Decades of research confirms that the behavior of leaders influences change outcomes. Correspondingly, leader development has aimed to identify and develop the individual traits and attributes that are precursors to desired behaviors. However, where this approach has traditionally targeted static precursors and, thus, relatively stable sets of behaviors, there is growing evidence that successful change requires leaders to switch behaviors during change. We introduce mindset activation as a leader development approach to aid this switch. We elaborate on two common change processes – top-down and bottom-up – and establish a connection between the desired leader behaviors of these processes and the fixed and growth mindsets, respectively. In doing so, we propose a means of operationalizing the activation of fixed and growth mindsets for leader development during change. This new approach overcomes some of the limitations of the traditional focus on static precursors of behaviors, by providing a more precise account that encompasses the malleable and dynamic nature of personality system processes to enable effective change leadership.

Chapter 4 examines the modality of norm formation, the processes of establishing a common frame of reference for future collective behaviour. It revisits classical studies in social psychology that have demonstrated how social conditions guide perceptual judgment and decision making. Sherif’s autokinetic experiments and Lewin’s group experiments are reviewed in light of an appraisal of necessary conditions for group processes that foster the emergence of social norms for the coordination of individual conduct. The chapter expands these notions to concepts of intersubjectivity and inter-objectivity. The former requires an interpenetration of views by which individuals are able to consider claims and propositions from the vantage point of another’s perspective. This ability enables the establishment of norms that are objective entities, frame social interactions and make social organisation possible. This process is also illustrated by the stabilisation of a scientific-technical facts of 'objectification'. Symmetrically, the framing of social interaction happens via inter-objectivity, the shared usage of designed hardware and infrastructure of society.

In this chapter, we argue that to understand intelligence one must understand motivation. In the past, intelligence was often cast as an entity unto itself, relatively unaffected by motivation. In our chapter, we spell out how motivational factors determine (1) whether individuals initiate goals relating to the acquisition and display of intellectual skills, (2) how persistently they pursue those goals, and (3) how effectively they pursue those goals, that is, how effectively they learn and perform in the intellectual arena. As will be seen, motivational factors can have systematic and meaningful effects on intellectual ability, performance, and accomplishment over time. Our discussion emphasizes that heritability is not incompatible with the malleability of intelligence and that motivation is the vehicle through which intellectual skills are successfully acquired, expressed, and built upon.