What is it that causes some people to embrace challenge and others to shy away? Why do certain folks feel they´ve succeeded if they´ve learned something and for others, anything less than the top score feels like failure? The answers to these questions and more can be found in the summary of my Thought Leaders Live interview with Carol Dweck, Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. (See written summary)

Carol has been studying this phenomenon for many years and has come to determine that what is at the root of those and other differences between people is one´s mindset. Are you of a growth mindset, or a fixed mindset? Well, read the interview summary and find out. It may change how you think about your work, your relationships and the ways you offer praise to your children and colleagues alike.

In our interview, Carol showed study results of how quickly and easily a person´s mindset can be changed from fixed to growth. The good news story is that it only takes a short time and material that is readily available. I left the interview thinking about how critical mindset is to learning and how organizations would be sell served to heed her advice and tackle the mindset question first, before spending gobs of money on learning and development initiatives.

If you read the interview and would like to know more, Carol´s new book is called Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. I highly recommend it!