3 Ways to Lead for Growth
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Leaders who want to foster business growth must foster human growth. But the way to do that is not obvious. How can we encourage colleagues to adopt learning habits while still projecting confidence in our leadership?
3 Practices to Foster a Culture of Development
#1. Set the stage
Are your colleagues leery of taking risks, soliciting feedback, or discussing their mistakes? Many people associate these learning behaviors with novices, not competent professionals, which can lead them to focus on proving themselves rather than improving.
Leaders must clarify that the best performers use these behaviors to become even better and that every colleague should adopt them as the default way of working. Since leaders are nine times more likely to be perceived as under-communicative rather than over-communicative, you must reinforce these messages more than you might think.
#2. Set up systems and habits
If you hope to make growth behaviors the easy default, you must put in place everyday tools and systems to support them.
- Prompt colleagues to identify and share learning goals by adding this item to the performance management system.
- Foster discussion of lessons learned by including it in the weekly meeting agenda.
- Generate customer feedback by soliciting it as part of the standard process.
- Keep teammate collaboration improving by setting a recurring meeting to share perspectives and identify what to work on next.
#3. Model learning
Leaders often talk about the importance of learning, but engage in it privately, when colleagues aren’t watching. This makes leaders seem like know-it-alls, leading others to act like know-it-alls, too.
We must make our learning process visible and explicit.
We can do that while still conveying confidence that we have what it takes to succeed. In fact, learning behaviors strengthen our ability to adapt and innovate.
What key opportunity might shift the way you lead?
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Eduardo Briceño guides many of the world’s leading companies in developing cultures of learning and high performance. His TED and TEDx talks have been viewed more than nine million times. His book, The Performance Paradox: Turning the Power of Mindset into Action, is strongly endorsed by Carol Dweck and other renowned authors and was selected as a “Must-Read” by the Next Big Idea Club, which is curated by Susan Cain, Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, and Dan Pink.
I love the idea of leading the way to development by modeling learning for the organization.
Modeling is so important but probably least understood in terms of long term impact. Working for a large school system provides some wonderful opportunities and using recent published insight helps so much. Thank you for the opportunity to use and share ideas with practical examples..
Focus on modeling definitely resonates with me.
Modeling the value of learning is insightful and seems like a natural way to encourage your team. I feel like this is something I do; however, I could be more mindful and intentionally share during team meetings and check ins, too.
I always glean great insights everyday!. To set up systems and habits, I meet with our department chairs every Monday for lunch. This gives them a voice and allows us to talk through issues in their departments.
Cultural Development is so important. Moving the needle is nearly impossible without a good roadmap.
This really hits home. We are opening a new facility and fostering a culture of development is crucial to success.
I let my team know that are meetings are a safe space, whether it is a daily huddle or a monthly staff meeting. I encourage my team to seek me out if they want to discuss things away from the group but discuss those topics with the group (letting the individual know in advance that I will do so) if I feel it is a good learning experience. The question or topic is brought up without saying anything about who brought it to my attention first. These strategies encourage honesty and transparency in our team.
I agree that continuous improvement is a part of the organization’s cultural mindset that needs to be intentional and explicit.
I love the idea of encouraging even our best performers to continue to request and actively seek out the feedback loop for both positive an opportunity in their work. As we grow in confidence, we have a tendency to lose perspective around those areas that we could still grow in.
Hard to not want to learn more when Learner is my top Strength Theme!
Modeling learning is a key component in the educational field for not only our students but our teachers as well.
I have always strived to “lead by example” no matter if I am actually in a leadership role or not. That includes sharing what I have learned and where I have learned it! I often share this blog with those I work with!
If you aren’t learning, you aren’t growing. Period. I always enjoy the resources you share!
Modeling is so powerful!
Importance is placed on learning and development for ourselves, but the compounding factor is to apply it in a way that helps others around us develop and grow too. Helping them find their potential and fostering that.
Brilliant! “Foster discussion of lessons learned by including it in the weekly meeting agenda”. My client absolutely must take this suggestion and apply it. Thank you for this eye and mind opening advice.
On one of my past teams, we would meet weekly to discuss projects we were working on so we could provide ideas to each other. The last part of the meeting was called Sharing is Caring. In this section, we would talk about what we learned this week. I invited people to write down things that they learned, no matter how trivial they thought they might be. I also added things to this list to show that there were many things that I did not know and was learning daily as their leader. During the course of the week, if in a meeting, I would often say things like, “Wow. I did not know that. This is great information to have” or something like, “I’m not well versed in this area, what can you tell me more about x, y, or z.” I did this as a way to normalize not knowing and asking. I can’t say that it reached everyone and they mimicked these behaviors though so I’d love to read more about what other measures I could have taken.
“We must make our learning process visible and explicit.” So true. I have to think of ways to implement this more naturally. I’d love to read the rest of the book!
Love this – We must make our learning process visible and explicit.
and also accountable to practice the learning.
Modeling learning is important and, when coupled with proper guidance, it allows me to see their growth happen right before my eyes. As I tell them, their success IS my success.
I was thinking the same thing when reading this part. A strong relationship must be first established before someone can enter that brave space of coaching, learning and development.
I agree with the point that leaders should ‘foster discussion of lessons learned by including it in the weekly meeting agenda’. However this must be done with emotional intelligence such that some persons do not feel ‘put down’ often. Team learning should be a safe-space, laced with respect and progressive; leaders must be explicit about this too.
Very insightful and I see it all the time. Love the incorporation of learning and lessons learned within the performance management process! Thank you!
Book give away time…..confusing!
Deadline for eligibility is 09/03/2022 ….?
A year ago?
Developing your staff is a must. It fosters a healthy culture.
Continuous improvement and growth mindset are two critical elements of the company culture. This is great timing while going through a business transformation.
I lover the model learning thought!
All of the above tips lead to an engaged employee because it about feeling they have impact and growing. These are 3 simple tips. Why do we try to make it more difficult than it is?
This hits home and includes pieces of what we need to make sure we are doing with our teams.
Love shifting the focus from “proving” to “improving.” No matter how long you’ve been working at your job there are always new things happening that could help to make things easier or better in some fashion.
I would like to understand more about how to “set up systems and habits” to “make growth behaviors the easy default”. I hope your book goes into more depth about these processes. It’s not always easy to get everyone on board to grow.
This text seems like something we need in our school!
I work at a high school in Southern California and one of the ways we describe it is making learning public. this goes for teachers, administration and students. By making teaching and learning public we raise the rigor and learn with and from each other. Thank you for the reminder to set public learning goals and model it for my team.
I am going to work on ensuring we discuss lessons learned in our future meetings.
Dan, pardon me if I vent just a little. You discouraged me by #2-1 (Prompt colleagues to identify and share learning goals by adding this item to the performance management system.) That may work, but only if there are already strong, frequent, unpressured, ties between supervisor and employee. How about working the subject of learning into regular 1-on-1 meetings where you really get curious and excited about what they are learning and ask them to share it with you.
I am not a supervisor, and I don’t have those strong, frequent, unpressured conversations, so I’m trying to think about what would encourage me. Having something else added to the list of what I’ll be evaluated on at the end of the year isn’t it.
Model learning speaks to me! If you want your team to grow and learn, you first need to grow and learn! It starts with you (me)!
This post really resonated with me – I am a perpetual learner and as a new manager – I strive to develop a ‘culture of learning’ with my team – it’s imperative to our field which is constantly evolving and changing. It’s nice to validate the approach I am taking is one that is recommended.
I am intrigued as to how this book is different or complementary from The 4 Disciplines of Execution.
As a former high school principal and now at the district office I am in a unique place to model learning to current principals, something I wished as a site leaderI had- if you’re learn something new, you’re falling behind!
Proving rather than improving stuck out to me!
WOW!!!
Since leaders are nine times more likely to be perceived as under-communicative rather than over-communicative, you must reinforce these messages more than you might think.
Dear Dan,
While agreeing to the 3 stated steps to follow by any good leader, I strongly feel that identification of good team, assuring the needed resources and the operational freedom are the key attributes to ensure desired success.
Boosting the creativity with innovation can further boost the morale of the team. Overseeing the progress with periodic feedback and the required guidance go a long way in the collective efforts to vote out as winners.
Creating space for learning has been critical in our team development. We have found that scheduling a regular learning and working session to allow our staff to ask questions and share what we have learned has contributed to a very positive team experience. Staff and managers learning together about the technicality of our work and encouraging one another to develop special skills is setting a foundation for success.
It’s so critical for leaders to model learning. There can be a lot of pressure for leaders to feel like they have to have all the answers, but the vulnerability of saying “here’s something I’m learning” has the power to really transform a team!
Learning, like soccer, is a team sport. You can’t lead from the the sidelines. You must be on the field, running, blocking and passing the ball to reach our goal, while understanding the strengths of all the players and supporting them in their play. Once you are a part of the play, the discussions and examples of improvements will flow.
Sounds like a great read. I would love a copy to dig in deeper.
continuous improvement, Learning is so important. Need a new book to read.
The future will be based on collaborative leadership in which decision making is spread out in a more democratic fashion. We have entered the Age of Aquarius. Buckle up and enjoy the evolution!
I believe modeling equates to showing transparency and vulnerability. Keys to live by are seeing obstacles and/or unknowns as opportunities to grow.
I loved the idea to “openly learn”, which is a role modelling approach to our team I hadn’t thought of. Fits nicely into the process of “act at the level you expect from everyone else”
I’m looking forward to look at his work and apply it with my school staff.
Modeling learning is one of the key factors in “model the way” that leaders need to inculcate into their habits. Team members look, see, act in many things we do and learning/growing is one that cannot be overlooked. Thank you for the thoughts today.
My team is always surprised when I say “I dont know” as the answer to a problem, but I think it keeps the model learning idea alive. Just reinforcing to the team that no one has all the answers.
How can I practice learning more visibly to others, Dan ?
Modeling is so important! In education, we constantly model, but now I am trying to teach those in my leadership building club how to do the same. I think it is important to teach them not to “put on a show” and allow ourselves to be authentic.
Change is inevitable, growth is optional
Growth is Crucial! Change will happen, it depends on how we direct it
Great stuff. Love the principle of modeling. In my opinion, it’s so rare because 1) so few leaders practice growth and development, and 2) they’re insecure, afraid for their reputation if they appear that they don’t know something that other people–especially their direct reports–might know.