Growth Mindset Training Course: Feedback, Stretch Goals and Team Resilience

Programme Summary

Growth mindset is the subject of this one-week training course for directors, vice presidents and heads of function, ending in a team learning plan for one function. Many senior leaders praise talent and penalise error without noticing how this shapes what their teams attempt. The programme moves from the beliefs behind performance, through diagnosis of feedback and team safety, to the design of goals, learning routines and recovery from setbacks, then applies each to one team. Mars Training Centre UK delivers this growth mindset programme for leaders from mixed organisations.

The Business Case

When teams fear being wrong, problems surface late, ideas stay unspoken and the same errors return. Leaders who treat ability as something that develops, and who set up the conditions for learning, find issues earlier and adapt faster when conditions shift. Growth mindset leadership gives senior managers a disciplined way to shape those conditions rather than relying on individual temperament.

• Error Reporting Speed: Improves as teams raise problems early without fear of blame.
• Employee Retention: Strengthens as people see how their skills and roles can develop.
• Innovation Throughput: Rises as teams test ideas through small, reviewed experiments.

Principles and Evidence Base

• Dweck's mindset research: It frames how beliefs about ability shape effort and response to failure in Sessions 1 and 2.
• Edmondson's psychological safety research: It guides the diagnosis of team climate and the leader behaviours that change it in Sessions 2 and 3.
• Locke and Latham goal-setting theory: It underpins the design of specific, demanding goals in Session 3.
• Kolb's experiential learning cycle: It structures the team learning routines built in Session 4.

Intended Participants

• Directors who answer for the performance and development of several teams.
• Vice presidents who set expectations for managers and the culture beneath them.
• Heads of function who need their teams to adapt to new demands.
• Senior leaders who coach managers and review how their teams respond to mistakes.

Typical functions include operations, finance, engineering and customer service.

Learning Outcomes

1. Participants will be able to distinguish fixed and growth beliefs in leadership language and decisions.
2. Participants will be able to diagnose a team's feedback habits and level of psychological safety.
3. Participants will be able to construct stretch goals that are specific, demanding and linked to learning.
4. Participants will be able to design team learning routines based on review of real work.
5. Participants will be able to evaluate responses to setbacks and build recovery practices for teams.
6. Participants will be able to justify a team learning plan to executive colleagues.

Programme Structure

Day 1: Growth Mindset Beliefs and Leadership Behaviour

How do a leader's beliefs about ability shape what a team attempts?

• Fixed and Growth Belief Map
• Praise and Criticism Language Audit
• Triggers of Defensive Thinking Chart
• Mindset Reflection Log
• Leader Behaviour Baseline Review

Day 2: Diagnosing Feedback and Team Climate

How willing are people to speak up, admit error and ask for help?

• Psychological Safety Pulse Survey
• Feedback Flow Mapping
• Meeting Voice Observation Sheet
• Blame and Learning Response Matrix
• Silence Signals Checklist

Day 3: Designing Feedback Culture and Stretch Goals

How are feedback and demanding goals set so that people grow rather than defend?

• Feedback Conversation Guide
• Process Praise Framework
• Goal Specificity Test
• Stretch and Capability Balance Grid
• Learning Goal and Performance Goal Pairs

Day 4: Designing Learning Routines and Recovery from Setbacks

What routines keep a team learning from its own work?

• Experience-to-Insight Review Cycle
• After-Action Review Format
• Small Experiment Canvas
• Setback Reframing Protocol
• Team Recovery Plan Template

Day 5: Applying Mindset, Feedback and Learning Routines to One Team

Does the learning plan hold when tested on a real team?

• Applying the Session 2 Pulse Survey to the Team
• Rebuilding Team Goals with the Session 3 Stretch Grid
• Rehearsing the Session 4 Review Cycle
• Presenting the Draft Plan to a Peer Panel
• Completing the Team Learning Plan

Methodology

The programme uses a case analysis method built on anonymised team scenarios, feedback transcripts, review agendas and short written cases from healthcare, manufacturing and financial services. Participants work in small groups on one team, test choices with peers who act as sceptical colleagues, and receive facilitator feedback on every work product.

• Suggested activity: Rewriting a blame-focused review into a learning-focused one.
• Suggested activity: Practising a feedback conversation with a peer observer.
• Suggested activity: Reframing a failed project into three lessons and two experiments.

Capstone Output

Each participant completes a team learning plan for one function. It holds a mindset and language baseline, a team climate diagnosis, a feedback approach, a set of stretch goals, a calendar of learning routines and a recovery protocol for setbacks. The plan is used at work to brief executive colleagues, brief managers and guide how the team reviews its results.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is growth mindset leadership suitable for leaders who have not coached teams before?

Yes. Growth mindset leadership is taught from first principles and assumes responsibility for managers or teams, not earlier coaching experience.

Which research does growth mindset leadership rest on in this programme?

Growth mindset leadership here rests on Dweck's mindset research, Edmondson's psychological safety research, Locke and Latham goal-setting theory and Kolb's experiential learning cycle.

How is the growth mindset team learning plan used at work?

You use the plan to brief executive colleagues, set expectations with managers and guide how your team reviews results and handles setbacks.

How does a growth mindset programme differ from a programme on resilience alone?

A growth mindset programme centres on how beliefs, feedback and goals drive learning, while a resilience programme centres on coping with pressure and recovery.