Do you“fake it ’til you make it?” 

Do you have a “growth mindset?”

Reaching your aspirations requires taking action beyond your comfort zone.

“Fake it ’til you make it” says to pretend you know what you’re doing, and eventually you will. This cynical statement implies you don’t know what you’re doing, even as you actually accomplish things. It sidesteps the obvious – you do know at least some of what you’re doing, and now you’re learning the rest of it on the job. Thinking that you’re faking may keep you from asking for help in accomplishing (or being) what you aspire to. But stepping into a space beyond your comfort zone is a step toward growing into the job.

In “Do you have a growth mindset?” we encounter the sociologically proven axiom that if you believe ability is fixed, you’re less able to improve your skills than those who believe abilities can be learned and improved upon. Those with a growth mindset are often eager to take actions beyond their immediate abilities. They believe that even if they don’t succeed, they will learn from the experience.

It is action that leads to growth.

The act of learning and the act of doing make us step outside what we already know, and we grow from the experience.

Which leads me to this blog post by Seth Godin.  The four elements of entrepreneurship. Subtitled, “Are successful entrepreneurs made or born?” Godin demonstrates that entrepreneurship is a set of actions. Thinking of BEING an entrepreneur leads to the ‘either/or’ question: Am I or am I not an entrepreneur. But if entrepreneurship is a skill set, it can be learned.

What does this mean for your nonprofit?

Your organization can learn to grow, just as individuals can.

1.      Recruit board members with a growth mindset. The forces of society are changing rapidly, and your organization will need to be nimble to stay abreast. Board members who believe that they and others can grow and learn will be better able to adapt to rapidly changing situations.

2.      Recruit CEOs with entrepreneurial skills. They don’t have to have been an entrepreneur, but can they manifest the skills of being nimble, trying new things, learning from others, being decisive, be persuasive? These are entrepreneurial skills, necessary to coping with rapidly changing situations.

3.      Be willing to experiment with new directions and new programs.  Staying in the safety of what worked before isn’t enough. If you’re not sure of what you’re doing, it doesn’t mean you don’t know anything. You know a lot more than you think you do. A failed program is one from which you can learn. A new direction that needs a course correction is proof that you can learn and adapt.

Organizations are collections of people. And if people can learn with a growth mindset, so can your organization. Onward!

Sign up here for other hints about building a great board, or balancing growth and caution. Or if you want a no-obligation conversation about board relations, let me know.