at growth mindset it is important to consider the fact that there are two different sorts of mindset. The first is a fixed mindset and those project managers who fall into this category, these are the people who display the following signs:

  • Not able to stray from the set path
  • Inability to deal with feedback objectively
  • Protective of their own brand
  • Feel threatened by other team members
  • Follow each process even when there is no value

A project manager who falls into the growth mindset category is someone who looks for opportunities and ways in which they can challenge themselves. They regularly look for new ways to solve problems, they take feedback on board and use it to improve the way in which they do thigs, and above all they value the opinions of the other members of a team rather than feeling threatened by them. 

How does growth mindset help?

As any project manager will tell you no project is ever as simple as you might think, no amount of project manager courses will prepare you for the number of things that can go wrong during your project. When a project manager prescribes to the growth mindset, they are able to plan ahead for potential problems, hiring people with great skills in important areas of the project. They also understand that there is a good chance of failure or at least partial failure and will look at ways around this when it occurs. 

Whilst it is true that nobody really likes to be criticised the growth mindset project manager is able to look at any criticism in an objective manner and use it to their advantage to improve their processes and methods

. Being able to always look forward and find new and improved ways of doing things is the sign of a good project manager, the type that everyone will want to work with. Whilst having a growth mindset may result in more work and the need to think harder and better to resolve problems there are many rewards to be had from working in this way and the rewards will be a happy team and happy stakeholders as your projects are successful

2 thoughts on “Growth mindset for managers and leaders

  1. Thanks for highlighting the problems with a fixed mindset and the benefits of a growth mindset. I think plenty of leaders I’ve come across unfortunately have a fixed mindset and can’t deal with feedback to make improvements to processes which have been in place for years and clearly have no value anymore.

    1. Unfortunately, Joss you are far from the only one to come across leaders who are set in their ways. On the whole I really value experience but the downside can be a fixed mindset. Yet embracing growth and change can be extremely rewarding. The hurdle is to persuade people with a fixed mindset that they need to change. All ideas gratefully accepted!

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