Practical tips to be growth-minded

In one of the previous newsletters, I discussed how growth mindset made my life much easier. Let's see some practical tips to be growth-minded.

Accept that you don’t know "everything," and your memory betrays with you

It will help you:

• To take feedback easily and discuss it with others.

• Not to take feedback as a personal attack because you know that you don't know everything.

You can do the followings:

• Ask others to give you feedback on a task you are doing. If anyone provides a different solution than yours, ask "Why" and "What"? E.g., you might say:

Thanks for your feedback. I want to discuss a bit to better understand your point.

Why do you want to do in this way? What benefits do you think it will bring?

"Why" and "What" will prompt others to give you their expertise. Based on their response, you might find out that they were thinking in a direction you missed.

Most important is your voice tone when discussing or asking for clarification. You shouldn't sound like you are attacking them. Your voice should sound with genuine interest.

Learn new skills and block time for that

You can do the following:

• Fix some time every week to learn a new skill.

• Decide what you will learn. AI, ML, Cloud, soft skills etc.

Make Prototypes/POC, and don't aim for perfection

• If you have a new idea, then create a small prototype

• Don't think about a perfect product because perfection will cost more time, but the gain will be minimal

• Share this prototype with your network, and ask for feedback. This feedback will help you to learn more, grow

• You can also work on prototypes, POC at your work to show a new project idea. Or to solve a problem in a different way. Or use a new technology.

For example, you want to use cloud technologies. You can make a POC with the cloud and show your management the benefits it brings. This will help to convince and on board others with your idea.