I recently attended a ‘How to raise a successful Mathematician’ workshop at my 8 year old’s school where the ‘growth mindset’ was emphasized as being so important at this age – it has had a big influence in K-8 education in recent years.  So many children from an early age decide that they are either good at something or they’re not, and they lose their motivation to put in effort (a fixed minsdset).  There are a number of ways we can help them to understand that although some children have to work harder than others at certain skills, they do have control (through effort levels) over how successful they can be at something.

I believe this concept should be embraced in the business world and how we navigate our way through our careers. The pace of change in the corporate world is accelerating and to succeed in any area of work, professionals need to embrace lifelong learning as a habit.  I’ve often had clients tell me oh, I don’t think I’ll be able to apply for that job because… I don’t have that experience or I don’t have that skill.  The problem is that people assume they are not capable of something or good at it and this leads to career stagnation, but we can take control of our own learning and propel our careers.  Carol Dweck, the author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success says “the passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset”.  This is just as important for people who achieve success easily (perhaps through an innate level of talent) to continue to challenge themselves to achieve even greater things.

Career coaching itself holds the growth mindset as a key factor required for making positive change – for example in setting SMART goals, part of the process is to help individuals get better at something and help them navigate through the process of achieving those goals.  Career coaches also encourage people to try new things even if they make mistakes (perhaps by applying for a job that is appealing but maybe out of their comfort zone), because making mistakes is how we all learn to improve ourselves.  In making career choices with a growth mindset, we can be open to new ideas and be more confident in our actions, rather than sticking with what we’ve always done because trying something different seems too daunting.

In her book Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One, Jenny Blake talks about ‘high net growth’ or ‘impactors’, those individuals who love learning, taking action, tackling new projects, solving problems and those who love to make a difference – a true growth mindset mentality!

As a coach, these are some of my favorite ways to instill a growth mindset in my clients:

1. Set yourself a goal to learn something new every week or every month or every year (my friend Allison has learnt to decorate wedding cakes, design jewelry, trained as a massage therapist and even learnt to fly a plane!) It’s such a buzz learning a new skill and what great dinner party conversation!
2. Replace the word ‘failing’ with ‘learning’
3. Use the word ‘yet’ – just because you can’t do something now, doesn’t mean you can’t learn or try to accomplish it.
4. When you make a mistake or fail at something, make a note of what you could do differently in the future.
5. Celebrate growth with others
6. Finally, check out the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

“In one world, effort is a bad thing.  It, like failure, means you’re not smart or talented.  If you were, you wouldn’t need effort.  In the other world, effort is what makes you smart or talented” – Carol Dweck

Take action today and set yourself some new goals that will support your career!  I’d love to hear about your goals and achievements.

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook.  Thank you!

As always, if you need any career support or advice, please get in touch.

Joanna Brook www.thewinninginterview.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-winning-interview/

This week I have had the pleasure of working with a highly inspirational and successful leader who is a candidate for several CEO and Executive level positions. One company has asked him to a Topgrading interview. “A what?” I hear many of you ask.

Topgrading can be described more as a recruitment strategy (a very time consuming one) than a single interview, often used by employers that are aware of the huge cost of mis-hires, especially the higher up the organization you go. Organizations use this technique to ensure they hire A players – “one who qualifies among the top 10 percent of talent available for a position” – in other words, someone who is best of class. Check out the Brad Smart’s book Topgrading, 3rd Edition: The Proven Hiring and Promoting Method That Turbocharges Company Performance.

My experience of Topgrading has seen me on both sides of the table, both as an interviewee and, having survived that particular experience (I’ll admit I may have even enjoyed it!), then working to hire and identify A Players for Executive level roles in a large international organization.

This week, those two experiences have helped me navigate my coachee through both the perils and nuances of this particular type of recruitment approach, hopefully whilst still retaining their enthusiasm for interviews and securing their dream job!

SOME USEFUL TIPS
Whilst still fresh on my mind this week, I wanted to take the opportunity to share some useful tips on how to prepare for this style of recruitment approach should you ever be lucky enough (or should I say unlucky enough!) to be invited to a Topgrading interview.
Firstly, lets get a bit more of an idea of the way in which Topgrading is used. I’ve heard Topgrading described as a recruiter’s ‘Jedi weapon’ to help companies find ‘stars‘. Topgrading holds 3 criteria of upmost importance in finding A players – average job tenure should be 3+ years, compensation grows nicely over time and the threat of a reference check (you will be asked for the name of your most recent hiring managers and asked what score each hiring manager will give you when they call them for a reference) that will drive away any individuals that are not high performing.

What to Expect from the process
1. Request to complete a Topgrading Career History Form
This becomes the company application form, requesting all the usual information but also all the information employers want but resumes never contain – the ‘truth serum’ – full salary history, manager ratings of overall performance, reasons for leaving an employer and a self-appraisal.

2. Telephone Screening Interviews
To review information contained in your career history form and select the best candidates.

3. One-hour Competency interviews
Only the best candidates will be invited for face to face interviews. There will usually be two interviews with different managers with the opportunity to ask questions.

4. Topgrading Interview (to be conducted by 2 managers or sometimes consultants trained in Topgrading)
This is a chronological interview starting with education years then asking around 14 questions about every job, then finishing with questions around goals and self-appraisal (usually around 4 hours in length, yikes!) The interview covers approximately 50 competencies and is extremely thorough. Finally the individual is asked to provide references and to set up reference calls to confirm the interviewer conclusions (note that having heard from the candidate what each of their previous managers may have to say about them, the interviewers get to choose the managers they want the candidate to contact for references. This is where C players (underperformers) tend to drop out! A Players want to arrange the calls because they know their former managers will have great things to say about them.

I’ll finish by stating the obvious – its long, its tough but most importantly, you need to do A LOT OF PREPARATION to succeed!

I’d love to hear about your experiences of Topgrading and have a number of tools and resources I’d be happy to share with anyone that gets invited to a Topgrading interview.

Please contact me here for any help or support.