Mastering the Growth Zone - Part 1

Growth Is a Collaborative Process

As you build the behaviors of growth in your team, keep one thought in mind, growth is a collaborative process. If you have been applying the exercises at the end of each chapter you have begun to build a collaborative growth process. As you may have discovered, it is not an easy process. You can’t force people to grow. At the same time, you can’t just send them the video link, hand them a book, or send them to a seminar and expect them to grow on their own. That’s unrealistic. Plus, each person has their own unique barriers to overcome before they experience new growth.

The secret is collaboration. When you collaborate with team members to help them grow, they become more engaged. Over time, they begin to take charge of their own professional growth. During this process, what they need from you is your presence and a process. Where they need you the most is in The Growth Zone.

The Leader As Catalyst

In chapter 1 we introduced the leadership model in the era of Given Leadership – the leader as catalyst. A catalyst is something that is added to a process to accelerate results. We usually think of a catalyst related to a chemical process in science. For example, the platinum to your car’s catalytic converter speeds up the chemical reaction that converts harmful pollutants into less harmful gases. Yeast, added to the fermentation process of grain produces alcohol.

As a catalyst leader, the process you are accelerating is the transition from one stage of growth to the next and then continuing that process until everyone on your team is at Stage 4 - Power Confidence. When people are growing in their role, they become more emotionally invested in

what they do every day. They want to get better at what they do. They want to work with others to make the organization stronger. Role Growth is the difference between excellent and average, high performance and good performance, first place and second place. It is the most important thing you will do as a leader.

Role Growth is the key to performance growth, and performance growth is the key to organizational growth.

The Additive

In a scientific process “what” you add to the process will determine the results you achieve. If you add salt to grain during the fermentation process instead of yeast, you will NOT get alcohol. If you add nickel to your car’s catalytic converter instead of platinum, you will create MORE harmful gases rather than less harmful gases. A part of being a catalytic leader is knowing the right additive to apply during the growth process.

Most leaders add pressure to the growth process. Adding pressure assumes that the person is doing the right things. They just need to do them faster or more accurately. If pressure is your normal additive, here are three things to know. First, pressure creates short term results. It creates enough action to be compliant, but not enough action to create real change. Second, pressure does not help someone move from where they are to the next stage of growth. Instead, it reinforces staying in their current stage of growth. Third, adding pressure puts the responsibility for motivation in your hands as a leader rather than keeping it in the hands of your team members.

In a Growth Culture, the most effective additive is development. Sustained performance growth requires a permanent change in both beliefs and behaviors. Pressure will not create permanent change. Neither does more information. Development is the only additive that leads to real, lasting change. It is the only additive that gives people the confidence to leave their current stage of growth and move to the next stage of growth.  

3 Shifts to Accelerate Growth

Helping people transition from one stage of growth to the next is easier if you make 3 shifts in your thinking.

• Stop thinking of people as “doers” and start thinking of them as “drivers.” This is the big shift in leadership thinking. Many leaders focus most of their energy on results, not the processes that creates the results. Just focusing on results encourages team members to be “doers of tasks” rather than “drivers of growth.” With the best of intentions, you are developing people to be reactive rather than proactive; compliant rather than adaptive and innovative.
• Stop thinking “tasks” and start thinking “process.” Many organizations still train their people to focus on tasks and goals instead of the processes used to complete the tasks and hit the goals. Tasks are what you do, goals are how you measure your progress. Process is now you do the tasks to hit the goals. Focusing on the process is the only way to improve performance.
• Stop thinking “compliance” and start thinking “ownership.” Elite athletic coaches develop everyone on the team to take ownership for team success instead of just doing what the coach tells them to do. This is the difference between excellent and average. Completing tasks is just the starting place in a growth culture. Emotional ownership of success and growth is what turns tasks into triumphs.