There was a business owner who was hemorrhaging cash.

He decided he needed someone to reign him in, help him see what was going on, and make better decisions. He realized he wasn’t paying attention to the big, whole picture of the business’s financials, and knew that needed to change.

He had been doing things the same way for a long time, and it hadn’t gotten him where he wanted to go.

But he had a growth mindset — and together, we were able to turn things around from hemorrhaging cash to some of the highest profitability the business had ever had.

That right there – growth mindset – is one of the big characteristics that indicates whether or not a client is going to get results in our work together.

Growth mindset is a person’s belief that their abilities and intelligence can be developed and improved over time through effort and learning. The opposite of that is a fixed mindset: believing your abilities and intelligence are predetermined and you can’t do a darn thing about it.

People with a growth mindset believe that they can do better. They believe that we can positively influence and change outcomes. They see the world as full of opportunities to grow. They’re more adaptable, creative, and innovative.

That’s why we focus on working with people with a growth mindset: they’re ready to change and understand that changes from working with us can lead to better results – like increased productivity, employee retention, sales, and profits. They embrace the challenges along the way to learn, grow, and improve.

So how do we assess growth mindset? / how to develop a growth mindset?

We look at a few things:

• Attitude toward challenge and change
• Willingness to try new things and take risk
• Openness to feedback, learning, and doing things differently

We very often run into people that love to say, “well, we’ve always done it this way.”

To us, that’s a red flag for a fixed mindset, because working together requires trying new things and getting out of your comfort zone.

Change is difficult and scary, and we can never know exactly what’s on the other side. But we can help people get more comfortable by showing examples of other clients who’ve been in the same situation and gotten positive results through making similar changes.

Tips for leaning into a growth mindset

A growth mindset can be learned and developed.

Part of it is setting some goals for yourself that challenge you but are achievable. That’s key: they shouldn’t be so huge that you’ll never get there, or too small that they’re too easy. There’s a sweet spot where you can step up and embrace the challenge.

Another key is to surround yourself with people who have a growth mindset. Like breeds like, and a supportive environment will help you develop your own growth mindset plus see it in action. The more you stretch, the more you’ll get comfortable with what was unimaginable before.

A growth mindset leads to positive outcomes for your company

What are some of those potential positive outcomes?

• Growth as a leader
• Professional development growth of your team
• Topline growth
• A more profitable business and better returns for you as the business owner

Ready to get results you’ve never had by doing things you’ve never done before? Reach out to us here and let’s chat about what might be possible for you and your business.