In her book, Mindsets: The New Psychology of Success, Professor Carol Dweck uses John McEnroe as an example of a person with a Fixed Mindset. I think he’s a great example for many reasons.
You can’t argue with the fact McEnroe was an extraordinary tennis player. He is ranked 6th in the list of most career match wins on the ATP World Tour – that’s more than Andre Agassi, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. He is often considered among the greatest players in the history of tennis.
Dweck’s use of McEnroe as an example of someone with a Fixed Mindset dispels the idea that only people with a Growth Mindset can grow. You don’t need a Growth Mindset to grow – it just helps.
The Growth Mindset is the understanding that growth is possible. To achieve that growth, you need to develop mature Habits of Mind and apply them through the process of Virtuous Practice – something I describe in The Agile Learner. McEnroe didn’t have a Growth Mindset, but he did develop many Habits of Mind and engage in virtuous practice, which lead him to become one of the world’s most successful tennis players.
The benefit of a Growth Mindset is it invites you to take these actions and guides your responses as you engage in the process. Think about what happened when McEnroe made a mistake – the tantrums and the dummy spits. Of course, it’s natural to feel disappointed when we make mistakes, particularly when they happen in high-stakes situations. But in McEnroe’s case, his frustration was directed outwards – at the umpire, the ball boy, the crowd – rather than inwards towards learning and improvement.
McEnroe’s focus was always on protecting his appearance of being a great tennis player. If he wasn’t having a great day, if he was losing a match, rather than accept responsibility, and be accountable for his performance and what he needed to do to improve, he would blame someone else.
McEnroe also didn’t like to practise. He saw practise as a sign of weakness, that there might be something wrong with his game – something he couldn’t admit. He was all about being better than other people.
Compare McEnroe to Roger Federer, who, in my opinion, is the quintessential Growth Mindset tennis player. Federer makes a point of practising harder than almost anyone else in the game – and he says so. For him, practise isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of commitment to his growth and becoming a better player. He has great Motivation Calibration in that he understands Virtuous Practice is the price he must pay to improve.
Federer understands psychologist Anders Ericsson when he says, “What motivates the very best to practise so hard? They understand that such practise is essential to improving performance. That’s it. Not because they love to practise. Because they love to improve.”