What Drives Performance, Skills or Mindsets?

I was fortunate to attend the inaugural Everest Group Engage conference in London last week.

A very down-to-earth set of panel discussions and presentations.

The first session I attended really struck me.

“Is it skills? Is it capabilities? No, It’s Mindsets! A new way to think about driving performance”.

The discussion around experiences, based on Everest Group research, was led by Erin Vincent of Sonoco with Deborah Kops, Arushi Gupta and Jimit Arora of Everest.

Business focus has traditionally been on skills and capabilities, where;

Skills are the ability to perform tasks well, and
Capabilities are the ability to generate outcomes using those skills

Erin shared her own journey on using the Everest approach, but it got me thinking more about mindsets and reminded me of the old saying . . .

“Hire for attitude, train for skill”

Which suggests prioritizing a positive mindset over specific technical skills, on the basis that it’s easier to teach skills than to change someone’s character or attitude.

We all know people with great atttiudes and an enviable mindset.

So, what’s the difference between attitude and mindset?

My friendly LLM explained that, “while both mindset and attitude relate to a person’s mental state, mindset encompasses a broader, more fundamental set of beliefs and assumptions, while attitude refers to a more specific feeling or evaluation towards something”.

There is a lot to chew over here.

I did end up “down the rabbit hole” on this and explored the work of Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. and her book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”.

Carol defines mindset as:

“The view you adopt for yourself that profoundly affects the way you lead your life”

She argues that praising intelligence and ability doesn’t foster self-esteem and lead to accomplishment.

Counter-intuitiively, it may actually jeopardize success!

“A simple idea about the brain can create a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great accomplishment in every area.”

It got me thinking about the traits of “cup half full” and “cup half empty” which we all encounter every day.

If we can develop and attract some of these key mindset qualities, I suspect we are onto a winner.

These are almost a set of positive “cognitive biases” . . . .

Willingness to embrace new challenges
Perseverance & determination
A love of learning
Resilience in the face of adversity
Agility and adaptability
Customer focus and “Outside-In” thinking
Inclusivity & Collaboration
Innovative “end-to-end” thinking
Execution focus and “getting things done”

The Everest Group discussion challenged us to consider the mindsets we aspire to as individuals, teams and organizations, to levelset our current “AS-IS” situation and develop a plan to bridge the gap.

They offered a 40 minute mindset assessment for GBS organizations.

Defining the “mindset aspiration” for your own organization is worth considering.

Given the power of mindset, that seems like time well spent.

One final thought, on the perennial topic – “Is it possible to train mindset into an AI model?”