Goal Mindset vs Growth Mindset
“You are too casual and use lot of hindi slangs in your communication, we don’t feel confident that you will be able to comprehend the American customers or be able to help them. Hence we have to take this difficult decision to let you go.”
This is what I was told by the voice and accent trainer at my first call center job, however, thanks to the lead trainer I was somehow given a 15 days probation period (till the training completed)to show the improvement in my verbal communication.
I still remember after my final mock call, I ran to the stairs as I saw her walk towards it.
Excuse me mam, How did I do?
She replied, I have never seen such a drastic change in anyone. You have done really well. Though you still need to work but you have passed. Congrats!
Why is this incident so important to me?
I am a student of a convent school, still was a mediocre in english communication. I knew I was not good at spoken english and she had caught it. This was my first job, a lot was depending on it and knowing that I will be thrown out in next 15 days gave me nightmares.
So, I worked hard. Did not give up thinking, I can’t.
When she recognised the effort she gave the green signal with the word of caution to keep improving.
I brought this incident to emphasize the importance of “Growth mindset”. It's great to have goal mindset. But sometimes when people fail to achieve the goals they forget that it's not the end of the story. Achieving goal is an iterative process. Each iteration takes us closer to the goal as we learn from the previous one.
Is Goal mindset important ?
Yes, we need reason, a purpose for things we do and that’s what makes us really happy and gives the feeling of satisfaction.
Is fixed mindset the right practice?
No, That’s where the Growth mindset steps in. We can’t have a fixed mindset of either I can or can’t. It will not help us achieve the goal rather make it even more painful.
We should be aware of our journey, the stage and how far we have reached and what we could do or learn to reach the next stage of our Journey. As talents can be developed.
While we achieve the goal, should we stop?
No, again this is why Growth mindset is critical, having goals or achieving goals can’t be the end. We need to upgrade ourselves and set new goals.
Yes, we can pause momentarily and cherish the success but cannot retire, personal growth is a journey which should end with us departing the world.
