How do you talk about yourself? Would you describe yourself as “good at maths”, “a natural athlete”, “honest”? A lot of people think that these traits are a fixed part of your personality - an intrinsic part of your identity that can’t be changed.
These thoughts are the product of a ‘fixed mindset’, according to acclaimed Stanford psychologist Dr. Carol Dweck, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Life isn’t an exam, and a leader who moves away from a fixed way of thinking and adopts a growth mindset is able to adapt and flex to take in new information, but not only that, they are able to use that information to grow and learn (or even sometimes unlearn assumptions) in order to develop themselves and their team.
In her book, Mindset, Dweck explains that it’s not intelligence, talent or education that sets successful people apart. It’s their mindset, or the way that they approach life’s challenges. A person with a growth mindset is far more likely to embrace challenges, see effort as necessary, be inspired by other’s success and learn from criticism, but leaders must consider that it’s near impossible to adopt this mindset across your team if there is no foundation of trust.
Trust is the bedrock of how we interact with the people around us, whether that is in our work, or our personal lives. Building trust in a team translates into more energy, less stress fewer sick days and less burnout - all crucial elements when it comes to forming a healthy, efficient and stable team who are willing and able to adopt a growth mentality.
Leaders who know they can trust those around them - and that they can trust you in return, allows everyone to be free enough to try new things, innovate and create new ways of approaching problems.
In hierarchical teams, leaders simply expect trust as a bi-product of the position that they are in, and those further down the chain of command are expected to work night and day to build up enough capital that those at the top trust them in return. This transactional form of leadership just doesn’t work in a modern workplace, we need to flip the narrative and look at transformational approach which sees leaders starting from a point of trusting their people and then working hard to earn their trust in return, and working hard to gain it in return.
Our emotions and behaviours change when we build trust with the people around us, it literally affects our brain chemistry, and it is up to leaders to adopt strategies that build cultures which allow people to develop the skills, if we truly want our business to be resilient and attract the best talent in the industry.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. There are biological reasons to why we act the way that we do when we trust another person or group of people, and it all comes down to oxytocin, otherwise known as the trust chemical. Oxytocin is a powerful hormone that functions as a neurotransmitter in the brain it is associated with romance, breastfeeding and childbirth, almost any form of social interaction can trigger a release of oxytocin.
However, when we experience negative stress we produce cortisol (the body’s primary stress hormone), that elicits the fight, flight or freeze response. When we are stressed, we have no need to be trusting. Ancient evolutionary adaptation means our brain tells us to get as far away from the stressor as possible. If we didn’t do this, we would have been wiped off the planet thousands of years ago!
Whilst the workplace hopefully doesn’t pose that level of threat, a toxic culture, rife with negative stress leads to the same cortisol response, inhibiting oxytocin and leading us to be in high-alert and less likely to trust. Although the stakes might not be as high, a workplace rife with negative stress, our brains will produce cortisol, which blocks the production of oxytocin and leads to a person being in a state of high-alert and mistrust.
If people are in an environment where they can thrive, ultimately that will protect your bottom line. One of the biggest challenges facing British business today is the oncoming tsunami of stress and burnout that we will see in the coming years, because people will just get back on the hamster wheel post-pandemic. Leaders need to take this seriously and adopt a mindset that is about learning and growth to approach this challenge, and mitigate the risk to both themselves and their organisations.
Not only that, we have a very different workforce today than we have seen in the past; this workforce isn’t going to stay in a role for 20 or 30 years, so the organisations that are more adaptable to the needs and ideas of now are the ones that are going to last and get the pick brightest and best new talent.
Without the best people, you’ve just lost a competitive advantage, so working to address issues with trust and mindset now is not only a good move for your people, but vitally important to your bank manager, your board and your investors too.
Productivity and resilience are the product of a work place culture based on trust and growth mindset So, what can leader start doing today to encourage these behaviours within their team?
According to neuroscientist Paul Zak, having a caring habit and cognitive empathy is the highest of all behaviours to increase oxytocin and build trust. If you do nothing else, working on your active listening is a great starting point to build those relationships that will help both you and your team thrive.
Get rid of distractions, don’t text or send emails while you are having a conversation, look your colleague in the eye and listen with an intent to understand, rather than an intent to respond right away. Ask questions that show you are interested in what they are saying and pay attention to non-verbal cues like them looking excited about a project or nervous about what they are about to tell you.
When people feel safe and supported, empowering them leads to great things. Show your team that you trust them to do the big things, and explain to them that while you will always have their back, they have shown you that they are more than capable of managing this piece of work on their own.
By combining the show of trust with an explanation of why you are making that decision, you have supported the person and not left them feeling vulnerable, while at the same time boosting their confidence and building a real connection of trust by telling them, “you’ve got this, but you know where I am if you need me”.
Ultimately, we need to commit to building environments that celebrate when we succeed, but that also gives team members the space to be honest with leaders when they are struggling, or something hasn’t gone to plan.
A growth mindset gives us the tools to learn from the situation and work with each individual to understand the barriers they are facing and give them the tools to come back in tomorrow and feel empowered and positive to take on the challenge again.
*By Ivan Hollingsworth – founder and director of Centric Consultants *
