Grow Their Minds, Expand Our Horizons

The Power of Reinforcing What Matters

Empathy, collaboration, autonomy, mastery, and purpose — these aren’t buzzwords for me. They’re the core of how I’ve been leading teams. So attending the Grow Their Minds, Expand Our Horizons session gave me a chance to reconnect with those values through structured tools and shared language.

Having led teams at Omio for a couple of years now, I’ve come to appreciate how much of leadership is about reinforcement — not just learning new frameworks, but revisiting essential mindsets that deserve continual attention. The session was exactly that: a thoughtful pause to re-engage with the principles of growth mindset, not as theory, but as daily practice.

Nothing in this session felt abstract or disconnected. Instead, it gave structure and vocabulary to ideas many of us have been exploring on our own — like how to create space for learning from failure, how to help team members reframe feedback, and how to consistently model the behaviors we hope to see. It didn’t feel like a “training.” It felt like a shared commitment.

We began by revisiting the difference between fixed and growth mindsets, but with the nuance of how these mindsets show up in teams — especially in high-performance, high-change environments. I appreciated how the facilitators grounded the discussion in our real context: tight deadlines, distributed teams, and diverse experience levels.

It was reassuring to see that many of the growth-mindset techniques I’ve adopted over time — from framing retrospectives as learning rituals to celebrating progress over perfection — were mirrored in the training. That kind of alignment boosts confidence and sharpens consistency.

# Start logging weekly growth-mindset practices
echo "Celebrated effort in team retro, June 19" >> mindset_log.txt

Practicing Growth, Not Just Preaching It

A standout technique from the session was the GROW model — Goal, Reality, Options, and Way forward. While I’ve always tried to be supportive in 1:1s, this model adds a level of structure that helps team members own their path. It transforms conversations from advice-giving into coaching.

The second part of the session focused on five concrete behaviors leaders can use to foster a growth mindset. While I’d seen versions of this list before, the discussions brought out layers I hadn’t fully explored. Each item became a conversation — and that dialogue mattered more than the list itself.

Here’s how I internalized the five behaviors based on my current practice:

# Track leader behavior score self-assessment
behaviors = {
    "learning": 4,
    "effort_focus": 3,
    "psych_safety": 4,
    "feedback": 3,
    "role_model": 4
}
average_score = sum(behaviors.values()) / len(behaviors)
print(f"Growth practice maturity: {average_score}/5")

Reframing What Success Looks Like

Another core theme was self-efficacy — the belief people have in their own ability to succeed. It reminded me that leaders don’t just clear the path; we build confidence. We help others try, fail safely, and try again. That’s how courageous cultures form — not through pressure, but through possibility.

One of the most helpful parts of the session was a visual model that reframed “success” around growth and experimentation rather than results alone. This resonates deeply — especially in leadership, where wins are rarely instant or obvious.

We explored how to recognize growth behaviors in others, not just high performance. That means rewarding people who ask questions, who own their learning, who challenge their limits. This shift helps build a culture that’s resilient, not just productive.

Here’s a reflection table I drafted to bring this back to my team:

# Weekly reminder to share one learning moment
echo "Add growth moment to Friday wrap-up" >> team_rhythm.txt