part0008

When she was in high school, Katie (now Kate) liked to ask her teachers “is this material going to be on the exam?” and then focused her time and efforts primarily on the topics likely to be on exams. She continued to excel in her math classes, and she believed she was born with a knack for math—a belief her parents and teachers continued to share as well. When she went to college, she majored in Math. She did well in many of her other classes too, although she struggled in her writing classes and believed she didn’t have any natural instincts when it came to writing. She therefore spent her college years taking classes that further developed her quantitative skills and, whenever possible, avoided taking classes that didn’t play to her strengths. Using this strategy, Kate graduated from college in the top 2% of her class. Her proud parents continued to bask in their beliefs in Kate’s high intelligence and extraordinary natural abilities in math.

After graduation, Katie (now Katherine) was delighted when she was hired to work for the organization of her dreams. She fondly remembers her interview for the job and how impressed the recruiter was with her grades. At meetings at work, Katherine often felt she was the smartest person in the room, and for a while people listened intently to her ideas. She was labeled a rising star. The only negative feedback she received from her boss was that she should listen more to her peers.

About two years into her job, Katherine was offered a few high-risk assignments outside her area of expertise—ones that had no guarantee of success—and she politely declined them. She knew some of her peers would be happy to take the jobs she didn’t want, so she didn’t worry. After all, she wanted to move up in the organization, and she believed she should take on jobs that would showcase her talents rather than expose her weaknesses .

About three years into her job, Katherine was promoted to a team leader position. In her mind, she quickly sorted the team members into buckets—the smart and the not-too-smart, the motivated and the not-too-motivated. She started delegating more to the people she believed were smart and motivated. Over time, she found herself working later into the evenings and more on weekends because she felt she had too few people she could depend on. Because she was working so hard, she didn’t have time to coach the employees on her team. She didn’t think coaching could help much anyway because she believed people were either smart and motivated or they weren’t, and believed that the most talented and ambitious people would figure things out on their own.

About five years into her job, although she was devoted to the job and worked at least 10 hours each workday plus six hours over the weekend, she was no longer being promoted. She bristled at the fact that people who she believed weren’t as talented as her and who didn’t work as many hours as she did were getting promoted ahead of her. Maybe they were better at schmoozing and playing politics, but that just wasn’t her style.

Frustrated with her lack of advancement, Katherine quit the organization and joined a new one as a team leader. She really wanted to have a bright future in this organization. This time, however, she decided to hire a coach to help her figure out why she hit a wall at her previous organization, in the hope that she would have a better future at her new one.

Your task: Imagine that you are Katherine’s professional coach, and she hired you to advise her and give her constructive feedback. You can tell that she sincerely wants to add value to her organization and serve her clients well. She thought she was doing all (or at least most) of the right things in her previous job, and she can’t figure out why she was passed over for promotions. She also wants to work fewer hours than she worked in her previous job so that she can spend time on activities that matter to her outside of work. If you were Katherine’s coach, what feedback would you give her on her choices thus far? What beliefs and behaviors are holding her back from achieving her goals? Before reading the rest of this chapter, consider the advice you would give her so that she doesn’t hit a wall again at her next job.

The bad news for Katherine (and for the many people who share these beliefs) is that decades of research have shown that these beliefs are likely to hold her back from achieving her goals, including career success. In fact, Katherine is a cautionary tale of what not to do, and equally important, what not to believe. The good news for Katherine is that people can change their beliefs if they’re aware of how powerfully their beliefs influence their everyday choices and ultimately their ability to achieve their goals .

After decades of studying how our beliefs affect us, researchers have found that our beliefs about ourselves, others, and how the world works predict how high we set our goals and whether we succeed in achieving them. Our beliefs predict our motivation, persistence, and engagement as we pursue our goals, as well as our resilience when faced with setbacks. Our beliefs predict whether we seek out hard problems or take the easy way out, whether we take risks or play it safe, whether we admit our mistakes or hide them (or blame others), whether we seek out negative as well as positive feedback, whether we ask for help or go it alone, whether we take time to coach others or expect them to fend for themselves, whether we handle transitions well or crumble, and whether we remain strong when faced with prejudice or internalize unfair stereotypes. Our beliefs even predict whether we’re more likely to cheat when given the opportunity to do so.

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck and her colleagues study how our unexamined unconscious beliefs about how people succeed have profound effects on our choices, behaviors, and ultimately our ability to achieve our goals.[ 1 ] They have found that some people have a fixed mindset, whereas others have a growth mindset, and each predicts how likely a person is to succeed at school, at work, in a career, and in personal relationships. Each mindset is described in the following subsections of this chapter. While you read the descriptions, consider the advice you would give Katherine in the case at the beginning of this chapter. Even more importantly, consider whether you tend to have beliefs that are more consistent with the fixed mindset or the growth mindset—and the consequences these beliefs may have on your future .

People who have fixed mindsets believe that each person inherits intelligence, talents, and personality characteristics that are innate and pretty stable over time. Consequently, people with this mindset are more likely to say things like: “I’m a people person,” “I’m not a numbers person,” “She’s a natural public speaker,” and “leaders are born, not made.” They see their strengths and weaknesses as part of who they are as people, and they make their day-to-day choices according to this belief. Their view that strengths and weaknesses are relatively unchangeable parts of a person’s basic personality (i.e., you either have certain abilities or you don’t) has the following consequences:

Focusing primarily on their strengths may serve them well for a while, and they may get the validation they desire. Yet, as they continue to miss out on opportunities to learn and grow, their strategy of focusing on their current strengths may backfire in the longer run because the strengths that helped them in the past may prove less useful after the environment or the nature of their work changes. People who have fixed mindsets tend to be more vulnerable to the inevitable setbacks of everyday life because they may have a harder time bouncing back from failure. To people with fixed mindsets, failure can feel like a dead end because they are more likely to believe there’s little they can do to change the outcome.

Because people who have fixed mindsets tend to view success as the result of being “naturally” smart or talented, they are more likely to value people who they believe have these “natural” abilities. They are more likely to rigidly categorize people as smart or not smart, born leaders or born losers, high or low potential, and naturally charismatic or naturally lackluster. When someone at work or in their personal life makes a mistake or otherwise lets them down, they are more likely to see it as a sign of low ability or a personality flaw rather than as a temporary slip up and an opportunity to learn.

In contrast, people who have growth mindsets believe that intelligence, talents, and personality can change significantly over time with effort and practice. People with this mindset are more likely to say: “I never give up,” “She worked hard to get where she is today,” “I can become a great speaker if I put my mind to it,” and “leaders are made, not born.” They believe that effort, careful planning, and ongoing learning, more so than natural talent, predict people’s ability to achieve success, and they make their day-to-day choices and pursue their goals according to this belief. Their view that a person’s strengths are the result of effort, rather than innate abilities, has the following consequences:

The hallmark of people with growth mindsets is that they believe in the adage that “the harder I work, the smarter I get.” Day after day, they focus more on developing their future selves than on validating and protecting their current selves. Consequently, they don’t see the advantage of being the smartest person in the room, nor are they comfortable when they receive only positive feedback. They view their careers as marathons rather than sprints, and they become more, rather than less, motivated when faced with mistakes, hurdles, and setbacks because they believe their efforts and learning will pay off in the long run. Because they start taking risks and learning from mistakes earlier in their careers, they tend to be better prepared to handle the bigger problems and make fewer mistakes later in their careers when the stakes are higher.

Interestingly, even though people with growth mindsets work very hard to develop their strengths, other people may misinterpret those strengths as naturally bestowed rather than hard-earned. Michael Jordan, one of the greatest athletes of all times, likes to remind people that his success didn’t come naturally or easily. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career,” he said. “I’ve lost more than 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game’s winning shot and missed. I failed over and over again in my life. And that’s why I succeeded. ”

Dweck and her colleagues have studied, and inspired decades of research on, the power of beliefs in predicting success. Typically, participants in the studies are divided into two groups: one of people who believe more in a fixed mindset and the other of people who believe more in a growth mindset. The researchers assign participants to the two mindset groups by either (1) assessing the participants’ respective beliefs through a survey designed to determine whether a participant has a fixed or growth mindset, or (2) priming them to believe in one mindset or the other (for example, by showing one group of study participants a video of someone reading a research study that promotes a fixed mindset and another group of participants a video that promotes a growth mindset). The researchers then assess study participants’ behavior (e.g., willingness to take on challenging tasks) and the outcomes of these behaviors (e.g., grades) to determine whether having a fixed mindset or a growth mindset leads to different behaviors and outcomes.

In one of their early studies, Dweck and her colleagues gave hundreds of adolescent students a challenging test. After taking the test, some of the students were praised for their ability (e.g., “Wow, you did very well on these problems. You got [X many] problems right. That’s a really good score. You must be smart at these problems.”) and others were praised for their effort (e.g., “Wow, you got [X many] right. That’s a really good score. You must have worked hard at these problems.”). The researchers later gave the students the choice to tackle an easy or a hard task. Of the students who were praised for their intelligence (the fixed mindset), 80% were more likely to choose the easier task. Of the students who were praised for their effort (the growth mindset), 67% were more likely to choose the challenging task. The researchers then asked the students to write a private letter to their peers discussing their experience and revealing their scores. Interestingly, 40% of the students who were told “You must be really smart” lied and overstated their scores, compared to 13% of the students who were praised for their effort. It seems that the students who were primed to believe the fixed mindset were also more invested in demonstrating they were smart to others.[ 2 ]

In another study, Dweck and her colleagues gave adolescents a 10-question assessment to determine whether they had more of a fixed mindset or growth mindset as they entered seventh grade, which is a time in life when school work becomes increasingly difficult. They followed these students for two years and assessed their grades. When the students started seventh grade, those with the fixed mindsets or growth mindsets showed no difference compared to each other in their average math achievement scores. However, by the end of the first semester, the scores of the adolescents with a growth mindset started to pull ahead of those of the fixed-mindset children, and the gap continued to get wider over the next two years. As the work got harder, and persistence in the face of challenge mattered more, the growth mindset increasingly paid off.[ 3 ]

In study after study, researchers have found similar results. For example, the growth mindset predicted academic performance in both underachieving and high achieving students, adolescents’ resilience in responding to peer exclusion and bullying, girls’ test scores in math, community college students’ grades in remedial math courses, medical students’ grades, Hong Kong students’ willingness to take classes to improve their English language skills, and managers’ willingness to coach employees and effectiveness in doing so. Researchers have concluded that children and adults who believe that talent is developed primarily through effort and practice are more likely to set higher goals, take on harder tasks, develop more effective strategies for overcoming obstacles, persist in the face of setbacks, and invest in the development of others—all of which result in better outcomes.[ 4 ]

To demonstrate how the research can be translated into practice, Dweck likes to tell the story of a school system in Chicago that uses the phrase “not yet” rather than “fail” when students don’t pass their courses. Dweck explains, “If you get a failing grade, you think, ‘I’m nothing, I’m nowhere.’ But if you get the grade ‘not yet,’ you understand that you’re on a learning curve. It gives you a path into the future.”[ 5 ]

When I was applying to MBA programs, I had to take the standardized test called the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT). I was told—and I believed—that the GMAT assesses natural ability. So, the first time I took the test, I didn’t study for it. Why study for a test that assesses natural ability? When my scores came back, they were quite low. When I showed them to a counselor at my undergraduate college, he told me to forget about getting into an MBA program because I didn’t have a chance of getting in with such low scores. I realize now that he may have had a fixed view of intelligence.

For a little while, I believed him. Nonetheless, I made an appointment with the dean of the MBA program at the University of Massachusetts, where I had hoped to apply. Lucky for me, he told me I should try taking the GMAT again to see if I could raise my scores. (My sincere appreciation goes out to the late Professor Bertil Liander for having a growth mindset.) I studied hard for the GMAT and retook the test a few months later. My score increased well over 100 points, putting me in a category that not only helped me get into the MBA program but also helped me get into the Yale Ph.D. program a few years later. Most importantly, the experience taught me about the power of persistence, planning, and practice.

Twenty years later, I was director of the part-time MBA program at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. A student described to me how he was admitted to the MBA program even though he had an unimpressive GMAT score. He took the test several times, studying between each test, but despite his efforts, his test core wouldn’t budge. He had applied to the MBA program twice, unsuccessfully, in large part due to his GMAT scores. The third time he applied to the MBA program, he tried a different strategy. He visited the dean of the business school and made him a promise. He said he was certain that he would get excellent grades if admitted to the MBA program and promised that if he didn’t, he would voluntarily leave the program. Based on that agreement, he was admitted to the program, where he indeed earned a very high grade point average in his courses. A few years later, I ran into him while I was teaching a leadership program at his place of work. He had enjoyed several promotions since graduating from the MBA program. Although at that time I didn’t know about the research comparing fixed mindsets to growth mindsets, I now believe that having a growth mindset played a key role in this man’s success.

Another important benefit of a growth mindset is that it can protect people against some of the negative effects of bias. Unfortunately, every society divides people into groups based on categories such as race, gender, nationality, religion, region, and economic class (the possibilities seem endless) and then stereotypes members of those groups as being more or less capable and worthy than others. These stereotypes and their negative effects play out every day in playgrounds, schools, colleges, communities, work organizations, and politics. Some groups are stereotyped as being lazy or achievement-oriented, having high or low intellect, or being naturally better or worse at math or language skills.

One of the negative impacts of bias is called stereotype threat .[ 6 ] Researchers have found that when people are in situations in which they feel evaluated (e.g., when taking tests or while speaking up in classes or meetings) and the groups that they strongly identify with (e.g., gender, race, nationality, religion, etc.) are negatively stereotyped, they are more likely to perform worse than they are capable of performing, particularly on difficult tasks. Researchers believe that their performance suffers due to their concerns about being judged, resulting in increased stress and heightened performance anxiety which can lead to lack of focus and narrow problem solving strategies.

When this happens repeatedly over time, stereotype threat can lead to poorer overall performance, choosing easier academic or career options, and opting out of courses or careers that require expertise in areas that challenge the stereotypes. Studies have found that stereotype threat led to worse performance for girls and women in math,[ 7 ] African Americans on college entrance exams,[ 8 ] European Americans in sports, men when they were assessed in their social sensitivity,[ 9 ] and the elderly on memory tests.[ 10 ] Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson called the cost of fighting prejudice an “emotional tax” that people pay when repeatedly faced with negative stereotypes.[ 11 ]

Stereotype threat is situational; the same person may experience stereotype threat in one situation, but not in another. In one experiment, simply adjusting the proportion of men and women was enough to have an impact on performance. The researchers found that when women took a math test along with two other women, they got an average 70% of their answers correct; yet when women took the same math test along with two men, they got an average of 55% of the answers correct.[ 12 ] In another study, researchers found that African American students who were asked to include their racial identity on an exam form prior to taking the exam performed worse than African American students who didn’t have to include their racial identity on the exam form. In still another study, white male engineering students with a history of excellent academic test scores performed worse when they were told that the test they were taking was designed to help the researchers understand Asian Americans’ superior mathematical abilities.

In a particularly clever study, researchers Margaret Shih, Todd Pittinsky, and Amy Trahan found that Asian American women performed better on a test of quantitative reasoning when their identity as Asian (a group stereotyped in the U.S. as being more competent in math) was primed compared to a control group. However, they performed worse than the control group when their gender identity as women (a group stereotyped in the U.S. as being less competent at math) was primed. To highlight the study participants’ gender or Asian American identity, the researchers asked the participants to complete a simple survey prior to taking a test. Some research participants were asked to identify their ethnicity and answer five ethnicity-related questions, priming their Asian American identity (e.g., “What is your family’s country of origin?”; and “How many generations has your family lived in America?”). Other research participants were asked to identify their respective genders and answer five gender-related questions, priming their gender identities (e.g., “Would you prefer to live in a coed or single-sex environment?”). And a control group of participants was asked to complete a survey asking questions that weren’t related to gender or ethnicity (e.g., “How often do you watch television?”; and “How often do you eat out?”).[ 13 ] Priming the various participants’ identities with these types of simple questions influenced their test scores.

The power of these studies is that they demonstrate that very small situational cues can have a significant impact on performance, particularly when people are anxious about their competencies as perceived by other people. Now here’s where the protective power of the growth mindset comes in. Just as small cues can trigger stereotype threat and poor performance, situational cues—such as exposing people to the growth mindset—can be used to minimize stereotype threat and enhance performance ( known as stereotype boost ).[ 14 ]

In one study, researchers Joshua Aronson, Carrie Fried, and Catherine Good recruited African American and European American college students for a study and told them they would be helping an organization called “Scholastic Pen Pals.”[ 15 ] There were two steps in this study. In the first step, the study participants were told that the organization was designed to help improve the academic performance of seventh grade students who came from impoverished backgrounds. To start the pen pal relationship, the researchers created hand-written letters from boys and girls in which the younger students described the struggles they were having in school, as well as some of their favorite school activities. The college students, who did not know that the letters they received weren’t from actual seventh grade students, were each asked to write an encouraging letter to one younger student telling the younger student that other students with challenges had succeeded in school despite the struggles they faced. The college students were also asked to give the younger students examples from their own lives in which they succeeded despite challenges. The participants in the study didn’t know that the researchers were interested in learning how the college students’ own academic performance would be affected if they were exposed to training that taught them about the growth mindset.

In the second step of the study, the researchers divided the study participants into two groups to assess whether the growth mindset had an impact on the college students’ academic performance. One group of college students participated in training that taught them that intelligence is “malleable” and “like a muscle” that gets stronger with practice (the growth mindset). They were told that in addition to whatever else they wanted to say in their letters to encourage the younger students, it was very important to get the “malleable” message across because the younger students would be more likely to stay in school and work hard if they believed that “intelligence expands with hard work” rather than if they believed that “intelligence is a fixed quantity.”

The other group of college students participated in training that taught them that intelligence is made up of many different talents, that everyone has “intellectual strengths and weaknesses,” and that it’s a “potentially devastating mistake to view intelligence as a single entity because it may lead young students to give up entirely on education if they are struggling in one subject” (the fixed mindset). They were told that it was very important to convince the struggling students that there are many different types of intelligence, because “they may be more likely to continue to learn in an attempt to find and develop areas of strength.”

The researchers found that the African American college students who were exposed to training that reinforced the “malleable” theory of intelligence were more likely to get higher grades after they participated in the study than before the study. They also enjoyed their college experience more compared to the group that received the training that reinforced the belief that intelligence is made up of many talents. Although there was also a positive difference in the European American college students’ grades and their enjoyment of their academic experience at college after participating in the study, the difference was significantly smaller. The researchers speculate that exposure to the malleable theory of intelligence (the growth mindset) benefitted the African American college students more because they were more at risk for stereotype threat during their college experience.

Dweck and her colleagues also found that people who have growth mindsets are more likely to confront someone who expresses a prejudiced opinion, yet less likely to cut off a relationship with someone who expresses prejudiced beliefs, leaving the door open for future interactions. The researchers speculate that people with growth mindsets are more likely to believe that people who express prejudicial beliefs can change and grow.[ 16 ] The sad reality is that unfair and untrue stereotypes continue to exist in playgrounds, schools, communities, organizations, and societies. In addition to working with others toward the elimination of negative stereotypes, you can also change your own beliefs and behaviors in ways that protect you and others from some of the damage that these stereotypes can do.

The studies described in this chapter have several important implications. First, having a growth mindset increases effort, strategizing, persistence, and resilience, which in turn have significant impacts on performance. Second, people can be taught the growth mindset through small, brief, and inexpensive interventions. Third, the benefits of a growth mindset may be even more important for people who are exposed to negative stereotypes because it can protect them from the damaging effects of these stereotypes and enable them to perform better, enjoy their work more, and take on more challenging studies and careers.

Researchers have spent decades studying what the most successful organizations do differently than others. Not surprisingly, organizations that encourage learning and growth are more likely to prosper in today’s unpredictable, fast-changing, complex, and interconnected world. Organizations, just like individuals, can promote a fixed mindset or a growth mindset, with predictable results.

In a two year study of several Fortune 1000 companies, researchers contrasted organizations that promote a “culture of genius” versus those that promote a “culture of development.”[ 17 ] Cultures of genius have a lot in common with the fixed mindset. They value, hire for, and celebrate individual talent. They invest in the development of the employees they believe have the most talent. In contrast, cultures of development have a lot in common with the growth mindset. They value and celebrate ongoing learning and growth, and they hire people who demonstrate openness to individual and collective learning. They believe that all employees have potential that can be unleashed, and they tend to invest in the development of all employees. Researchers asked employees questions designed to determine whether their organizations promoted more of a fixed mindset (culture of genius) or growth mindset (culture of development). They asked employees whether they agreed with statements such as, “When it comes to being successful, this organization seems to believe that people have a certain amount of talent, and they really can’t do much to change it,” and “When people make mistakes, this company sees the learning that results as value added.”

The researchers found that employees in organizations that encouraged a culture of development had more trust in their organizations, felt greater ownership of their work, were more committed to their organizations, were more willing to “go the extra mile” for their organizations, were more likely to take risks, were more collaborative, felt more empowered, and had a greater sense of control over the outcomes of their work. Bosses in these organizations viewed their employees as being more agile, innovative, engaged, and ethical than did the bosses in organizations that promoted the culture of genius and a fixed mindset. The researchers also found that women and minorities were more likely to succeed in organizations that promoted a growth mindset.

In contrast, employees in organizations that promoted a culture of genius and a fixed mindset were less committed to their organizations, were more likely to want to quit, felt less ownership of their work (and were more likely to say things like “it’s not my job”), felt less responsible for the outcomes of their work (and more likely to say things like “it’s someone else’s fault”), were more likely to be judgmental of others, were more competitive toward their peers, and were more likely to “cut corners, cheat, and hide information.” Whereas the organizational cultures with the growth mindset tended to encourage individual and collaborative learning, experimentation, and resilience, the organizations with the fixed mindset tended to encourage self-promotion, not looking dumb, and playing it safe.

In another study, researchers Gretchen Spreitzer and Christine Porath surveyed or interviewed more than 1200 employees in a variety of industries.[ 18 ] They concluded that employees who believed they were both learning and engaged in their work were more likely to feel as though they were thriving at work, which the researchers described as “not just satisfied and productive but also engaged in creating the future—the company’s and their own.” They found that employees who felt like they were thriving at work were 16% more productive, 32% more committed to their organizations, 46% more satisfied with their jobs, and more proactive with their careers than their peers. They also experienced 125% less burnout, missed fewer days of work, and were rated by their bosses as more innovative.

How do organizations promote a culture of development? They foster a growth mindset by hiring people for their willingness to learn and help others learn, giving employees information and decision-making discretion, praising process as well as results, giving useful and timely feedback to employees, encouraging employees to view risks and mistakes as learning opportunities, putting time and money into employee development, and facilitating a collaborative and respectful environment. All of this leads to more innovation, a culture of openness to change, employees helping each other out, personal ownership of decisions and outcomes, and people acting like leaders at all levels. This sounds a lot like the company Zappos.

In 1999, West Coast based entrepreneur Nick Swinmurn felt frustrated at being unable to find the shoes he wanted in local stores and malls. If he found a shoe style he liked, he couldn’t find it in the sizes or colors he wanted. If he found shoes in a size he needed, he couldn’t find them in the styles or colors he wanted. After repeatedly going home empty handed, he realized that many other people shared the same frustration when looking for shoes. So he decided to create Zappos, an online shoe retailer that would be devoted to helping people find the perfect shoes and the perfect fit.

In 2000, Tony Hsieh became co-CEO of Zappos, as well as Zappos’ most creative and devoted steward of the organizational culture. Over the years, the company’s vision has expanded to providing “the absolute best service online—not only in shoes but in any category.” In an interview, Hsieh explained:

One day, we asked ourselves, ‘What do we want to be when we grow up? Do we want to be about shoes, or do we want to be about something bigger and more meaningful?’ That’s when we decided that we really wanted to build the Zappos brand and be about the very best customer service and customer experience.[ 22 ]

Today, 80% of Zappos’ sales are from shoes and 20% from other merchandise like clothing and accessories, and its sales exceed $2 billion annually. Amazon bought Zappos for $1.2 billion in 2009, and Hsieh stayed on as CEO. Headquartered in Las Vegas, Zappos is regularly praised for being among the best companies in customer service, and Fortune Magazine, Forbes, and greatplacestowork.com list Zappos as one of the best places to work.

In Hsieh’s words, Zappos is “maniacal” about delivering WOW through service. Zappos offers free shipping to and from customers because they want customers to feel comfortable trying on different items and sending back those that don’t work. It often surprises customers with upgrades to overnight shipping. Returns are taken for up to a year after purchase to accommodate people who Hsieh says “have trouble making up their minds.” Although only about 5% of its sales are made through the phone, Zappos posts its phone number on every page of its website to make it easy for customers to reach someone at Zappos quickly (unlike many organizations that actively hide their phone numbers so one must be a detective to figure out how to reach a customer service representative) .

When someone talks to an employee from the Zappos customer loyalty team (which is the name the call center staff goes by), the Zappos representative stays on the phone with them as long as necessary to help them, with the record call lasting over eight hours. If Zappos doesn’t have what the customer wants, the Zapponian (as Zappos employees like to be called) will help the customer find it somewhere else. A conversation may go something like, “We’re sorry we don’t carry that. Would you mind holding on for a minute and I’ll see if I can find it for you. I just found it for you at XYZ company, and it looks like they have it in your size. You can reach them at [phone number]. We hope you enjoy your new shoes and come back to us in the future. Is there anything else we can help you with?” WOW .

The Zappos customer loyalty team doesn’t use scripts because its goal is to make an authentic connection with the customer. For example, one customer was unable to return a pair of shoes that she bought for her mother because she was grieving over her mother’s death. The Zappos representative helped the woman by having someone pick the shoes up at her home and then the representative sent her flowers as a message of sympathy to comfort her after her mother’s death. WOW .

Yes, these services are costly. But Zappos views these as marketing expenses because they believe that every interaction, no matter how small, is an opportunity to build a loyal relationship with customers. Hsieh explains, “You have the customer’s undivided attention for five or ten minutes, and if you get the interaction right, the customer remembers the experience for a very long time and tells his or her friends about it.”[ 24 ] Zappos receives thousands of phone calls and emails every day, and it views each one as an opportunity to build the Zappos brand into being about the very best customer service. Hsieh believes that “most of the money we might ordinarily have spent on advertising should be invested in customer service, so that our customers will do the marketing for us through word of mouth.”[ 25 ] Positive word of mouth pays off. Seventy-five percent of Zappos’ customers are repeat customers, and most repeat customers spend more money on their later purchases than on their first purchase.

Zappos encourages learning and collaboration through new-employee scavenger hunts (“Find someone wearing a Zappos T-shirt and ask them how long they’ve been with the company.”), shadow programs in which employees spend time with employees in other parts of Zappos to learn about what they do every day, and apprenticeship programs in which employees can try out a new job for 90 days to see if it’s a good fit and go back to their previous position if it doesn’t work out.

Zappos encourages employees to give the same sort of kindness to each other that they give to customers. Every month, employees can give their co-workers a bonus to recognize them for going above and beyond the call of duty, helping a colleague in a time of need, or otherwise living the Zappos values. Stories about Zappos employees’ kindness to each other are plentiful. When a new employee learned that he couldn’t attend the orientation training in the sandals he was wearing and couldn’t get anyone from home to bring him the shoes he needed, a Zappos recruiter gave the new employee the shoes off his feet so he could attend the orientation.

Hsieh believes so much in the importance of employee fit with the Zappos culture that all new employees are offered $2,000 to quit after they’ve gone through an extensive orientation that introduces them to Zappos’ culture and core values. Most people stay with Zappos. Hsieh says that the biggest benefit of this offer is its effect on those people who turn it down. After being offered the money to quit:

They still had to go home and, over the weekend, think about it, talk to their friends and family, and ask themselves ‘Is this a company I can really commit to? Is it a company I believe in for the long-term,’ and when they came back to work on Monday, they were that much more committed and passionate about the company.[ 27 ]

Zappos takes employee learning seriously. Rather than having annual raises over which employees have no control, Zappos has a “skill set” system. Employees can choose up to 20 different skill sets they’d like to develop, and they receive a raise after mastering each skill set. Rebecca Henry, director of HR, explained Zappos’ commitment to experimentation and accepting the mistakes that come with it like this:

Mistakes are part of life, we expect it. Oodles of unknown, excellent ideas are discovered by trying something that you wouldn’t have tried if you were afraid of getting in trouble for making a mistake. Even if we try 10 things and eight of them don’t work out, we are two ahead than if we tried nothing.[ 28 ]

The truth is, this is uncharted territory for us. I’ve never been part of a company that’s grown from nothing to hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. I’ve never been part of a company that’s grown from 5 people to a staff of over 1000, which is where we plan on being by the end of this year. So undoubtedly, we will make mistakes along the way, and we won’t do everything right the first time. But that’s okay, because that’s also what we want our culture to be about. We’re not afraid of making mistakes, but we’re also quick to turn them into learning experiences and fix the mistakes when they happen.[ 29 ]

Zappos’ commitment to learning from mistakes was tested on May 23, 2010, when an employee made a pricing mistake at Zappos’ sister site, 6PM.com, that capped the prices for most products on the site at $49.95. The error, made at midnight, wasn’t found until 6:00 a.m. the next day. Zappos honored this pricing; a decision that cost the company over $1.6 million. When asked about the fate of the employee who made the mistake, Aaron Magness, Director of Brand Marketing and Business Development, responded:

To those of you asking if anybody was fired, the answer is no, nobody was fired—this was a learning experience for all of us. Even though our terms and conditions state that we do not need to fulfill orders that are placed due to pricing mistakes, and even though this mistake cost us over $1.6 million, we felt that the right thing to do for our customers was to eat the loss and fulfill all the orders that had been placed before we discovered the problem.[ 30 ]

In this moment of truth, Zappos’ leaders stuck to their core values by taking responsibility for the design of the program that made this kind of error possible. They considered it a learning experience and an opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to service. As word got out to the media, Zappos was able to turn the story of the pricing error into positive publicity that reinforced Zappos’ image as a company that learns from experience and takes care of customers and employees .

The Zappos culture works. In addition to being one of the best companies for customer service, Zappos is also seen as one of the best companies to work for. In 2015, Zappos had over 28,000 job applicants and hired only 500 of them. Hsieh says, “Someone told me that statistically it’s harder to get a job at Zappos than it is to get admitted to Harvard, which says a lot about the strength of the culture we’ve created here.”[ 31 ]

Zappos is not alone in its commitment to being the best at what it does. Organizations that are committed to providing world class products and services for their customers know that these are the precious byproducts of their investment in their employees and their organizational cultures. They know that organizations with cultures that promote individual and collective learning have a competitive advantage in today’s complex and fast-changing environment, because employee commitment, collaboration, everyday innovation, and openness to change are benefits that cannot be easily copied by others.

If you’re lucky enough to be in an organization that has a culture of development, you can count your blessings, take advantage of the opportunities for learning and growth, and show appreciation to the people who encourage this culture of development. If you’re not in an organization that promotes a culture of development, remember that you may not be able to change your organization’s culture, but you can still invest in your own development and the development of others. You can seek out developmental opportunities, such as challenging jobs and committee assignments outside of your area so that you can meet new people and see the organization from a different point of view. You can ask colleagues at every organizational level for advice, read books that will help you learn new perspectives and skills, and take free online courses such as those offered through Coursera, edX, Khan Academy, and other online learning communities. You can create your own peer coaching groups in which you discuss experiences, advise each other, and participate in development activities together (such as reading and discussing books and taking classes, including online classes). You can join clubs that help build your skills and your network (e.g., Toastmasters clubs in which members help each other build their communication and presentation skills). You can also seek out jobs at organizations that promote a culture of learning so that you can put yourself in a position to do your best work now and in the future.

If you’re in a position in which you manage others or lead teams, you can certainly be aware of the power of your own mindset, ensure that employees learn from (rather than fear) mistakes, resist the urge to typecast employees as high-potential or low-potential, and provide coaching and developmental opportunities for all employees rather than only a chosen few. Many participants in my classes take this advice to heart. An MBA student in one of the courses told me that he and his wife now have a tradition that they call “Tuesday TED” in which they watch free online TED talks together (TED.com provides brief talks about topics in many areas, including leadership, environmental issues, and global concerns.). Many of the MBAs and executives with whom I work facilitate regular lunch-and-learn sessions with their teams during which they present resources from my courses (e.g., free online videos, readings, and assessments) to their teams. You can invest in your own development and the development of others in many free or low cost ways. So the question is: How will you put what you’ve learned about the growth mindset to work?

It should come as no surprise that our beliefs about ourselves and our ability to achieve our goals influence our success in life. But it may surprise you to know how much these beliefs affect us. Researchers have found that we consciously and unconsciously evaluate ourselves in at least four areas that they refer to as our core self-evaluations.[ 32 ]

People who have high core self-evaluations think positively about themselves, have confidence in their abilities, and feel like they have some control over their environments. They tend to interpret the world around them in a generally positive way. Because most complex situations (such as jobs and personal relationships) have both positive and negative aspects, people with high core self-evaluations tend to be more willing and able to benefit from the positive and not get derailed by the negative aspects of everyday life. For example, working in teams brings more diverse information, resources, and social connections; yet it also requires suppressing one’s self-interests in the service of the group, working with people who are different than oneself, and making decisions that counter those one might make on one’s own. Because people with high core self-evaluations are more likely to emphasize the positive aspects of working in teams, they are more likely to approach team tasks enthusiastically and thus reap the rewards associated with teamwork. On balance, the world looks pretty good to people with positive core self-evaluations, so they tend to be more grateful for their opportunities, more proactive in pursuit of their goals, and better able to cope effectively in stressful situations.

In contrast, people who have low core self-evaluations think less positively about themselves, have less confidence in their abilities, and believe that they have little control over what happens to them. They are more likely to notice the negative when assessing the environment around them, focus on negative feedback more than positive feedback, and see the negative rather than the positive in complex situations. Consequently, they are likely to experience more stress and anxiety in these situations and are less able to reap the rewards that come from participating in challenging situations.

Researchers have found that people with high core self-evaluations are more likely to enjoy their work and reap greater tangible rewards throughout their lives than people with low core self-evaluations. In a review of 149 studies about the impact of high and low core self-evaluations, researcher Chu-Hsiang Chang and her colleagues concluded that people with high core self-evaluations tend to have higher work motivation, take on more challenging tasks (and are more satisfied when their work involves complex tasks), go above and beyond the call of duty more frequently, persist longer to achieve desired outcomes, react more constructively to change, work more positively with others, and experience less stress and burnout at work.[ 33 ] Consequently, they are more likely to perform better at work, be evaluated positively by their bosses, and actively contribute to their communities outside of work. They are also less likely to experience conflict between their roles at work and outside of work, feel trapped in their jobs, and leave their jobs.

People with high core self-evaluations also tend to make more money. Researchers Timothy Judge and Charlice Hurst conducted a longitudinal study on the impact of core self-evaluations in young adults on their income level at midlife. The researchers analyzed data taken from the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth administered by the National Labor Bureau. This survey, begun in 1979, collected data from 12,686 youth between the ages of 14 and 22 years old and followed these youth through midlife. Judge and Hurst used the data from the study to determine whether the study participants had high or low core self evaluations when they were first surveyed in 1979. The researchers then obtained data on the income of the study participants approximately 25 years later. The researchers found that, on average, those who had high core self-evaluations in their youth were making significantly more money at midlife than those who had begun the study with low core self-evaluations.[ 34 ]

The researchers wanted to know whether advantages such as having a privileged background (as measured by family income, parental education, and prestige of the parents’ jobs) and strong academic performance (as measured by the study participants’ grade point average and scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test) in their youth also had an impact on income later in life. They found that the more advantages the participants with high core self-evaluations had when they started the study, the more their salary increased over the years. The participants who had the most privileged back early in life, as well as high core self-evaluations, were making over $35,000 more each year. Similarly, participants who had the highest level of academic achievement, as well as high core self-evaluations, were making over $65,000 more per year. The income of the people with the lowest core self-evaluations barely changed at all throughout their careers (even if they had a privileged family background and high academic achievements early in life), and in some cases decreased as time went on. Clearly, our beliefs about ourselves matter.

Researchers believe that the difference in midlife income between people with high and low core self-evaluations is due, in large part, to the degree to which they capitalize on opportunities . They believe that people with high core evaluations are more able to see opportunities that others miss and proactively act on those opportunities. Consequently, people with high core self-evaluations tend to get themselves on a positive spiral in which the rewards multiply over the years.

The research on core self-evaluations gives us some insight into why people who seem to have everything going for them early in life never reach their potential, as well as why people who don’t have early advantages can succeed despite obstacles. Over 350 years ago, poet John Milton recognized the power of beliefs when he said, “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven out of hell, a hell out of heaven.”

For all the power that our beliefs have on our ability to achieve our goals in life, most of us are remarkably unaware of our fundamental belief systems and how they affect our everyday choices. Our beliefs influence how high we set our goals and our strategies for achieving those goals, as well as our effort, persistence, and resilience. They influence whether we capitalize on opportunities or stand on the sidelines as opportunities pass us by. They influence how we raise our children, interact with our loved ones at home, act at work, and manage our careers.

• We all have a mix of both fixed mindsets and growth mindsets, and our self evaluations may fluctuate at times. We all have days when we feel good about ourselves and days when we feel bad about ourselves, as well as times when we feel in control of our lives and times when we feel out of control. However, people who lean toward growth mindsets and high core self evaluations are better able to get themselves back into a mindset that propels them forward toward their goals.

• The growth mindset and high core-evaluations, like anything else, can be taken too far. Self-esteem untempered by empathy and self-criticism can feed narcissistic tendencies. It will be hard for you to find peace if you believe you can control everything in life. Sometimes, as the Buddhists say, you just have to “let it go.” Trying to do everything well can lead to burnout, so it’s important to focus your efforts on the goals that matter most. Not everything is worth doing, and not everything worth doing is worth doing perfectly.

• It’s naive to assume that anyone can do anything if they just believe in themselves and try hard enough. Some people need more support than others, and they are more likely to thrive when given this extra support. For example, people with illnesses and disabilities, including those that aren’t visible to others, may face additional hurdles that make it more challenging to achieve their goals. First generation college students may need more support in learning how to navigate the college environment so that they can strategize how they can best channel their efforts and not lose out on opportunities that they’re not aware of. Without additional support, people who don’t have access to transportation or day care may have a harder time finding and keeping jobs despite their best efforts.

The main points of this chapter are that your beliefs powerfully affect your future and you can shape your beliefs in ways that can help you achieve your goals. Regardless of where you start in life, your beliefs will significantly influence where you end up. Here are some strategies that can help you develop beliefs that propel you forward toward your goals rather than hold you back:

1. Assess your mindset. Do you tend to say things that support a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? For example, do you say things like “I’m a natural people person,” “He’s a born mathematician,” or “She’s a natural leader”? Do you rigidly categorize people as smart or not smart, motivated or not motivated, caring or not caring? If you are a parent, do you say things to your children such as, “You’re so smart,” “You’re a natural athlete,” or “I guess math just isn’t your talent”? How can you change your beliefs (and associated language) in ways that reflect the growth rather than fixed mindset? Do you praise yourself and others for strategies, effort, and resilience, rather than natural talents?

5. Try to learn something new, especially something that will move you toward your goals. For example, take on tasks and join committees that are outside your area of expertise. If you’re not yet an engaging public speaker, then take steps to become one. You can take courses (including free online courses), join a Toastmasters club, watch people give engaging presentations and take note of the strategies they use, and practice until you too are able to design and deliver engaging presentations.