How do we challenge fixed mindsets through internal coaching? Elaine Cox reports
Christiana Figueres, well-known for her stance on fixed and changing mindsets, demonstrates that perceptions can be changed.
While executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Figueres steered a diplomatic effort that led to the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, she realised before the Convention could consider the detail of an agreement, the prevailing pessimistic mood needed to change. She was sure there could be “no victory without optimism”.
Accordingly, a clear intention was initiated – a global deal must emerge because it was absolutely necessary – and that frame of mind became contagious and led to effective decision-making: “When the Paris Agreement was achieved, the optimism that people felt about the future was palpable” (Figueres, 2020: 470).
This focus on optimism is also evident in research on fixed and growth mindsets – the orientations that drive people towards or away from different goals when faced
with challenges. The mindsets are beliefs about our ability: a growth mindset is defined as the personal belief that characteristics, such as intellectual abilities, or social qualities, can be developed; a fixed mindset is the personal belief that such characteristics are fixed and unchangeable (Yeager & Dweck, 2020). Educational researchers Yeager and Dweck (2020) found a growth mindset to be an important part of navigating change and thriving in the face of difficulty.
In attribution theory, different reasons are ascribed to success or failure in response to events: unlike those with fixed mindsets, people with growth mindsets don’t attribute failure to their own lack of ability, but see it rather as a learning experience.
Additionally, beliefs are the sediment of previous attributions that then become internal narratives, replayed over and over, with confirmation bias reinforcing them along the way. Unfortunately, confirmation bias stops individuals looking at situations from multiple angles, bolstering the tendency to pursue information that supports existing beliefs and preventing them from achieving their potential. Organisations can also be subject to these ‘mindset narratives’ through repeated stories about a particular approach, system or team.
However, it has been found that fixed mindsets are not static. Recent qualitative research with leaders, examining how they managed shifts in mindset for themselves and when coaching employees, showed this malleability in action (McLaughlin & Cox, 2022).
The following account from John (names have been changed) illustrates how organisations fall foul of limiting beliefs and stresses the importance of helping overcome fixed mindsets individually so a shift in the narrative can begin to turn things around:
When we first took over the company, it was a distributor set-up. There was so much doubt about projects and new business – we don’t have the technical expertise; the people won’t listen; our salespeople can’t do that; we can’t quote quick enough, etc. You could say that the mindset of the workforce had cemented the belief and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy for the whole company.
The most difficult thing was that people almost celebrated when a fresh way of doing things fell over, which it obviously did occasionally. We found though that once we won a couple of major projects, new people could be recruited into the ‘new way.’ They were enthused, and their confidence rubbed off on those around them. This is not always a complete success as there’ll still be times when people lose confidence and run for the hills. It does mean though that people are not frightened of change as much as they would’ve been previously.
Fixed mindsets thus can be viewed as akin to tramlines, in the sense that teams may travel along set routes when faced with particular situations or different options.
This company ‘group-think’ is evident in the above account, but by changing things in a non-confrontational way and displaying optimism, the team could embrace new information and taste achievement without feeling attacked. While opinions may not change instantly, modelling the new way has a good chance of success.
The value of coaching support in unfreezing a fixed mindset is also seen in this example from Sarah:
With Arnold I sat down and went through what was important and not important. Up until that point, he was using language like ‘no way’ or ‘it’s impossible.’ Then we talked about how we did reports to help him reduce his time and stress. It worked and he was really grateful for the time invested and he did try it – although not always 100% successfully: occasionally he reverts when under stress. However, acknowledgment of the time spent is there, and that has helped from a relationship perspective.
Through self-coaching and hard work, another leader, Bryan, overcame his negative mindset:
I’m not sure I ever managed to truly shift my negative mindset – I’m pre-disposed to pessimism! However, looking back, what I did was graft my way through it – I may have felt negative about the prospects of what I was working on but I didn’t give up – the harder it got, the harder I worked and often, strangely enough, we got a positive result. More importantly, I was able to say to myself I had left ‘nothing on the pitch’ which is a nourishing thought in itself – so maybe I did overcome negative thinking in that way.
A specific example is a large contract negotiation where I knew the cards were stacked against us – that wasn’t negative thinking, it was a fact confirmed in feedback later! I had a bad feeling about the outcome. However, I was lucky in having a dedicated team around me, and we threw ourselves into months of overwhelming workload. As it happens, we turned things around and retained the contract. I believe that the team dynamic helped me stay positive – or at least less negative.
What Bryan demonstrates is that, similar to John, the support of others and a team goal enables people to overcome the unyielding, fixed mindset of ‘it can’t be done.’ The camaraderie of Bryan’s team gradually ‘thawed the permafrost’ of his fixed mindset.
Summary
There are two approaches that our research suggests may help overcome a fixed mindset. First, is to change things organisationally: mixing up teams or swapping leaders/managers to provide new impetus as we saw in John’s account. Second, is to model self and internal coaching, encouraging new approaches and seeking out different perspectives in order to challenge opinions. Figueres and Rivett-Carnac (2020: 56) confirm: “The actions we pursue are largely defined by the mindset we cultivate in advance of the doing. Faced with an urgent task, it may feel counterintuitive to first look inside ourselves, but it is essential.”
About the author
- Dr Elaine Cox is Honorary Research Fellow, International Centre for Coaching and Mentoring Studies, Oxford Brookes Business School, Oxford Brookes University, UK
References
- C Figueres, ‘Paris taught me how to do what is necessary to combat climate change’ in Nature, 577, 470-471, 2020
- C Figueres and T Rivett-Carnac, The Future We Choose, Bonnier Zaffre, 2020
- M McLaughlin and E Cox, Braver Leaders in Action: Personal and Professional Development for Principled Leadership, Emerald, 2022
- D S Yeager and C S Dweck, ‘What can be learned from growth mindset controversies?’ in American Psychologist, 75(9), 1269, 2020