Leveraging Mindsets for Effective Leadership

“Always be learning something new, ideally both professionally and personally,” advises Associate Professor Peter Heslin from the UNSW Business School.

He is presenting a talk and workshop on ‘How to Lead by Enabling Growth Mindsets’, at the Agile Australia conference this week.

He will discuss a recent series of studies, which looked into the implications of fixed mindsets and how they can be changed. This research aims to address damaging employee reactions including demoralisation, disengagement, absenteeism and turnover, and a sense that they are not being given a ‘fair go’ by their manager.

“It turns out that managers with a fixed mindset tend to demoralise everyone, including themselves,” says Heslin. “Managers with a fixed mindset can also be dysfunctional in how they deal with top performers. After categorising someone as a star, a fixed mindset can lead managers to not recognise when remedial action is needed.”

Dealing with complexity, working within constraints and adapting to change - people handle challenges much more effectively on some occasions than others.

“People can't bring out the best in others unless they know how to bring out the best in themselves,” he says.

The Agile Australia conference will be held in Melbourne on Monday to Wednesday 20-22 June 2016.

Media contact: Julian Lorkin: 02 9385 9887 | 0405 805 365 | j.lorkin@unsw.edu.au