If you’re a leader today, you already know the landscape has shifted. The pace of change, the pressure to deliver, the complexity of it all—it’s relentless. And while skills matter, what really sets exceptional leaders apart is something deeper: the way they think.
Over six years of research with hundreds of leaders, we’ve identified four foundational mindsets that consistently distinguish exceptional leaders: growth, inclusive, agile, and enterprise.
- A growth mindset turns setbacks into learning opportunities.
- An inclusive mindset leverages diverse perspectives for better solutions.
- An agile mindset enables quick adaptation.
- An enterprise mindset keeps the bigger picture in focus.
Our latest report, Great Leaders Think Differently: The Four Mindsets Shaping the Future of Work, explores what each looks like in practice and the obstacles leaders face. But here’s what matters most: understanding these mindsets is only half the battle. The real question is: How do I actually practice them day to day?
The Power of Behavior Change
Measuring the adoption of mindsets is challenging, but leaders who practice these mindsets exhibit specific behaviors that indicate the presence of these mindsets or mindset shifts. And behavior adoption is critical because thoughts, feelings, and behaviors all influence one another.
Automatic thoughts affect feelings, feelings influence behavior, and behaviors reinforce thoughts. The best way to adopt these mindsets is to start practicing the behaviors associated with them.
Here’s your practical guide to putting each mindset into action—both personally and within your teams.
A Guide to Practicing Leadership Mindsets
Growth Mindset
Leaders have the power to cultivate a growth mindset by creating psychologically safe environments that value curiosity, experimentation, and learning. The mantra “fail and learn” should be a core principle that promotes vulnerability, humility, and ongoing development.
To Practice Personally
- Be aware of the things that trigger your fixed mindset
- Catch yourself and reframe
- Adopt a different perspective
- Focus on being curious more than right
To Cultivate in Others
- Praise the process, and trust the outcome will follow
- Foster psychological safety and trust to make it ok to try and fail
- See feedback as a mechanism to direct growth
Inclusive Mindset
Leaders often face obstacles to inclusion, especially when the focus shifts from people to results, which can make team members feel unseen and unheard. To foster true inclusion, leaders need to develop skills like empathy, vulnerability, and active listening, and prioritize psychological safety.
To Practice Personally
- Don’t become an echo chamber of your own thoughts—involve others
- Consider there may be another way of viewing things, and that other way can come from the inclusive voices you reach out to
- Practice inclusivity even when it feels safer to rely on your “go-to” people
- Approach conversations with curiosity
- Demonstrate self-awareness and vulnerability
To Cultivate in Others
- Encourage healthy debate
- Make it safe to speak up
- Highlight differences in perspectives as valuable
- Emphasize relationships before tasks
Agile Mindset
Developing a truly agile mindset requires leaders to move beyond traditional comfort zones and embrace a new way of working. It means actively challenging old processes and being willing to adapt, even when change feels uncomfortable or uncertain.
To Practice Personally
- Be willing to pivot, to change
- Be willing to move forward even in the absence of complete information
- Don’t be afraid of reversing or changing a decision
- Embrace vulnerability and humility
- Avoid analysis paralysis
- Intentionally disrupt the status quo
To Cultivate in Others
- Encourage a culture of acceptance and conversation
- Hang back and let others make decisions
- Simplify processes
- Discuss micro and macro trends that may impact the work their team does
- Create space for dialogue about anticipated change
Enterprise Mindset
Silos and gaps between teams have long hindered organizations by blocking collaboration and causing missed opportunities. An enterprise mindset encourages everyone to look beyond their own role or team and make decisions that support the overall mission.
To Practice Personally
- Keep focused on the larger goals and objectives
- Anchor to what matters: the organization and its customers
- Find a sense of purpose
- Work across the organization and avoid “hunkering down”
- Freely share resources, ideas, etc.
- Be vocal about how your group supports organizational objectives
- Reach across the organization to build relationships and understand priorities
- Celebrate contributions that drive enterprise success, not just team wins
- Champion enterprise-wide thinking in conversations and decisions
To Cultivate in Others
- Share enterprise-level updates and explain their relevance
- Make the connection: regularly link individual goals to the bigger picture
- Facilitate opportunities to work across teams or departments
- Recognize contributions that benefit the broader organization
Start Small, Build Momentum
You don’t need to tackle all of these behaviors at once. Start by identifying which mindset would have the greatest impact on your leadership right now. Choose one or two behaviors to focus on this week. Practice them consistently. Notice what shifts.
Remember: mindsets aren’t just about what you think—they’re about what you do. And every behavior you practice reinforces the mindset you’re building.
Want to dive deeper into what’s holding leaders back from adopting these mindsets—and what success really looks like? Download the full report to discover the key indicators of success, common obstacles leaders face, and insights from our latest research with hundreds of leaders navigating today’s complex landscape.
About the Authors
