Attitude Is Key to Business Growth

Last week I was part of a CEO panel asked to discuss how to achieve double-digit revenue growth. Now, isn’t that the $1 million question!

My co-panelists were highly respected executives, each with 20-plus years of experience in our industry — publishing. Yet, when we started discussing the session among ourselves, I was surprised by the direction of the conversation.

You see, like many industries, ours has suffered in recent years due in part to the recession. In addition to the difficult economy, our industry has experienced significant change that has rendered old business models virtually obsolete. That’s not a complaint, just a fact.

So when I agreed to speak at the conference, I was excited about the prospect of learning the secrets of my esteemed colleagues. I wanted to hear about the tricks they have pulled out of their hats that I might borrow for my business. I couldn’t wait to hear the brilliant strategies they’re using to grow their companies. I was ready to pick the brains of some really smart industry veterans. I couldn’t wait. Forget about what knowledge I might be able to impart, I wanted to learn.

What was the single most important key to growth? Attitude.

That’s right! As we began to talk about the key drivers of growth in our business, each of us talked about how growth begins with the right attitude. We discussed the importance of cultivating a culture that embraces growth. We talked about how important it was to encourage risk taking in an organization. The conversation included ways to stimulate a growth mentality. All of this before a single, proven growth strategy was ever discussed.

Each of us had seen a decline of risk tolerance and innovation as the economy and industry changes took their toll on our companies. As we battened down the hatches to weather the storm, a bit of a bunker mentality set in. We spent more time looking at ways to save money, than to make money. And I’ll be the first to admit much of this was necessary just so we could survive. But, you can’t save your way to prosperity. At some point, your business needs to grow because if you’re not growing, you’re declining. Businesses don’t just stand still.

So what were these executives doing to instill a growth attitude in their companies?

Extol the virtues of growth. With growth comes opportunity for the people in an organization. If you can explain to employees the new opportunities that will present themselves when a company is growing, it can help them embrace the change necessary to grow.

Set clearly articulated growth goals. If you set clear and achievable growth goals, even if they’re aggressive, and you make sure every single person in the organization understands what they are, your chances of reaching them increase significantly.

Lay out a clear plan for hitting those goals. No one is going to believe you can grow significantly if you can’t explain how the company will attain its growth goals. You must have a plan — and hope isn’t a plan. I suspect that, like me, you have smart people in your organization. Present an intelligent plan on how the company can grow and they’ll get behind it.

Encourage calculated risk taking. It’s incumbent on you as a leader to get people to share their ideas and act on them. There seem to be two ways to do this. First, reward the behavior you’re looking for. In this case, reward smart risk taking. It’s that simple. Second, never, ever, ever punish someone for taking what was a worthwhile risk. Fire someone for a failed venture that was worthy of an attempt and watch everyone else in the organization stop stepping forward with new ideas.

Celebrate the successes. Everyone wants to be recognized for their contributions. If you celebrate the wins, more people are going to want to join the party and they’ll begin contributing more new ideas. Celebrate the failures, too. Sometimes new ideas don’t work. That doesn’t mean they weren’t worth trying. It’s in our failures that we learn what will and won’t work. And oftentimes, it improves the chances of success on our next attempt. So don’t be afraid to celebrate the failures to demonstrate that it’s OK to try and fail.

I’ve written before that Remember the Titans is one of my favorite movies of all time. In one scene in the movie, the team captain is questioning the attitude of one of his teammates. The response from the captain’s teammate is, “Attitude reflects leadership.” Well, that’s true in business, too. If growth truly begins with attitude, then it’s incumbent on you as the leader to make sure you work to instill a growth mentality at your company. It starts at the top with you.