‘To empower the identified growth champions requires that you invest in daily growth by making small or little changes everyday. Let them be committed to learning daily. Reading books, attending training and seminars will surely enhance the skills of the growth champions’
A LOT of people desire to grow. Although such people go to a great extent to work towards growth yet they are unable to achieve growth. Often, the challenge is not about a lack of desire or vision or willingness to work towards growth. The major issue is the inability to activate growth.
Growth is about springing up and developing to maturity. Every individual is imbued with the ability to grow everywhere he or she is located. In business growth is a phenomenon that occurs when business owners, employees and outside factors influence the success of a company. A business grows when it expands a customer base, increases revenue or produces more product.
A business or organisation will not grow until there are changes in their processes designed to increase productivity. If you want to increase revenue you can adopt an efficient production method that can help you to reduce costs.
You need to grow because whatever does not Grow is certain to die. You must consistently be growing in life despite your circumstances or environment. Grow, wherever you go. Grow your mind, your body, your career, your bank account, your business, ministry etc. Everything in this world is either growing or dying.
Avoid being complacent, never be satisfied. Always strive to acquire more knowledge, more skills, more money, better career, better health and constantly be looking for ways to step out of your comfort zone and grow.
There are two dimensions of growth. You can grow vertically by increasing in height and relevance. You can also grow horizontally by increasing in spread replicating your performing self in others.
To activate growth you need to understand the four growth zones and locate which growth zone you currently belong. There is the coasting zone where people do what is minimally required. Coasting means you are not exerting any serious energy to get desired results. The second zone is the comfort zone where you are content in doing what you have always done. At this stage you are not stretching yourself to grow but when you stretch yourself you experience growth.
The third zone is the challenge Zone where you attempt to do what you have not done before. This is where you take on new challenges instead of ducking or complaining. In this zone you are more likely going to expand new frontiers and create new standards.
The fourth zone is the creative Zone where you attempt to engage your mind to think about a problem and explore the various options you can employ to solve the problem. This involves thinking intentionally and strategically creatively to solve real problems; thinking to create new ideas things that will produce new results.
Often in the creative zone you are most likely going to come up with a new idea, solution, product and service.
When you are serious about activating growth, there are some things you must do intentionally. It starts with improving the quality of your thoughts by identifying the nature of your mindset.
Avoid a Fixed Mindset. The psychologist, Carol Dweck has said that, “In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort.” (Dweck, 2015)
Develop a Growth Mindset. Be determined to initially grow to the level of the top 20% in your organisation or environment. When you achieve this goal then aim to be in the top 10% and scale up to the top 1% or what what my daughter calls 1% of the 1% of achievers. This entails committing to continuous improvement of yourself, others, your assignment and your environment. “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.” (Dweck, 2015)
Learn to create an environment of growth. Surround yourself with people who have the potential to grow and are willing to grow.
Endeavour to see people as valuable so that you can be well positioned to serve them. If you see people as valuable you will serve them joyful.
Cultivate the habit of thinking strategically about how you will achieve future growth in all your spheres of influence. This may include scenario planning about probable future events.
Once you have mastered how to think creatively, you should proceed to create policies, programmes and processes that will engender growth.
To avoid distractions in your journey to growth, always question everything that does not align with your personal or corporate vision and the directing principle of your organisation.
Growth is activated when people perform based on expected outcomes. This requires identifying, attracting, training, mentoring and deployment of growth champions. To empower the identified growth champions requires that you invest in daily growth by making small or little changes everyday. Let them be committed to learning daily. Reading books, attending training and seminars will surely enhance the skills of the growth champions.
It is not enough to activate growth by taking the above mentioned steps. There are times that there are forces that are capable of derailing your quest for growth. This is why you need to protect and defend your growth agenda from those who do not see a need for growth. In doing this you will also need to defend the identified growth champions so that they are not discouraged.
In concluding this discourse, we need to focus on questions that orchestrate growth.
▪︎How well do you value people like God values people?
▪︎How open are you to change and improvement?
▪︎How adaptable are you to change by developing confidence in your intuition and ability?
▪︎How fast do you respond to change?
▪︎How quickly do you initiate change?
▪︎How creative are you in believing that there is always an answer to a problem?
▪︎How flexible are you in believing there are always more than one answer to solving a problem?
