Growing up in the 80’s my Dad would often say that the key to success came in two parts. First was talent or skill. In order to do well at something you had to tune in to what you were good at. The second part was what he called drive. The motivation to keep going in the face of adversity, push through when something was hard and motivate yourself to do the very best that you could. I’m sure this wisdom enabled me to keep going and eventually pass my driving test third time around!

In today’s world, the two things that Dad described would be the very definition of mindset. The beliefs, attitudes and perspectives that we have…..our lens on the world and how we view our place in it. Much has been written about mindset in the past couple of decades, popularised by Carol Dweck’s research which describes mindset as falling into two categories, growth and fixed.

Growth mindset is a person’s belief that their skills, knowledge and intelligence can be expanded and developed. In contrast, the fixed mindset is the opposite, that these things are pre-determined, set and cannot be shifted. Dweck believes that changing our beliefs can have a big impact. That growth mindset creates a powerful passion for learning and brain expansion. In her book ‘Mindset: The new psychology of success’ she writes ‘why waste time proving over and over how great (or not great) you are when you could be getting better’. In other words, why hide from our worst characteristics, habits or failing when we could overcome them.

Dweck importantly says that no one is wholly a ‘growth mindset’ or fixed mindset’ person. We all will be in both places at various times and places in our lives. But how much time we spend in one place over another is a choice. Something we have control over and an ability to decide how we look at life or work circumstances.

As women business owners, confidence, or our belief in ourselves is often a mindset that keeps us from backing ourselves and our true potential. Our businesses might be doing ok, but is our mindset stopping us from thinking big, growing our capability or expanding beyond the current reality.

A resource I’ve found useful to shift my own mindset is the ‘Confidence Code’ by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. In it they share some brilliant lessons:

• Stop overthinking – instead trust your gut instinct. If you wait for perfect, it will never happen. Instead give your idea a try. It could be the best thing you ever did!
• Take more risks – confidence builds when you step outside your comfort zone. Taking a risk is backing yourself to learn and grow. If it doesn’t go right first time, it will be better the next. Ask yourself ‘What did I learn here’
• Action breeds confidence – the practice of consistent small actions is far more likely to create success in the long term than a single, life-changing moment. Like saying yes to that client that scares you because the work is out of your comfort zone, or adding to your business with a product that you haven’t yet mastered the details of. The small wins add up.
• Celebrate effort, not just results – focus on celebrating yourself for what you did or tried, not being the harsh judge of the small things that didn’t work.

Kathryn is a Leadership Coach and facilitator with a specialism of working with women business owners and leaders. You can find out more via her website