118: Growth Mindset & Psychological Safety | Chris Samsa

The Leadership Enigma

Chris Samsa is a positive psychologist and one of the founding directors of The Neuro Leadership Institute and has personally worked with Carol Dweck in the arena of Growth Mindset and Psychological Safety.

A Positive Psychologist focuses on your strengths and what is ‘right’ with you as opposed to just developmental areas. Chris advises that all of us must find out we are naturally good at and do more of it.

Through neuroplasticity of the brain we are a collection of habits and behaviours; thinking habits, emotional habits and physical habits.

Chris explains that all of us move continually between a growth and a fixed mindset. Nearly all of us have a bias for a fixed mindset due to our experiences growing up. Language is the key to how we travel between Growth and Fixed Mindset including how we deal with ‘Radio Me’ or the Inner Critic. The most powerful word that we can deploy is the word ‘YET’ as it transforms a fixed mindset statement into a growth mindset statement.

Chris outlines the 5 F’s of how our minds deal with threat: Fight, Flight, Freeze, Flock and Fawn and the issue of cut-throat competitiveness.

We discuss the Psychological Safety Index which is a tool to measure Psychological Safety in organisations.

The 4 key pillars are:

1. Inclusion and diversity. You can have a diverse organisation but not have inclusion. Diversity is having a seat at the table, inclusion is having a voice at the table. When you have true inclusion and diversity, team members feel able to speak up and they can contribute to the group.

2. Attitude to risk and failure. Research discovered that the more successful teams made mistakes with a view to owning those mistakes and identifying the learning as opposed to apportioning blame. Poor performing teams spend too much time and energy covering up mistakes.

3. Willingness to help: Pro social behaviours are exhibited and increased when Psychological Safety is in place.

4. Open conversation (equal turn taking) this is all about people having the sense their voice matters and will be heard.

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