One quality that many successful growing businesses share is that they have engaged leaders who like to ask employees questions about what's happening in their company.Â
For these leaders, failure or missteps are opportunities to learn. And they use these lessons as a guide to help their teams improve operations, products, and services.Â
However, to match this leader, a successful business must also have employees who are curious, who want to learn and take both positive and negative feedback with open hearts and minds, or, precisely, employees who have a growth mindset.Â
These are employees who delight in learning and working hard, thrive on challenges, take responsibility for their actions, and see setbacks as a springboard for improvement and growth.
Hiring people with a growth mindset, on top of the right skills and experience, is a sure way to guarantee the success of your business - even when things are tough.Â
But how do you hire people with a growth mindset? And what does it look like in the day-to-day operations of your company?
In this episode of Help! My Business Is Growing, our guest Christopher Gittings shares his experience of how hiring people with a growth mindset helped him drive his business to grow by leaps and bounds.
He shares his tips and insights on how your business can benefit from having a team who wants to grow, improve, and become more effective over time.Â
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.Â
He helps clients connect with the right people, initiate productive conversations, and nurture their network.Â
In this week's episode, we discuss:
03:15Â What is the background of your company, and how did you make it grow?
05:10 Regarding advisors, what type are the best, and when should they come in? At the beginning stages of establishing a business or further down when there are issues that need external help to address?
06:38 How did he use advisory relationships to grow the business and how did that look like?
08:22Â How can a business cultivate a culture in a remote and freelance employee/internship setup?
16:44 How much does a background in psychology affect running a business? Does it provide marketing insights and influence hiring decisions?
25:26 How can companies test potential employees for the presence of a growth mindset? Is there a series of tests or questions? Is there a practical way to determine this at all?
31:55 How can companies develop a higher level of trust with their teams?
35:13 What does the process of hiring and managing interns full-time look like daily? Are there still regular team and individual one-on-one meetings?Â
37:29 What is the one thing leaders, and founders can do this week if they want to start hiring employees with a growth mindset? How do they become more attuned to this quality, and what processes can they implement to become standard?
Resources:
Christopher Gittings, Founder, and President of Cogent Connections:
https://www.cogentconnections.io/
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-gittings-21a752191/
Kathy Svetina, Fractional CFO:
https://www.newcastlefinance.us/
Blog post | How to Run a Business with a Growth Mindset
https://www.newcastlefinance.us/post/how-to-run-a-business-with-a-growth-mindset
