What We Can Learn From the Denver Broncos
By Thomas Cross, thomas.cross@broomfieldumc.org
Like many of you, I am getting great enjoyment out of the current Denver Broncos’ season. This team is a lot of fun to watch on both offense and defense – and the players are easy to like. It appears to me that the team is getting better by the week.
Indeed there is a reason or two this Broncos team is showing such improvement. If ever a football team were a poster child for “growth mindset,” this team is it. The growth mindset is the conviction that one can continuously develop his or her skills through learning, preparation, and practice. The growth mindset is contrasted with the “fixed mindset,” which is the conviction that your basic skills are fixed and not susceptible to great improvement.
What is your potential for improvement? The way you answer that question will help you to determine your basic mindset, be it growth or fixed. Those with a growth mindset believe they can get better, and they are determined to put in the work to accomplish that goal. I realized the Broncos players had bought into the growth mindset after a recent victory. To a player, everyone in the locker room talked about the importance of getting better in preparation for the next game. All of the players expect to grow!
How do you respond to constructive criticism? Those with a growth mindset see evaluation and criticism as opportunities for continued learning and development. Those with a fixed mindset see any criticism as undermining their basic identities. I’ve noticed that the Broncos players never present themselves as perfect, but they acknowledge their mistakes and devote themselves to correcting them in practice. This team believes that excellent practice makes for excellent performance.
At the same time, the Broncos emphasize improving their strengths rather than overcoming their weaknesses. This is known as a strengths-based focus. Concepts and plays are developed around the primary strengths of the players on the bus. Thus last year’s offense exploited the read option, while this year’s offense incorporates many concepts that Manning used in Indianapolis. Why not play to the strengths of your personnel? You can do so in any workplace (or home, for that matter).
The growth mindset is foundational to New Testament theology, yet it is often missed. The apostles expected to grow spiritually and to develop greater expertise in ministry, and so they did. Perhaps the clearest expression of the growth mindset is found in 2 Peter 1:5-11, in which the apostle exhorts the readers to keep adding new virtues to their quiver. The whole book of Hebrews assumes a growth mindset, expressing impatience at the slow growth curve of the readers, and spurring them on to diligence in faith. Why do we gather together? To “consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24).
Paul takes the growth mindset to full expression, exhorting his readers to this goal: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children…” (Ephesians 5:1). If we can become like God, that is significant growth indeed! Paul also encourages his readers to focus upon their strengths, encouraging the believers to develop and use their spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12). As followers of Christ, we don’t have to be good at everything, but we are called by God to grow in the areas in which we are gifted. In other words, discover your spiritual gifts and other strengths, and then develop them. The team known as the church will be at its best when each of us contributes our strongest gifts and skills to God’s work in concert with our brothers and sisters.
Like the Broncos, we can grow in God’s work through study, preparation, practice, and service.
Originally posted on the BUMC Blog Jan. 11, 2013.
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