When business owners operate with a growth mindset, they seek challenges and embrace failure as a positive part of the learning to grow process. 

By leading with a growth mindset, business leaders also cultivate and encourage a mentality of growth in their companies, encouraging their employees to go the extra mile and learn with a growth company culture. 

The Line between Growth and Performance 

Many companies base their company culture around performance measures – who makes the most sales, lands the biggest client deal or makes the most sales calls. While it’s great to recognise successes in your business, to cultivate growth, it’s also important to reward efforts, learning experiences and innovation. This helps to create an environment in which employees feel welcome to challenge themselves, try out new ideas and learn from failures. 

Limit Your Fixed Mindset 

Judging someone by their age, their experience or their education is a huge mistake made when operating with a fixed mindset. An individual whom you deem as “too anything” to get a job done right just might have the fresh perspective necessary to get the job done in a more efficient manner. Provide all your employees with training tools and resources to continue their career development and to challenge themselves to help your business grow. 

Fixed mindset limits business growth in another way e.g. Tradition and/or rigid policies and procedures. Be open minded when it comes to the way you operate your business. Just because your method has proved viable for years, it does not make it the only method, the fastest growing or the best method. 

Employee Development 

Look at your employees’ deficiencies as opportunities, rather than shortcomings. Each new area for development you identify presents a new opportunity for their business education and personal growth. 

Fail to Succeed 

If you have never failed at an endeavour, then chances are you never tried. Failure paves the path to success with opportunities for growth and development. When you or those working for you fail, acknowledge and reward the attempt. To cultivate a growth mindset in your company, you must create a culture in which employees do not fear failure. 

Step up to New Challenges 

It is human nature to be uncomfortable in a new, challenging experience. Learn to recognise this feeling of discomfort and harness it. Most often, the challenges that make you feel the most uncomfortable are also those that turn out to be the most rewarding. 

Listen to Feedback 

Although we all love to receive compliments from both customers and fellow staff members, the most valuable feedback is that which fosters improvement, rather than feelings of approval. Be open-minded when hearing criticism and make good use of it. If negative feedback rattles your nerves, give yourself a night or two to sleep on the comments, before you act to be certain you respond with a level head, from a rational perspective. 

Celebrate Team Achievements 

Experiencing feelings of envy or frustration while witnessing the success of others is only natural. These feelings, however, are not healthy for you. To truly advance and operate with a growth mindset, you must feel wholeheartedly happy for the successes and achievements of others. A growth mindset seeks improvement in all areas – not only in one’s own endeavours. Let others’ success encourage you by thinking, “If they can do it, they I can too!” 

Break through the Barrier 

Growing is hard, and when striving to grow with a growth mindset, you should expect no less than to encounter barriers in your way. Nobody ever said growing a business would be easy. Growth requires tenacity and perseverance. Growth requires you to keep your company goals in sight and push through frustration, failure and challenge barriers along the way. 

EFM specialise in supporting business owners with practical growth mentoring support, through supporting, encouraging and challenging you and your team members through the challenges you may be facing. Our team of experts are here to act as sounding board, to help encourage you to make the right decisions in order to help you achieve business growth. 

If you would like to find out more about how EFM’s mentoring service can help to benefit your company, then take a look at our services. Contact us today on 01582 516300 or email at [email protected]