Rethink the Growth Mindset Part I

This article was inspired by Andy Burrows and Anders Liu-Lindberg.

Protagonists for Finance Business Partnering or FBP, will mention to you that the growth mindset is pertinent to creating impact within firms. If you didn’t know, this mindset leads a person to worry less about 'looking smart' and putting more energy into learning.

But what about extending the growth mindset to a focus on the growth in the people (e.g. teams, peers, students) around us?

While we are aware that some of the concepts within FBP has been around for many years, it also promotes learning and is considered a more pro-social profession when compared to other areas within core accounting and finance. But is the growth-in-other concept overlooked for far more exciting opportunities to directly creating value within firms?

In order for us to really grow, we must want to see others grow. What I essentially mean here, is sustainability.

Here's why a focus on growth in others is sustainable for you:

1 - Aside from being competent on the job, a CFO needs to have effective teams around him or her to really set them up for success. It's more about fellowship than leadership when you move through the ranks and only through promoting growth in others places the CFO in a much better position and 'increases personal effectiveness which according to Gartner, only 22% of CFO's possess regardless'.

?2 - Appealing to the 'quirks' of Millennials (1981 - 1995) and Generation Z's (1996 - 2005). Specifically, corporations that want to succeed must engage Millennials and Gen Z's in particular, as their presence in the global workforce represents 59% according to the World Economic Forum. These groups already want to have a purpose, want to learn, and desire real impact. They thrive on lifelong learning as well. In my experience, these persons don't generally stay too long at firms especially where they feel stagnated. Learning opportunities are therefore crucial for them to stay and work for your organisation.

3. At this stage, you're probably wondering well, what is the real benefit for me?

So this is where I got really creative and decided to think a bit outside of the box. Mathematically, individual learning does slow down after some time if you analyze the learning curve model against a simple variable of experience. (It's a simple model and not the other varied models of the learning curve!)

As you can see, learning does slow down after some time.

I decided to also confirm this with my current CFO, Mark Talma, who at age 61 (and over 40 years of FP&A experience) stated that learning does slow down and even stop in some instances. But the key to extending the learning curve is really from learning from others. It's more of a challenge yes, but it has more benefit than consuming intelligence from hard sources. It is also faster and more convincing when you have discussions.

Personally, I believe material available on hard sources will always be beneficial but it will vary due to interpretation. Also, we may all learn differently, what if you're an auditory learner who soaks up information faster when you hear it and remembers up to 75 percent of it? We need peers and teams to bring out information that we ourselves may have overlooked. This point, therefore, builds on the case that we are challenged whenever we push growth in others.

You may not always have the answers and so peers and teams can really challenge our existing beliefs leading to even further development in the task.

?Lastly, to really drive home the point of the benefit, I did stumble upon research which was published on the BBC earlier this week. It's on students, but the growth mindset is heavily built on continuous learning, so I felt it was truly applicable.

"Consider a study of more than 600 medical students, which found that the people who focused on their own progress, and cared little for others - performed very well in their first year. These students were good at extracting information, and by offering little in return they were able to focus on their own progress. Those who were more generous with their time and were willing to offer insights to their fellow students, got left behind.

But here is the curious thing....

By the second year, the 2nd group had caught up, and by the third year had overtaken their peers. Indeed, by the final year, the 2nd group had gained significantly higher grades. What was going on?

As students progress through medical school and the further they advance, the more their success depended on teamwork, service and collaboration. Whereas the first group won on independent roles where performance was based on individual results, the 2nd group thrived on interdependent roles where collaboration matters professionally.

As one researcher put it: a giving attitude is a powerful asset when allied to intelligence."

Finally, here's how you can encourage growth in others and by extension yourself:

1 - Be a role model first and foremost and get a mentor.

2 - Have discussions! Talk and share your experiences and what you know. Document your knowledge journey. With more and more finance professionals qualifying each year, it's easy for 'mainstream' finance material to be more available than personalized ones, so get your stories out there because generally, people remember those.

3 - For teams, know that the myth’s been busted:?genius?requires hard work, not talent alone. Not all of us are born the smartest and so you really have to disassociate improvement from failure and reward effort instead. Don't project who you have become onto others, growth takes time.

4 - Provide regular opportunities for reflection and feedback amongst team members, especially when things don't go according to plan, because it does. This is imperative so that improvements can be made in the future and especially if you want to succeed in the long-run!

Feel free to share your thoughts on the article!