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Why You Need To Develop a Growth Mindset!

Written By Kevin Scott

On January 29, 2025

Why You Need To Develop a Growth Mindset!

How can we define a growth mindset?

A growth mindset is the belief that an individual’s skills and intelligence can be developed through dedication, effort, and learning from their experiences. Popularised by psychologist Carol Dweck, the term contrasts with a fixed mindset, where individuals believe that their skills and intelligence are static and unable to be significantly changed.

The growth mindset approach has been widely recognised and integrated into teaching strategies and school cultures in the UK and globally. It has been used since the 1970s but has been more formally adopted since the mid-90s. This approach focuses on the specific principles of resilience, adaptability, perseverance, and a love of learning from whatever the starting point is. This approach has demonstrated that all students can make significant attainment gains when operating in a growth mindset environment.

While a fixed mindset limits individuals to their starting abilities, a growth mindset embraces challenges, viewing failure not as a sign of inadequacy, but as an encouraging foundation for growth and expanding one’s skills. Dweck’s insights have highlighted strategies for cultivating a culture of development and continuous improvement across a diverse range of professional fields.

Organisations that encourage their employees to have a growth mindset by providing them with resources and opportunities will see an array of benefits, being one step closer to an inclusive culture.

 

What does a growth mindset encourage?

Individuals should embrace challenges: A growth mindset involves viewing challenges as opportunities for learning and professional growth. Challenges encourage problem-solving and allow us to seek out new information to complete the sometimes-difficult tasks at hand.

Effort is the necessary path to improve oneself: A growth mindset involves recognising that effort is necessary for improvement. Effort builds resilience and encourages appreciation for when the effort pays off!

Learn from criticism: Individuals with a growth mindset should not see criticism as a negative thing. Even when criticised, individuals should take critiques as a means for professional and personal growth.

Persistence through obstacles: Individuals with growth mindsets don’t give up when they face setbacks. Although difficult, they will push through difficulties and retain resilience to overcome challenges.

Learn lessons and get inspiration from others: When you observe the achievements of others, individuals with growth mindset will learn and seek inspiration from their successes, seeing it as proof of what is possible.

Shifting to ‘Yet’ language: Instead of saying statements such as ‘I can’t do this’, individuals with growth mindsets will switch attitudes to ‘I can’t do this yet’. With a positive mental attitude, individuals will go further in overcoming the challenges they will face.

 

 

How can organisations contribute to a growth mindset?

Organisations need to promote environments of continuous learning: Employees need workplace environments where they will be motivated to grow professionally and continuously be encouraged. By providing employees with mentors, training programmes, workshops, and online courses, they will actively become stronger employees through regular upskilling.

Feedback for employees should be constructive: Employees should regularly receive feedback from senior leadership regarding their work and how they can improve without feeling discouraged. Feedback should be focused on growth and not on judgement.

Encourage innovation: To encourage innovation, organisations need to focus on making their employees feel psychologically safe. Once employees feel psychologically safe, they will be open to sharing new ideas, even if they might not work out. By encouraging and rewarding innovation, individuals will feel more comfortable brainstorming and taking risks.

Encourage employees to set goals and reflection: Organisations should encourage employees to make self-development goals, so they can monitor their progress. Checking back in with employees regarding these goals, will encourage self-improvement and convey to them that your organisation cares about their professional development.

Recognise and reward improvement: Rather than just rewarding employees when they achieve something, employers should also reward and acknowledge when they see their employees are making efforts and progress. This will allow employees to feel more appreciated and will encourage them to continue upskilling.

The Article

Let's be honest about what happens in most inclusion strategy meetings. Someone presents a slide about engagement scores. Someone else mentions that the values poster needs updating. A third person says, with commendable optimism, that they're 'making progress.' Then the CFO asks: 'What's this actually costing us, and what are we getting back?' Silence.

This is where Return on Inclusion® comes in. And it's why your finance director is going to love it almost as much as your Head of DEI.

So, What Is Return on Inclusion®?

Return on Inclusion® (RoI®) is the world's first methodology that measures the commercial and cultural impact of inclusion investment with genuine financial precision. It was created by Dawn Hurst, Co-Founder of EA Group, over 20 years of research and practice — and it won the PwC Innovation Award. It's not a survey. It's not a maturity framework. It's an audit that speaks the language of business.

The methodology assesses 150 data points across 20 organisational domains — covering everything from pay equity and leadership representation to staff retention, procurement diversity, and innovation metrics. The result is a monetised ROI figure: how much value your inclusion investment is generating, and how much it could generate if you got serious about it.

"The Global Mentoring Programme was by far one of the best growth journeys I've taken in my entire career."

— Gianfranco Bianco, Global Web Business Analyst, Sandvik Coromant

The Numbers That Make CFOs Pay Attention

Across clients including SSE, thyssenkrupp, Royal BAM Group, HSBC, and MUFG, the Return on Inclusion® methodology has delivered:

  • An average 19x return on every pound invested in inclusion
  • Current trajectory clients averaging £8-10 return per £1 spent
  • Clients on a focused strategy reaching £19+ per £1
  • Validated results across 35 countries and 4,000+ organisations

SSE discovered they had already returned £4.52 for every £1 invested — and that with a more strategic approach, they could reach £15 per £1. That's not sentiment. That's the language boards speak.

 

 

"The work points out explicitly that SSE has returned £4.52 for every £1 invested in inclusion initiatives. But we also learnt that by implementing a more strategic approach, we can aspire to returning £15 for every £1 invested. This is very compelling evidence for a value-focused organisation."

— John Stewart, Director of Human Resources, SSE plc

How Is Return on Inclusion® Different From Standard DEI Metrics?

Standard DEI metrics tell you what your workforce looks like. Return on Inclusion® tells you what it's worth. The difference matters because:

  • Headcount diversity metrics don't reveal whether your inclusion investment is generating commercial value
  • Engagement scores don't tell you whether inclusion is reducing attrition or increasing innovation
  • Maturity frameworks don't give you a monetised ROI to defend at board level

Return on Inclusion® does all three. It connects inclusion data to business performance, so you're not arguing from principle — you're arguing from evidence.

The Metimur Platform: Self-Service Return on Inclusion®

Historically, a Return on Inclusion® audit required EA Group's consultants and budgets starting at £50,000. Metimur changes that. The platform puts the same PwC award-winning methodology in your hands as a self-service audit tool. You run it yourself. You get the same rigorous 150-point assessment. You receive a board-ready report with your monetised ROI across three scenarios — starting from £5,000 per year.

"Return on Inclusion® gave us the clarity we needed to make meaningful change across all four of our divisional businesses and increase staff retention and colleague engagement."

— Shelley Caton, Director of Inclusion and Diversity, BAM UK & Ireland

Who Needs to Read This

  • CHROs and HR Directors who need board-level justification for inclusion spend
  • CFOs and Finance Directors being asked to sign off DEI budgets
  • Heads of DEI who are tired of being asked to prove their value in engagement score terms
  • CEOs navigating ESG reporting requirements that increasingly demand inclusion data

If any of those sound like you, you're in the right place. And if you want to see the numbers for your organisation specifically, the Metimur platform can produce them in days — not months.

Related Reading

  • How to Measure DEI ROI: A Step-by-Step Guide for HR Leaders [Article 02]
  • DEI Data for the Board: What Directors Actually Want to See [Article 04]
  • DEI ROI Statistics 2026: The Data Every Inclusion Leader Needs [Article 06]