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Growth is that interesting period in a company's history where the mission extends beyond short-term survival into long-term market expansion. Investopedia characterizes a growth company as one that "generates significant positive cash flow or earnings, which increase at significantly faster rates than the overall economy."

The fastest-growing companies today are innovative and devoted to continual learning. They are the industry disruptors whose growth mindset saturates the organization and drives their success.

Growth companies understand that a company can't become a market leader without the people behind their expansion. While growth-minded companies have leaders who drive market expansion and product innovation, they also credit their success to employees who are agile, curious risk-takers.

But how can organizations be sure their current managers have the right skills to achieve their growth goals? How can they shift their culture to embrace growth?

Characteristics of a Growth Mindset

Global consulting firm McKinsey studied the link between specific human characteristics and corporate growth. They looked at 5,560 executives in 47 countries across several industries, and found that executives exhibiting a growth mindset were able to look beyond current details to discern future growth opportunities. They rated these leaders in three growth mindset categories:

Thought leadership

• Executives exhibiting thought leadership had a strategic orientation that yielded market insights to guide the company.

People and organizational leadership

• These leaders effectively facilitated growth by managing the rapid pace of change. They emphasized collaboration while developing organizational capability both through technology innovation and team leadership.

Business leadership

• Growth-minded leaders emphasized bottom line results with a keen awareness of the customer impact.

McKinsey determined that leaders with a growth mindset had the ability to understand the evolving customer need. They led by taking responsibility and owning company growth while managing a great deal of change across the organization.

But having a growth leader at the helm of an organization isn't enough. McKinsey noted that growth is typically divided into small segments within the enterprise organization. This means that having the right people in place within your company can push your growth forward or hold your company back.

Growth Mindset, Current Employees, and New Hires

Having strong leadership in place when a company enters growth mode is critical. While this starts at the top, to reach its growth goals, learning, leadership, and change management must permeate an organization.

This is the opposite of a fixed mindset, which is an organizational attitude that says, "But that's the way we've always done it." The McKinsey growth-minded leaders made decisions for long-term expectations, not past behaviors. Any leader, any worker, or even any process stuck in the past will not grow, compete, or succeed in today's innovation-driven markets.

But how can a large bureaucratic organization spark a growth mindset in current employees? The answer is to work on changing behaviors, both internally with existing managers and supervisors, and externally in the types of new hires you bring into the organization.

• Reskill current managers.
  Talent can be nurtured. New skills can be learned. But companies have a responsibility to help current managers reach their potential by helping them advance their skills. Companies seeking to spark a growth mindset in their managers should encourage new ways to engage beyond their daily management responsibilities. Helping managers to strengthen leadership skills will make them more adept at motivating their teams.


• Hire for a growth mindset.
  Organizations should look for future employees who have exhibited the capacity to evolve. Recruiting should focus less on pedigree and more on adaptability and a willingness to learn. This influx of new blood will spur change from the outside in. Look for management and supervisory candidates who are continually learning, creative in their problem-solving skills, and able to embrace and adapt to failure.

If a growth mindset is about the financial bottom line, companies must evolve the talent behind this market expansion to hit the numbers.

Forbes says, "In a growth mindset people enjoy a challenge; they strive to learn; they see potential in themselves and in others; and they know they can develop new skills."

Whether you're trying to foster a growth mindset in an existing manager or find it in a new hire, screen for the capacity to learn new skills and not necessarily prior experience. Focusing on intangible skills like change management and collaboration will help organizations bring in fresh talent to support a growth mindset.

Staffing firms are critical to these initiatives, helping your HR team think beyond current cultural norms and recruit innovation-driven talent that will help achieve growth goals.