You were once so flexible and inquisitive. International affairs professionals all had to be at one point, or you wouldn’t have chosen this field. Most of us studied or lived overseas and readily adapted to a different culture and perspective. That means you had a growth mindset.
But now, you’re working in the international affairs knowledge industry (IAKI) and it’s hard to stay curious. You chose change before. Now it’s forced upon you.
How can you get back to a growth mindset and adapting to change? Below we’ll discuss the specific signs that you’re falling into a fixed mindset in international affairs. Watching out for these is the first step to knowing when to adopt intentional rebalancing practices.
How to think about your mindset
One way to describe your mindset is as a lens through which you perceive yourself, others, and the world. The lens is dynamic and based on your assumptions and expectations. Your assumptions and expectations change day to day, which is why this lens—your mindset—is dynamic and malleable. For example, the assumptions and expectations you have about yourself, your colleagues, and your organization can change hourly or slowly over time.
To further clarify how assumptions and expectations make up our mindset and how we can influence it, one high performance coach further broke down the particular assumptions and expectations. He explained the research on how our mindsets are determined by our judgments about the intention, intelligence, interaction, control, competence, and changeability of ourselves, others, and the world.
For example, do you assume your boss’s intent is positive or negative? Do you believe your colleague is intelligent enough for the task but lacks the competence, i.e. the ability to see it through? Do you expect that your organization won’t change and improve?
A growth mindset is the most relevant for an international affairs professional
There are many types of mindsets. And they’re all on a spectrum, in the sense that you can be moving closer to one end or the other. For example, two mindsets are common among international affairs professionals:
- Growth – Fixed
- Challenge – Threat
The first is most important for international affairs professionals at an individual level. The second is an important consideration when we’re supporting or researching national and corporate leaders. We’ll discuss the first in detail, and only summarize the second. If you’d like us to examine the challenge and threat mindsets in the future, send us a message.
The main difference between a growth and fixed mindset is your belief about effort. For example, your belief about if you have the ability to try to improve your intelligence or competence. Or your belief about exerting effort to change something.
Can you try to be better at seeing something through? Can you try to be better than you are? If your answer is no, things are just the way they are, then you’re leaning towards a fixed mindset. If your answer is yes, you can learn new skills and intentionally practice new habits, then you’re leaning towards a growth mindset. Neither mindset is inherently right or wrong—but a fixed mindset can make you feel ineffective and drained in IAKI.
The main difference between a challenge and threat mindset is your confidence to face fears. You can either evaluate a situation as a challenge that you can handle or a threat that might defeat you. Research continues to show that framing a situation—or a foreign country—like a challenge, rather than a threat, leads to far better performance and outcomes. This is useful to remember as you frame your research, craft a messaging strategy, or propose strategic investments.
Change is a constant for international affairs professionals—so why the struggle?
Typical disruptions U.S.-based and other international affairs professionals face include:
- Changes in our domestic political situation.
- Outbreaks of domestic or regional unrest or war.
- Emergence of cross-border pandemics or financial crises.
If change is constant in the international affairs knowledge industry (IAKI), why aren’t we prepared? IAThinker has argued that the reason we aren’t prepared is because no one has tried to define our specific industry (until now). Without clarity on our industry, no one can train you on how you achieve feeling valued and fulfilled in the face of constant change (until now).
When you face constant change with a fixed mindset, it feels like you don’t have control. In IAKI, that looks like you’re just running around, hair on fire, responding to alleged emergency taskers. When you have a fixed mindset, and your country or topic of research evolves, you feel like you don’t have the time to do the research required to stay expert. That makes you worry about your ability to add value and stay relevant in a way in which you’re proud. It makes you less likely to admit when you’re wrong.
Signs you’re sliding towards a fixed mindset
Even though you used to be naturally flexible and curious, IAKI challenges us all. Here’s a quick way to identify when you’re on the way to a fixed mindset. If you start to feel any negativity on the job, ask if your thoughts fit these eight categories.
Could you describe your thought as:
- “All or nothing”—things are black or white.
- “Over-generalization”—a specific negative result is generalized as an endless pattern.
- “Dwelling on the negative” or “Magnifying and minimizing”—a single negative detail is dwelled on, or exaggerated, which distorts all other aspects of your perspective.
- “Disqualifying the positive”—even if something positive is experienced, you disqualify it as having any relevance or importance.
- “Jumping to conclusions”—drawing negative conclusions despite lack of concrete evidence to support that conclusion.
- “Emotional reasoning”—basing a decision on how you feel in the moment.
- “Should statements”—statements in your self-talk or public messaging such as “should,” “ought,” and “must” are used to compel action not inspire leadership.
- “Labeling and mislabeling”—using a negative label to identify yourself, another, or an event, such as X country or colleague as having malign intent.
If yes, you could describe your negative feeling as coming from one of the above eight thoughts, then you’re on your way to a fixed mindset. These thoughts are clouding your judgements on your, others’, or the world’s intention, intelligence, interaction, control, competence, and changeability.
When we previously introduced these eight categories, we described that they are typical for international affairs professionals. These are all a version of “zero-sum” thinking where one person’s or one country’s gain is absolutely another person’s or another country’s loss.
Next steps
If you answered yes, write down the thought and its category. Recall that mindsets are on a spectrum: Growth – Fixed, and that to head back in the growth direction, you want to adopt the belief that things are better with effort.
For example, “My boss is only complimenting me right now because they want to be able to ask me to do something big for them in the future.” (disqualifying the positive and jumping to conclusions).
For example, “X country has malign intent and is only investing in Y developing country because X country wants to have leverage over Y in the future.” (labeling and mislabeling, etc.)
For both of these examples, identify where exerting effort would feel positive and potentially result in something good. In the first case, consider what similar projects you’d like to do and which you think your boss would similarly compliment. Ask your boss if you can do said project because you think they’d find it valuable and aligned with their plans.
In the second case, take some time to write down all the possible nefarious and virtuous reasons for the action. Break them down into short term and long term nefarious/virtuous aims. Note other countries that have taken similar actions. Write out the signs you’d expect to see for each and frame your research or messaging around how to know if a country earned a specific label. In other words, you’re drawing attention to their activity, with an eye towards what others have done in the past, which typically brings about better behavior.
Shutdown
To lean back towards a growth mindset in international affairs, remember that with extra effort, you can bring about positive change. Even when you feel like there’s nothing left to give or nothing that can be done. Tune into the negative feeling around your, others’, or the world’s intention, intelligence, interaction, control, competence, and changeability. Write it down and give it one of the eight labels. The labels help you see what remediation steps to take in either your research, messaging, or investment decisions.
We need to take care of our lens, in other words, our mindset. Adopting intentional practices for your mindset—in particular your growth mindset—is important in international affairs. You’re naturally flexible and curious. Your unique critical and creative thinking is why you were hired. Yes, it’s unfortunate that the large organizations in which most of us work don’t prepare us to thrive on the job. But with effort, we’re changing that. Sign up for our International Affairs Professional Development Course. As a founding member, you help shape how the next generation of international affairs professionals are trained, globally.
