I had been in the bad habit of running away from problems I didn’t want to deal with at work. I would resign myself and feel that the project wasn’t working out. And I felt the rest of the team were making the wrong decisions for a successful outcome. So I would limit my involvement and withdraw to work on other projects. I had no sense of a growth mindset at work.
Fixed Mindset
For better or worse, I work in a place where you can work on anything you choose. I suppose for someone without much discipline this could become a crutch as it did for me. In situations where I felt projects were on a path to failure, it seemed there was nothing I could do. After a while I felt I was wasting my time on these projects. Not for one moment in these times did I think there was another way. I had a single perspective that dictated my actions. I now realize that I could have handled all these situations much better.
In my job I don’t agree with many decisions that are made. In the past, I would often keep my mouth closed thinking no one would listen to me even if I spoke up. Each time I didn’t speak up put the project farther from a place I thought it should be. In the process alienating myself from the project and the team members.
Waking Up
After a long stream of deviations from where I thought something should go and after feeling fully alienated and trapped, I would tactfully disengage. I would find other commitments I claimed had higher priority. I would skip project meetings and make any excuse why I couldn’t take on any work. Many times I felt self-righteous and indignant, blaming the other team members for putting the project so far out of bounds and creating an unsustainable situation.
In truth the projects were never far from salvageable, but in my mind they were tracking wrong and I was not in a position to change it. Looking back I realize several missteps I made, often motivated by fear, laziness, or self-righteousness. At some point I realized this was destructive to my growth and career and to any projects with which I was engaged. I started to see my life at work was stagnating. I wasn’t learning anything new or gaining any expertise.
Course Correct
After a while I started to recognize another way. I had the “novel” thought that I needed to turn in the other direction. Instead of moving away from anything I didn’t agree with, I needed to move directly into it. This means finding the courage to speak my mind, mustering the energy to do the things that I didn’t really feel like I should be doing, willing to be open to accepting other perspectives. Regardless of how ridiculous I believed a chosen path was, I was determined to stick with it.
I realized I could be the difference between a project going down the wrong or right path. I marginalized my value to a project and was thus reluctant to speak up and contribute to the its success. So I learned to engage and to take on work that didn’t seem so appealing. I started to have faith that I would grow more by turning into a challenge rather than turning towards something I wanted.
So I meet the challenge now. I stick with it long term to the end, whether it becomes a huge success or a gigantic dumpster fire. I know I will gain more from sticking than running. A couple of things I try to remember to keep me on track to developing a growth mindset at work:
Faith and Patience
You don’t know how a certain path of circumstances will benefit you in the future until you go through them and find yourself in similar situations that reap the benefits of your previous experience. Learn to trust a process. It may not make sense at the time, but by sticking with something you gain knowledge and expertise that may not seem relevant at the time, but will prove to be useful in the future.
Velocity of Adversity
The speed of growth under adversity is much greater than when everything is at a steady state. Despite feeling like the current situation is ridiculous, meeting a challenge and working with the attitude of doing your best to accomplish the ideal outcome will reinforce a growth mindset at work. Understanding there are hardly ever perfect situations, but weathering the situation, you will be stronger on the other side.
A Seat at the Table
Being on a large team for a project with many moving parts, it may seem like you are powerless and have no place to give input. This is less about speaking up than taking on the mindset of wanting to be engaged and feeling that you have value to give. Even if you can’t believe you have good input, engaging will quickly lead you to the contrary notion. If you work in a place that doesn’t respect input from all team members, maybe there are greener pastures. Remembering that you have valuable input while being dismissed, you may recognize that you are in the wrong organization.
Understand Other Perspectives
Other perspectives and ideas don‘t have to match my own, but they shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. My ideas don’t trump all, but neither do others, but they should at least be considered thoughtfully. You won’t know how to respond until you fully comprehend someone else’s perspective. And that means really listening and considering it. And if you don’t agree…
Speak up
People don’t know what might be a bad decision or may not consider better options until you bring it to their attention. Even more, speaking up gives you a stake in your own destiny. Voicing your concern at the least removes blame you assign yourself when you find yourself in a position you don’t want to be in. At the most, speaking up puts you closer to a position you do want to be in when it serves to drive the course of action. Speaking up is difficult for a person like me, but I have become more comfortable with it the more I do it.
Hindsight
Looking back I realize all the skills I could have learned by sticking with unsatisfying projects. Resilience for one, but beyond that, even tangible hard skills that could serve me in my job today. If I had only stuck with it, I would be much farther along to developing a growth mindset at work. It’s almost analogous to finally starting a habit you have been working at for years and thinking, if only I had started a year ago, where would I be? If only I had faced the challenges, where would I be? Similarly after having that habit for a year, you think back of the person you were and how much you have changed for the better. I think back at the challenges I have started facing and think how much better off I am.