Activating Agile Learners

According to Gallup's Research, approximately 76% of employees experience burnout at least sometimes. In fact, that same research found that 23% of employees felt burnout very often or always. And it’s easy to understand why, the modern workplace is fast, demanding and requires employees to be constantly adapting to keep up. Managers play a critical role in helping employees handle the pressures that come with today’s workplace. They must make sure that team members have role clarity, feel supported, and are encouraged to develop and grow.

Managers can help avoid burnout and high turnover rates by creating a culture of agile learning. With this mindset, instead of shying away and becoming overwhelmed with change, employees take on a more malleable and curious approach to their own development. The days of having time to become an expert are gone. The workforce must constantly add new skills to keep up with changing faces of technology, job descriptions and the new business landscape.

DEVELOP AGILE LEARNERS

One way to build an agile learning culture is to help employees embrace a growth mindset. As a manager, here are three ideas you can implement to move your team members towards an elevated growth mindset:

1. Feedback: Deliver feedback around the effort and the process, not the person or the outcome. Help the employee reflect on the progress they have made. Ask them how they got there? What did they learn along the way? How does this make them feel?

2. Assign Mentors: Having a mentor is great to build motivation and encourage a growth mindset. Mentors remind employees that achieving greatness takes time and it’s important to value the effort that is required to accomplish your goals. 

3. Introduce the Mindset Continuum tool: Mindset is more than just a “fixed” or “growth” state, we are on a continuum that ebbs and flows with experiences. This tool helps people understand where they fall on the mindset continuum and allows people to rank themselves on where they are in their  journey. It can be used as a tool for reflection for where you have been, where you are going and what is possible. No matter where someone is on the scale, your job as a manager is to help move them towards a more agile growth mindset so that they can  move towards their greatest potential, which is unlimited when a high grow mindset is at play. 

 Click here to Download the Mindset Continuum Tool.

 Here’s how to use the tool:

1)    Print out the tool and read the descriptions for each of the mindset areas and the different descriptors on the continuum of fixed to high growth mindset.

2)    Score each area using the scale of 1 (fixed) to 5 (high growth)

3)    Sum the score (8-40pts). Eight points would indicate a more fixed mindset while forty would indicate someone is in a high growth mindset.

A growth mindset gives people the permission to challenge themselves and creates an upward spiral of confidence that encourages people to never stop learning and growing. Creating agile learners with a high growth mindset is one sure way to help fight burnout and turnover within your team and your company, what are some other tools you have found helpful with your team?

Contact lee@learningkarma.com to learn more about our work and how we can help you and your team maximize their well-being.