Picture this:
You’re sitting around a boardroom table, grappling with an urgent business challenge.
Ideas surface cautiously, polite and predictable. Nobody’s pushing boundaries. No one’s venturing into bold, risky territory.
Why?
Because everyone’s subtly playing a hidden game of identity protection: they’re prioritising how they appear over what they could become.
The Hidden Mindset Sabotaging Your Team
Most teams struggle not because they lack talent, but because they’ve been handed a mindset that values looking smart above actually growing smarter. It’s a subtle difference, but it’s powerful enough to sabotage teams and entire organisations:
- People keep quiet, terrified their idea will make them look foolish.
- Leaders choose safe bets, unwilling to risk their status.
- Collaboration becomes guarded, transactional, and shallow.
All because we’ve learned early on that appearing naturally gifted matters more than the messy, risky process of real growth.
Back to the Playground: How Two Kinds of Praise Create Two Kinds of Lives
Let’s rewind to childhood:
Imagine two children who’ve just solved a challenging maths problem. Both beam with pride. Their teacher approaches them:
- To one, she says, “Wow, you’re so smart! You’re clearly a natural at maths.”
- To the other, she says, “Wow, you must have worked really hard to figure that out – great effort!”
On the surface, both seem similarly positive. But beneath the surface, these comments deliver radically different “operating systems” for life.
Identity Mindset (“You’re so smart”):
The first child receives praise tied directly to identity – being “naturally gifted” or “smart” becomes something they are, not something they do.
Because of this identity-based praise, their self-worth becomes linked permanently to performance.
In this mindset, failure now isn’t just a temporary misstep or learning opportunity; it’s a threat to their very identity.
Process Mindset (“Great method / effort”):
The second child learns their value lies in their approach – their effort and/or methods.
Because of this process-based praise, they attach self-worth not to inherent talent but to the process of learning and improvement itself.
In this mindset, challenges and even failures become exciting opportunities to grow, instead of being threats.
Fast Forward: The Boardroom Consequences of Childhood Mindsets
Today, those two playground compliments shape the behaviours in your organisation:
- The “identity mindset” employees guard their reputations fiercely, holding back brilliant ideas to avoid failure or ridicule.
- The “process mindset” employees embrace risk, experimentation, and genuine collaboration because their identity isn’t on the line.
The identity mindset creates:
- Teams focused on protecting personal credit rather than collective results. This is directly related to the destructive internal competition I highlighted in this piece.
- Leaders afraid of making bold moves, opting instead for predictable paths.
- Organisations where growth stalls because innovation is seen as too risky.
The process mindset creates:
- Teams enthusiastically diving into challenges, openly sharing and refining ideas.
- Leaders confidently exploring uncharted territories, knowing their value comes from their effort and adaptability.
Organisations where innovation thrives because experimentation is rewarded.
(These two mindsets – what I’ve called the “identity mindset” and the “process mindset” – were first coined by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck as the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. A fixed mindset sees abilities as innate and unchangeable, leading individuals to constantly protect their identity. A growth mindset sees abilities as qualities that can be developed through process, including effort, experimentation, and persistence.)
From Protection to Growth: Shifting Your Team’s Mindset
Imagine a workplace where:
- Risk-taking and bold thinking are actively celebrated.
- Mistakes are seen as essential steps toward improvement, not evidence of inadequacy.
- Collaboration becomes transformative because the stakes are about progress, not personal reputation.
It’s possible, but it starts by recognising the mindsets embedded deep within your team’s culture.
Notice the Breadcrumbs
Here’s my challenge for you:
Take a look around your team and organisation today. Where do you see:
- Brilliant ideas silenced by fear?
- Teams quietly avoiding collaboration to protect their turf?
- Leaders making safe choices instead of bold moves?
Those are your breadcrumbs, pointing directly toward the mindset that needs shifting.
Your Next Move: Awareness to Action
In my next post, we’ll unpack exactly how to shift your team’s collective mindset from self-protection to fearless growth.
If you’ve ever felt frustrated or jaded by leadership development initiatives that promised change but fizzled out, you’ll find that post particularly eye-opening. You’ll learn precisely why these efforts often fail, and, crucially, how to avoid repeating those mistakes.
It’s time to move your organisation toward a true culture of growth – one that frees people from the burden of appearing perfect, empowering them instead to continuously learn, innovate, and improve.
Because when your team no longer fears losing who they are, they’re free to discover who they can become.
And if you’re keen to fast-track this shift, our Growth-Culture Accelerator assessment delivers a comprehensive, actionable insight into your team’s collective mindset across seven essential behavioural dimensions.
Contact us here to request more information.
