I never really had to address this topic of “quiet quitting” until a question was asked at the end of one of my Uncovering Your Growth Mindset workshops. The gentleman John asked, “Will teaching the growth mindset be the solution to solving the current workforce talent unproductivity with the quiet quitting mindset?”.
My answer was, “Yes, but is the environment supporting the growth mindset culture?”.
I was curious and did more research. The definition we are familiar with of “quiet quitters” is that they are employees who do the bare minimum to get by and do not bother to go over and above their call of duty. As an ex-educator from the ministry, I would classify these individuals who are content with the D-grade because that’s cruise mode and this mode will also will not get them fired.
I found a good description of “quiet quitters” through Reggie’s monologue on an episode of The Financial Coconut podcast. He said that there are three instances or archetypes of “quiet quitters”.
The first are employees who had spent time working from home since the pandemic, and since then have realised that there were so many other things that were more important in life than work, so they adopted the quiet quitting mode of operations.
The second are employees who have been pushed by an unsupportive work environment through colleagues or managers to not want to put in more effort than required for their roles at work.
The third are employees who are in the workforce to be a quiet quitter from the start. Some might call these the “smart” ones or maybe the “survivor slackers”. I feel this is a choice they have made, and we are not in a position to pass judgement.
The growth mindset is about understanding that our talents, intelligence, and potential are not fixed, and that we can be better by learning and progressing through setbacks and failures. It is true that the environment must support the culture of the growth mindset, but the employee must first be fitting of their role and enjoying the work they do. If this basic requirement is not met, it will probably not be possible for them to experience an elevated state of wellbeing through the growth mindset.
This opens up the conversation into understanding purpose, as well as having managers who can ride on the growth mindset culture, to be able to coach their teams to achieve that elevated state of wellbeing and fulfilment. But that’s a topic for another article!
Here are some reasons why you should foster the growth mindset culture within your organization.
Employees:
Feel more motivated and achieve more
Report feeling more empowered and committed
Believe that hard work, good strategies, and input from others are key to building a cohesive team
Put more energy into learning
Appreciate being praised for the effort and not the final result
Face challenges and are more open to criticism
Are more open to ambiguity and can adapt and pivot more readily
This could be one of the solutions towards allowing employees to thrive and not settle into the “quiet quitting” mode, especially if they fall within the first and second archetypes mentioned above.
Curious about the growth mindset and how this could elevate wellbeing in your workplace? Drop us an email at hello@actxawellness.com and we can explore rolling out some workshop sessions for your teams.
About the Writer:
Alex Loh is a consultant and coach in the fitness, health and wellness space, business owner, podcast host, loving husband and doting father. His compass is guided by the desire to help people, where his focus is to help businesses and organisations harness fitness, health and wellness as the vehicle to build sustainable solutions. This led him to Co-found Actxa Wellness, where he leads as CEO.
Connect more with Alex Loh here ➡️ https://linktr.ee/alexlohsengyue