Bounce

What I learned:

The concept of nurture vs nature is not a new one and has been tackled by many minds before, including Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. However, what I liked about Matthew Syed’s version is the exploration of the ‘so what’ factor - i.e. what impact each mindset and philosophy has on one's life and success.

The fixed mindset suggests that one is either born ‘gifted or not’ which tends to manifest in two possible paths: 

• One is ‘gifted’ and therefore believes they don’t need to work hard to achieve success, hence potentially squandering their abilities
• One is ‘not gifted,’ believing they do not posses talent and therefore do not exert the effort and action necessary to achieve their goal or ambition, thus fulfilling this false prophecy

In Bounce, Syed asserts that with effort comes excellence, and through excellence often comes success. Therefore a Growth Mindset, where effort is valued and praised over talent, is most likely to induce the action needed for success. 

How it helped me as a leader:

• Reinforcing a growth mindset in adults and children alike - "I am good enough!"

This concept has acted as a compass for how I interact and motivate my team and clients to help reinforce a Growth Mindset, and initiate success.  It has also enabled me personally to switch from a mindset of ‘I’m not good enough’ to ‘Well let's explore this further, put the effort in and see’ which has definitely resulted in more wins than I would have otherwise had!

It's also a great parenting trick to help our little ones grow believing that with effort and hard work, amongst other things, they can work toward achieving what they want. 

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