How a Growth Mindset culture positions your company for success

Your company is only as good as your product and people. And your people make up the culture of your company. Most small to medium companies however, do not have a well defined culture; rather the culture is established as a function of the thoughts, personalities, beliefs and actions of their employees. Furthermore, these beliefs and actions are largely a reflection of the senior leadership team.

Left unchecked without clear inspiration, a company can quickly develop “micro cultures” within departments or divisions of a company, which can spiral into a toxic culture where one department is competing against another versus working together for a common goal. This leads to mediocre business results and often to disaster.

I’ve been fortunate to experience both positive and toxic cultures. You may ask, “why would experiencing a bad culture be a good thing?” Well, you learn from your own, and others, mistakes. That is the essence of a growth mindset. Your company may survive with a toxic culture but it will certainly not thrive. The cost of employee turnover or unhappy employees that lead to unhappy customers is a revolving door of acquisition costs without sustainability.

That’s why I created Growth Mindset Advisors. To share and teach the wisdom I’ve learned during my career to help your company thrive.

What is a growth mindset?

A growth mindset means that you flourish in times of adversity by turning past failures into positive learning experiences. It’s a constant state of learning to enhance your abilities and talents. Failure in and of itself is not viewed as a negative experience but as an inevitable process to improve.

The characteristics of a growth mindset

  • Positivity
  • Abundance
  • Gratitude
  • Perpetual learning
  • Personal accountability
  • Open minded

For starters, a growth mindset begins with positivity and a can-do attitude within the team. As Henry Ford once said, “If you say you can or you can’t, you’re right either way”. It’s most effective when driven by empathetic leadership who lead by example with a positive outlook on life and work.

Consider this scenario; when an employee makes an inevitable mistake, don’t chastise them in front of their colleagues. Pull them aside for a one-on-one conversation, discuss what happened and how it can be avoided in the future. Use this moment as an opportunity to coach-up, not break down. As my grandfather once told me, “it’s OK to make mistakes, just don’t make the same mistake twice.”

Another example is when cross-functional teams must work together to get the job done. I’ve experienced many companies who value one department over another and that’s just wrong. Sales is not more important than marketing and marketing is not more important than supply chain and supply chain is not more important than finance. They must all work together to make the business engine work properly. So instill that mindset by clearly communicating this to your employees and holding regular cross-functional meetings to reinforce this value and accountability.

Why would a company care about creating a Growth Mindset culture?

When business gets tough – and trust me at some point it’s going to get tough – your company’s survival will depend on execution of your team with a positive, or growth, mindset. These are the times that your employees need to pull together as one unit with a belief in one another rather than pointing fingers at each as to why the business is experiencing a downturn. Sure, there may be clear evidence of where the weakness is coming from whether it’s mediocre product development, misaligned marketing messaging, or a complacent sales team, but more often than not, it’s a combination of all of these things.

This is the time to pull together and positively fill the gaps in the business to position the entire company up for success. I have the experience to spot these weaknesses and the positive outlook to help your company create a Growth Mindset culture.

Allow me to fill this executive sales, strategy and growth role within your business to help you achieve the next level of revenue for a fraction of the cost of hiring an in-house executive. Please reach out and let’s discuss how I can help your business grow revenue.