There is a mindset that we do not often talk about in business. We also rarely talk about it when we’re talking about ourselves. And yet, science tells us that when this factor is present, it can have a remarkable influence on whether we succeed or fail.
The mindset is ‘belief’. The fact is, if we believe we can do something, we have a far better chance of achieving our goal.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple Computers in 1997, with almost ten years in what was essentially exile, he must have believed in the potential of his leadership to change the face of computing. When Thomas Edison made a thousand unsuccessful attempts to invent the light bulb, belief that he would eventually succeed must have carried him through. Elon Musk, who has reshaped car travel through Tesla and the way space is explored through Space X, says “when something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour.”1)
This is all well and good for titans of industry and history, but what can belief do for you and I? Let me share a very practical study that shows how a subtle change in what we believe, can shift our personal measures of performance and what is possible.
Belief & Physical Performance
In 1979, Gary Ness of the University of New Mexico and Robert Patton of the North Texas State University tested the influence of “belief” in students. In this study they took 48 college males without a significant history in weight training and assigned them to three random groups.2)
Each group had only one task – lift a maximum weight on an incline bench-press once per week. For the first three weeks the researchers observed as the students assessed their baseline abilities. After this period, the researchers tested their theories about beliefs by modifying the conditions for each of the three study groups.
- In the first group, the researchers told the weight-lifters that they were lifting the same weight as the first three weeks, but they actually placed less weight on the bench press.
- In the second group, the actual weight being lifted was concealed from the weight-lifters.
- In the third group, the researchers falsely told the weight-lifters that they were lifting the same weight as in earlier weeks, but increased the weight. While deceptive, the intent was to provide the weight-lifters with an alternate belief around their weight-lifting capabilities.
What do you think the researchers discovered?
With all other factors held equal, the group that consistently outperformed the other two groups was the third group. This third group of students was able to lift heavier weights, in large part because they believed they had lifted this weight before.
Past Patterns Shape Belief
Now it would be tempting to say belief was the only factor at play. But there was another variable, which was the three weeks of prior weightlifting.
By the time the researchers intervened in this study, and changed the conditions of all three groups, the students had already been lifting consistently for three weeks. This created a pattern of behaviour that shaped the students beliefs about their capabilities and proved important in the study.
When the researchers added a heavier weight to the third group, and told the students it was the same weight they had lifted before, the students believed lifting this weight was actually consistent with their past efforts.
This created a dilemma for the students. If they didn’t lift the weight, they would believe they had failed at lifting a weight they had consistently lifted for the previous three weeks. If they lifted the weight, they would remain consistent with their prior efforts.
The researchers discovered that these environmental and external cues (what the students had achieved before and what they were told about the weight they were lifting), influenced their beliefs about what was possible, and ultimately affected their performance in the weight lifting task.
This focused study reminds us that our belief in whether we can do something is often influenced by whether we’ve done the activity (or something similar) before. We can see this in many walks of life.
When people are training for a first marathon, they do well when gradually increasing their running distance, not just to increase their physical training, but to build their confidence that they can run the distance. When graduates enter the workforce, sound training programs give them continuous increases in responsibility, so that can build capability upon previous experience. And when we establish a new project, we pool people together who have completed prior projects similar in nature to what the new project sets out to achieve.
Belief plays an even more important role as we approach more advanced levels of performance. This is where increased training has a reduced effect, competition becomes tougher, and we begin to edge closer to the limits of what is possible. This is why self-belief becomes a more important factor for competitive and professional athletes, compared with many factors already in their training regime.
We cannot also forget the role of the leader and coach on this dynamic. The greatest purpose of a leader is to provide a context for their people that is both similar to what they have done before, different enough that they are challenged to grow, and the encouragement to galvanise their belief to do what they previously thought not possible. This is true in business, just as it is true in sporting or personal endeavours.
A Final Word
Although Ness and Patton’s study is now forty years old, many of its findings still hold true. Countless other studies have been influenced by this research, in subjects as far ranging from how panic attacks can be controlled through mindset through to how beliefs about whether intelligence is fixed or flexible, affects our ability to adapt and grow.
While our prior experiences can create a foundation of previous behaviour, we cannot underestimate the role that belief plays in whether we achieve a new task. In this way, both experience and belief reinforce one another.
This is true for the weight-lifters who pushed up each rep on the bench-press. Likely it was true also for Steve Jobs when we he returned to Apple 1997 and took what he knew about the company from earlier years to then setup a range of sweeping changes that would put Apple on a new trajectory. Perhaps it is also true for the latest endeavour you or I are about to take on.
Best of luck for your next challenge.
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