Think about the difference between the sentences “I can’t do it” and “I can’t do it yet.” The first version of this statement closes the door, while the second considers the possibility of improvement while still acknowledging any challenges. The distinction between the two is what differentiates a growth mindset from a fixed one. A growth mindset refers to the belief that you can improve your skills over time with effort and support.
A resilient, forward-looking frame of mind can be especially valuable for nonprofit teams. Limited budgets and shifting priorities are often part of the job, and staff members who see challenges as opportunities to evolve will likely be more successful than those who feel defeated by them. In this guide, we’ll explore key strategies to help you foster a growth mindset across your organization.
Audit your hiring process
A great place to start cultivating a growth-oriented culture for your organization is in your recruitment efforts. Throughout the hiring process, take note of candidates who possess impressive knowledge and skills but who are also comfortable saying, “I don’t know that yet, but here’s how I’d try to figure it out.” Flexibility indicates that someone is interested in growing with your organization and will likely be receptive to training, feedback, and professional development initiatives from day one.
Scenario-based interview questions can reveal how a person handles difficulty and whether they treat challenges as opportunities to learn or immovable roadblocks. For example, ask candidates to walk you through a time that they faced an unfamiliar problem at work, and listen closely to their responses. The applicants who can explain the steps they took to resolve the issue and what they learned from the experience are most likely to adopt a growth mindset toward your organization’s work.
To begin recruiting growth-focused talent, audit your existing hiring practices and identify opportunities to assess how your candidates handle workplace challenges. Set goals, document your next hiring cycle, and check in later to assess your recruitment efforts by evaluating the quality and retention rate of your new hires.
Center your training around growth
Your training program sets the tone for working at your nonprofit, so focus on growth and progress from day one. Working adaptability and open-mindedness into your onboarding helps establish a growth-oriented culture before old habits or challenges pull your new hires toward a fixed mindset.
Ways to make a growth mindset an integral part of your onboarding include:
- Communicating your organizational culture immediately. Use orientation to show new hires that your nonprofit is a safe place to experiment and learn, rather than an organization that only values their achievements. For instance, you might have a program manager share a story about their experience working on a project that didn’t go as planned, what the team learned from the experience, and how they’ve carried those lessons into the rest of their work.
- Highlighting pathways for progression. Outline how employees can develop their skills over time to demonstrate your nonprofit’s long-term investment in their career trajectories. A simple visual, such as a career map showing the path from a coordinator position to a manager role, can inspire growth and give new hires something to work toward over time.
- Providing necessary learning resources. Ensure that team members have comprehensive learning materials to develop new competencies. This might include a shared library of guides and training modules within a nonprofit LMS that employees can revisit when questions arise in their work.
By showing new hires that you support their development early on, you can encourage them to ask questions instead of guessing, try new things rather than playing it safe, and stay motivated to eventually grow into other roles within your nonprofit.
Prioritize continuous learning and professional development
Growth shouldn’t end with onboarding. To foster a growth mindset across your team and prevent professional development from falling by the wayside after training wraps up, encourage continuous learning among all team members, regardless of tenure.
Consider the following ideas to encourage long-term growth within your organization:
- Launch a structured mentorship program. Pair experienced staff with newer team members to facilitate collaborative problem-solving and encourage knowledge sharing across your team. Even a simple monthly check-in between a mentor and a mentee can give newer staff members a safe space to ask questions they might not bring up otherwise.
- Encourage cross-departmental collaboration: Allow staff to step outside their typical scopes, so they can diversify their skills and understand your organization’s work more broadly. For example, a member of the finance team who sits in on a couple of marketing meetings might walk away with a stronger sense of how to tell your organization’s story and better connect numbers to narrative in their own work.
- Empower staff to take ownership. Provide opportunities for team members to shadow meetings or even take the lead on projects and internal processes that speak to them.
Promoting continuous learning gives you the chance to help your entire team. New hires will be less likely to feel stranded after onboarding ends, while seasoned team members will have the support they need to continue developing their skills and keep up with your nonprofit’s changing needs.
Incorporate constructive feedback across your organization
How you frame your feedback affects how a team member receives it. Presenting your suggestions as opportunities for growth, rather than scolding, can motivate employees to keep trying and consider new ways to approach their work instead of giving up because they feel they’re falling short.
Rather than saving all of your criticism for an annual performance review, normalize constructive feedback for your team members during low-stakes check-ins. Niche Academy’s guide to resilience and adaptability for nonprofit leaders highlights that holding regular, meaningful conversations with employees is one of the easiest ways for managers to demonstrate transparency.
Receiving regular insights about their performance allows employees to adjust more quickly and feel proud of the small improvements they make in their day-to-day work. It can even encourage a more open attitude across your team, since staff members might feel more comfortable offering respectful feedback on one another’s ideas, too.
Appreciate effort, not just achievements
Your team members deserve recognition for their hard work, even when their efforts don’t lead to a concrete outcome. Celebrating achievements is still important, but appreciating the progress your employees make along the way shows that you value their contributions on any given day, not just when a project is finished.
For example, a manager might give a team member a quick shoutout in a team meeting or send them a quick email. If you use a platform like Slack or Teams, you can even set up a channel where colleagues can publicly thank one another for stepping up.
This kind of ongoing appreciation helps you create a safe environment where team members feel secure taking calculated risks and asking for help as they work toward your nonprofit’s mission. Frequent recognition also boosts morale and improves retention over the long term.
From recruitment to recognition, it’s up to your organization to emphasize a culture that supports learning and improvement over time, keeping employees engaged and adaptable in their work toward your mission. As you work to foster a growth mindset across your nonprofit, begin by evaluating your current recruitment, training, and performance review processes to identify areas for improvement.