Why Growth Mindset Leaders Succeed During Uncertain Times (And How You Can Too)

The ongoing uncertainty and rapid change found in today’s workplaces has certainly been a major challenge for leaders, if not also a big driver of employee frustration and burnout.

In the face of unrelenting challenges and change, alongside continued ambiguity over the future, it’s understandable that leaders might not feel confident about the current state of affairs.

But this is why we need to cultivate optimism in our leadership.

Neuroscience studies have shown that thanks to our brain’s being wired for survival, it takes three positive events to overcome the effects of a single negative event. 

Think about that – on a given day, you could get land a new client and have a productive meeting with your team. Sounds like a great day.

But then an employee tells you about a new failure, and now the only thing that you remember about that day is this failure.

And that negativity you have as a leader will slowly spread to your team, leaving you wondering why your employees are so unhappy – despite all the good things that have happened.

This is where having a growth mindset can help you bring more optimism to your team and the organization.

A growth mindset transforms our outlook around failure from one of blame and guilt, to acceptance and curiosity to learn how we can do and be better.

It fuels our optimism to seek out opportunities to push ourselves so we can build new competencies and create new innovations.

By embracing a growth mindset, leaders can foster within their team a sense of optimism that no matter what stands before us, we will find a way forward to achieve our shared purpose.