How to Run a Business with a Growth Mindset

Jul 22, 2022 | Listen

How to Run a Business with a Growth Mindset

When employees with a growth mindset back your business, you’re one step closer to sustainable growth and success. These are employees who have open hearts and minds. They thrive on challenges; they take responsibility for their actions and see failure and setbacks as a springboard for continued growth and improvement.

Beyond having the right skills and experience, hiring people with a growth mindset will ensure the success of your business – even when things are tough.

So how do you hire people with a growth mindset?

In this episode of Help! My Business Is Growing, our guest Christopher Gittings talks about hiring employees with a growth mindset and how that helped him to grow his business.

He shares his tips and insights on identifying this quality in potential new hires and how having a team who wants to grow, improve, and become more effective over time can be the key to the success of your business.



Timestamps for this week’s episode

  • 08:22 Cultivating culture within a remote and freelance employee or internship setup

  • 16:44 Can a psychology background impact business, guiding marketing and hiring with a growth mindset?

  • 25:26 How can companies test potential employees for the presence of a growth mindset?

  • 31:55 How can companies develop a higher level of trust with their teams?

  • 35:13 Actionable steps to take to include hiring employees with a growth mindset into your HR processes

” A big part of growth is being a good listener.” – Chris Gittings

Cultivating culture within a remote and freelance employee or internship setup

Start with your mission.

It will help out the way that you operate and set what you’re working towards.

Your mission will resonate with certain people, and you’ll want to work with them.

And that informs the way that you interact, the activities you run together, and the goals you set together.

This process is the start of your corporate culture.

For young professionals (starting a business), don't be afraid to accept help, because you'll run into people who are excited about you, what you're building and want to help you unconditionally.

Can a psychology background impact business, guiding marketing and hiring with a growth mindset?

Having a psychology background can make an impactful difference.

It can help identify those with a growth mindset: these people who can be reflective, who are comfortable not knowing vs. jumping forward and saying, “I know!” even if they don’t have a clue.

They do the research and let the results speak for their perspective rather than using their view to speak for the results.

It will transform the hiring process from hiring people you know or hiring very qualified people and then hoping for the best, to one that is more systematic, where you exert more effort and thought.

You can also run tests to identify people to hire based on similar values and what you need from them.

“The best way to become a good marketer is to go in knowing that you are not a good marketer, and to put your head down and aggressively learn new skills, experiment, and grow.” – Christopher Gittings

How can companies test potential employees for the presence of a growth mindset?

1. Interview the candidate and observe:

  • Their body language
  • If they can identify their areas of interest
  • If they can define/verbalize their goals
  • Their ability to share what they’re unsure of

Take note of the people who are very comfortable with not knowing everything yet are eager to learn and go on that journey of discovery. They will have a mindset that embraces growth and development.

2. Give your candidates case studies to solve.

It could be one you makeup or, better yet, an actual situation you and the firm experienced and had to resolve. Encourage them to fully immerse themselves in this exercise and observe how they will tackle it.

  • Are they passionate about solving it?
  • Will they reach out to you?
  • How resourceful are they in coming up with a solution?

Watch out for your candidate’s level of passion. It will fuel their learning of new skills and beyond. It will push them through difficult situations, which is a big plus point in terms of hiring because it shows they can handle stressful situations.

I find that the really talented minds that are most accessible are those who have not yet been in the workforce, who are in college are recent graduates because other companies aren't realizing the incredible value that they bring.

How can companies develop a higher level of trust with their teams?

Lead with trust.

Be transparent with your team members: you’ve educated them regarding your processes and what your business is trying to build.

Let them know that you are not setting up anyone to fail and don’t expect them to perform daily miracles.

Inform them that you want to help them figure out which projects they’re ready to dive into and work on.

Then create structures that will ensure their success and meet their metrics.

“What’s fueled my growth is finding incredible people and then doing what I can to empower them to perform their best work, and to learn and to grow as efficiently as possible.” – Christopher Gittings

Actionable steps to take to include hiring employees with a growth mindset into your HR processes

Always hire.

By doing so, You’ll always have the best person on hand that’s an excellent fit for that situation.

Even when you don’t need more resources, you always want to be aware of the talent that is out there. You’ll never know when you’ll need the best person for a position.

The goal is not to hire when you have a need but to hire when you have a want.


Summary

  • Start cultivating your fully remote company’s culture by focusing on your mission and hiring people who share the same vision.
  • Not everyone has a background in psychology but it would help your hiring process by giving valuable insights into your potential employees. Take some time to look up and read psychology resources online, particularly those geared toward hiring.
  • Maximize interviews and present potential new hires with case studies they can solve as a way for you to determine the presence of a growth mindset.
  • Gain your employee’s trust by leading with trust. Set an example and always be transparent with your team members.

Transcript

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About Christopher Gittings

Founder and President

Cogent Connections

Christopher Gittings is the Founder and President of Cogent Connections, a young sales consulting and marketing firm that helps businesses build genuine, thoughtful, and productive professional relationships.

He helps you connect with the right people, initiate productive conversations, and nurture your network.

With his background in cognitive science & psychology, he understands that initiating quality relationships is a must for any professional, particularly when searching for a job, recruiting new talent to your workplace, exploring acquisition opportunities, building new sales relationships, and so on.

Chris ultimately believes that relationships are the assets that always yield the greatest returns – maximizing lifelong happiness and fulfillment.

Website – https://www.cogentconnections.io/

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-gittings-21a752191/

Resources mentioned in this episode:

ClickUp https://clickup.com/

Teamup- https://www.teamup.com/

Handshake https://joinhandshake.com/


About host – Kathy Svetina

Kathy Svetina is a Fractional CFO for growing small businesses with $10M+ in annual revenue.

Clients hire her when they’re unsure about what’s going on in their finances, are stressed out by making financial decisions, or need to structure their finances to keep up with their growth.

She solves their nagging money mysteries and builds a financial structure with a tailored financial strategy. That way they can grow in a financially healthy and sustainable way.

Kathy is based in Chicago, IL and works with clients all over the US.

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