Do you have a fixed or growth mindset? (Trick question: you have both.)

We tend to think of mindset as a binary: either you have a growth mindset (the belief that your ability can be developed through effort, learning, and persistence) or you have a fixed mindset (the belief that your ability is innate and unchangeable).

But psychologist Mary C. Murphy says that’s not true. We all have a fixed mindset and a growth mindset within us (they actually exist along a continuum) and you can access both at different times and in different environments. And, most importantly, you can change your mindset by changing the environment you’re in.

“What we know now, after 15 years of research, is that how we move along the continuum is based on the people and situations around us,” Mary says. The bestselling author of Cultures of Growth and a professor at Indiana University, she says that understanding the true nature of mindset can help us build a culture of growth mindset for ourselves, our children, and the people we lead.

Want to foster a growth mindset? Ditch the compliment sandwich.

Many managers, teachers, and mentors have been taught to give criticism as a compliment sandwich: one positive piece of feedback, one negative piece, and another positive piece to finish it off. There’s just one problem. It doesn’t work.

“It’s like you’re balancing an equation in chemistry class,” says David Yeager, bestselling author of 10 to 25 and professor of psychology at the University of Texas, Austin. “But young people aren’t doing that kind of mental math. What they’re really asking is: does this person who has power over me take me seriously? Do they think I’m capable of something important?”

Instead of the compliment sandwich, David suggests giving “wise feedback”: something like “I’m giving you these comments because I have high standards and I know that you can meet them.” In a classroom study, David found that this kind of feedback doubled the rate at which students were willing to revise an essay that the teacher had graded. It’s a simple way to encourage growth mindset and spark high achievement for people of all ages.

One word might be holding you back from a growth mindset.

For the past decade, psychologist Danny Southwick has been visiting boardrooms across the country, asking people how they define “talent.”

The most common synonyms? “Skill,” “ability,” and “gift.” But none of those fully represent what people believe about talent. “People’s beliefs about what talent is are much larger than any of these terms,” says this BYU professor and long-time collaborator of grit pioneer Angela Duckworth. “Yet these terms are used synonymously with talent all the time.”

And there are real consequences. “When people refer to ability as ‘talent,” they’re less likely to believe improvement is possible, and they’re more likely to endorse quitting as a response to failure.” In other words, when you talk about “talent,” people are more likely to go to their fixed mindset rather than their growth mindset.

So cut the word “talent” out of your vocabulary and replace it with “skill” or “ability”—and see how your organization soars.

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