Recruiting a Growth Mindset Executive

Are you recruiting employees who have a fixed mindset and believe that their talents and capabilities are set and unchangeable, who avoid challenge and fear failure? Or are you seeking out high achieving candidates who have a growth mindset and believe that no matter how exceptional they already are, they can continue to improve through hard work and constantly looking for learning opportunities. Here are some traits to consider when interviewing:

1. Embraces Challenge – is excited and inspired by a new challenge. Is your candidate going for the safe option or are they looking to embrace challenges, step out of their comfort zone and grow?

2. Persists in the face of adversity – will experience a setback and see it as an indication that more effort and better or different strategies are required.

3. Strong work ethic – will invest much time and effort in their own performance improvement; working hard and always striving to get better every day.

4. Craves feedback – is your candidate eager to learn, open to feedback and suggestion? People with a growth mindset see feedback as a chance to improve, to build confidence and ensure they are on track for high performance.

5. Inspired by the success of others – realises that they can learn from the success of others. Or do they feel threatened by the success of others, believing that others might therefore be perceived as more talented? The latter won’t strengthen your senior management team!

6. Belief in the ability to improve – will view their capabilities as potential that can be developed and therefore see effort as a normal and necessary step to growth.

7. Sees failure as an opportunity to learn – an employee with a growth mindset hits an obstacle and asks, ‘what can I learn from it?’ They are willing to fail, to be wrong and to start over.

8. Recognise that talent is not enough – a candidate with a growth mindset realises that talent without application will never be fully fulfilled. Those who are aiming for sustained high performance will have a commitment to continuous performance improvement.

Recruiting executives with these traits means they’ll also encourage the same of others, therefore further enhancing the strength and capability of your business.

The type of people you recruit will influence the culture in your organisation. A fixed mindset culture encourages internal competition, defensiveness and an emphasis on judging people, whereas a growth mindset culture encourages cooperation, openness and an emphasis on learning. The choice seems easy.

Anna Hemmings from Beyond the Barriers and International Executive Search Partner Daryl Stickland will be discussing Growth Mindset and why it’s important for your organisation, at an inspiring breakfast seminar for HR Leaders on 11th September 2019 at the British Olympic Association, London. For more information or for an exclusive invitation please contact us.