Moving from a fixed mindset to growth mindset at work

Are you someone who sees all the reasons something won’t work, or someone who sees the potential in everything you do?

If you’re the former, you may have a fixed mindset. If you identify with the latter, you likely have a growth mindset.

Being in possession of a growth mindset is crucial to help people adapt, collaborate and progress at work. It’s the belief that abilities and skills can be developed with effort, feedback and learning – in other words, our skills aren’t innate, and we all have the potential to grow and improve ourselves.

But what does this look like in practice – especially at work? Let’s explore the importance of a growth mindset, how you can spot it and, most importantly, how you can develop yours.

What is a growth mindset?

At its core, a growth mindset is about seeing potential rather than limits. Someone with a growth mindset believes that skills can be improved through practice, that mistakes are opportunities to learn and that feedback is useful rather than threatening. It sits in contrast to a fixed mindset, where someone tends to be ‘stuck in their ways’ or less open to pushing themselves out of their comfort zone.

Someone with a fixed mindset might say things like:

• “I’m just not a good writer.”
• “She’s a natural leader – I could never do what she does.”
• “I’ll stick with my method – yours may be faster, but this is what I know.”

A growth mindset, on the other hand, reframes challenges as opportunities:

• “I haven’t done much writing in my career, but I’d love some tips to improve!”
• “Leadership is a skill – can you give me any feedback to help me work towards a leadership role?”
• “Your approach sounds way better – I’ll try it your way and see if that improves accuracy.”

To be clear, someone with a fixed mindset can be perfectly competent and may produce good results – but a growth mindset is where you start to see great results that keep improving over time. For someone with a growth mindset, natural talent is just the starting point – they acknowledge that curiosity, resilience, effort and jumping on opportunities is what really helps them excel.

Why growth mindset is an essential soft skill at work

We all know how susceptible today’s workplace is to constant and rapid change. Whether it’s new technologies, changing customer expectations, unpredictable economic climates or new ways of working, a growth mindset isn’t just helpful – it’s essential.

Three reasons why a growth mindset is so important today are:

1. Adaptability
   A growth mindset helps people stay flexible when things change. Instead of resisting new tools or processes, they’re more likely to explore, experiment and adapt quickly.
2. Collaboration
   Teams thrive when members believe in learning from one another. A growth mindset encourages people to listen, share knowledge and see feedback as a resource, not a threat.
3. Innovation
   Mistakes and failed experiments are often stepping stones to breakthroughs. With a growth mindset, people are more willing to take calculated risks and try new approaches without fear of failure.

For organisations, embedding a growth mindset culture means greater resilience, better problem-solving and higher engagement. In turn, this leads to higher-performing workforces that stick around for longer.

How to spot a growth mindset (or the lack of one)

There aren’t many natural opportunities to explicitly showcase a growth mindset at work – but it shows up organically every single day in the things we do and say. 

While a growth (or fixed) mindset will show up in a number of ways, examples of the signs and behaviours to look out for include:

Signs of a growth mindset:

• Embracing challenges rather than avoiding them
• Proactively seeking and acting on feedback
• Viewing setbacks as temporary and solvable
• Celebrating effort and progress, not just outcomes
• Demonstrating curiosity and asking questions

Signs of a fixed mindset:

• Avoiding tasks that might expose weakness
• Taking feedback personally or ignoring it
• Blaming others when things go wrong
• Believing talent is the main driver of success
• Sticking rigidly to ‘how things have always been done’

Of course, most of us sit somewhere on the spectrum between fixed and growth mindset, and may even display different behaviours in different contexts. In fact, there will likely be times we’re all ‘set in our ways’ – but what matters is that we can identify where we’re more likely to exhibit a fixed mindset, and change that over time.

How to develop a growth mindset over time

The good news is that mindset itself can change over time, becoming less fixed and more focused on growth. As with all soft skills, there’s no quick fix that will take you from one end of the spectrum to the other overnight – it takes focus and effort over time to reframe your mindset and adjust your behaviours. 

If you’re looking to develop a growth mindset in the workplace, here are five ways you can start making achievable, sustainable changes to the way you work:

1. Reframe challenges

When faced with a difficult task, consciously shift your language. Instead of ‘I can’t do this’, try ‘I can’t do this yet’. Instead of ‘I’m not good at public speaking’, try ‘I’m not very experienced in public speaking yet’. That small tweak signals openness to learning rather than defeat.

2. Normalise feedback

Feedback becomes easier to give and receive when it’s a regular part of work, not a rare event. Teams can build rituals around sharing constructive feedback, highlighting both strengths and areas to improve. This makes it less of a big deal, and makes it part of normal working life, not something to dread or worry about.

3. Celebrate learning, not just outcomes

Managers can shift recognition away from ‘who got it right the first time’ to ‘who took risks, tried something new or improved along the way’. This signals that effort and growth are valued, not just results – especially when someone is brave enough to approach a problem in a different way. This all contributes to a thriving learning culture, where people are encouraged to explore and think outside the box without fearing punishment or ridicule.

4. Encourage curiosity

Make space for questions and exploration. Whether it’s a learning platform, a peer-to-peer session or time blocked for skill-building, curiosity fuels a growth mindset. For instance, our content partner Hemsley Fraser offers employees Spaces, weekly time for personal development and wellbeing, giving them the opportunity to develop new skills, learn about something that interests them or simply to get into a better frame of mind and boost productivity.

5. Model it at the top

Growth mindset culture starts at the very top of the business. Leaders who admit mistakes, ask for input and show their own learning journeys set the tone for the whole organisation. None of us will get it right every time, and encouraging your management team to admit to their mistakes and share lessons learned will ensure your employees have the psychological safety to do the same.

Bringing growth mindset into your organisation

The first step to cultivating a culture where growth mindsets can flourish is identifying signs and behaviours of a growth mindset in your people. That’s where Helix, our AI skills intelligence platform, can help. It recognises those hard-to-spot signals of a growth mindset in the flow of work (specifically in online meetings), allowing employees to understand their own mindset and the L&D team to see which teams are especially strong in this area.

At 5app, we see a growth mindset as a foundation for modern learning cultures. Our learning platform helps organisations share knowledge, encourage collaboration and create safe spaces for curiosity. By giving employees the right tools and environment, companies can make growth mindset more than a personal trait – they can weave it into the long-term learning culture.