The growth-mindset

The website of Coert Visser offers a lot of interesting articles and interviews on the solution-focused approach he uses. The interview with Carol Dweck (Stanford University) elaborates on her new (and with a large body of research supported) insight: the way you view your own intelligence largely determines how it will develop. Dweck distinguishes between two mindsets: the fixed-mindset, in which people believe that their talents and abilities are fixed traits, and the growth-mindset. People with the latter believe that their talents and abilities can be developed through passion, education and persistence. Her research shows that when people adopt the fixed mindset it can limit their succes. The good thing is: people that have adopted the fixed-mindset can learn to change it into the growth-mindset. After a 90-minutes workshop the managers in the experiment were open to noticing improvement and were more willing and able to coach employees. Read more:

• The complete interview is online available (also in Dutch).
• Dweck has written a book on this issue: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006)