The Power of a Growth Mindset: A Look Into One President's Dedication to A Culture Of Growth
“When you go from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset, a new world of possibilities opens up.” - Imaan Farooq
In 2020, smack in the middle of COVID and fresh off the shutdown of the state of Florida, I, like many others, found myself unemployed for the first time in my career. Instead of feeling stressed about being out of work, I remember feeling “free.” This feeling caused me to realize that I had been doing something wrong with my career, and it was time to do some soul-searching. I discovered that I wanted more for myself. I wanted more for my family. I wanted more for and from my career. I wanted financial freedom, and I wanted flexibility. I wanted opportunities, and I wanted advancement. I wanted job satisfaction, and I wanted to do meaningful work every day. Was that so much to ask?
During the four months I spent unemployed, I became a learning machine. I spent every day studying my craft. Textbooks were ordered and delivered to my door for study. A whiteboard that displayed my daily learning plan sat on my dining room table in full view. I treated my learning journey like a job. I started first thing in the morning and didn’t quit until the end of the day. I became unstoppable in my quest for knowledge. I began reading, studying, learning, testing, and expanding the way I thought about things. I engaged my critical thinking skills and ignited my creativity. I began to give myself stretch assignments and goals and would not stop until I completed them.
During this time, I also invested in an online course on Leadership and Project Management. The course introduced me to what good leadership should look like and inspired me to reflect on the leader I wanted to be. Something was happening. I was waking up after a long professional slumber that kept me stunted and limited. I was transitioning from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.
I knew the next company I decided to work for must align with the new me - even if that meant I had to work for myself.
According to Dr. Carol Dwek, a growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts.
In July 2020, the day after I earned my Advanced Professional Diploma in Project Management and Leadership, I received an email from Team Solutions Dental inviting me to apply for the HR Director position. I looked into the company and connected its story. I saw this opportunity as a new and exciting adventure loaded with professional challenges and opportunities to make a difference and to be the leader I wished to be. I applied and, soon after, was contacted for an interview.
During my interview, I met with the President and Co-Founder, Jason DeFranco. I found him to be charismatic, passionate, and highly intelligent. He was well-spoken and articulate and clearly loved the company he had built alongside fellow Co-Founder, Chad Holman. He was not afraid to tell me how he was cautious about adding an HR professional to his company. HR typically came with bureaucracy and red tape that he felt threatened to erode the culture he was so proud of.
The conversation felt natural. I wasn’t intimidated, and neither was Jason. I was inspired by his description of the organization and excited about his strategic plan for the next few years. And the role HR would play in all of it.
Growth. Leadership. It was all there - intertwined into every plan he shared with me during that interview.
Then he said these words:
“I am obsessed with growth, and I’m obsessed with growing my people. I don’t want my people to have to look outside these walls for growth opportunities.” - I knew then that he was telling me that HE wouldn’t settle for less in an HR Professional either. We would have to be aligned with this philosophy for this to work - for both of us. And we were.
Jason invited me to return for a 2-hour working interview - a chance to observe the lab and the people to see if this would be a good fit. I returned, and the 2-hour working interview turned into a 6-hour day. I didn’t want to leave. This place was magical. The energy was contagious, and the opportunity to be the leader I wanted to be and make a difference was everywhere.
The relationship between me and Team Solutions is a symbiotic one. This place feeds my growth mindset, and my growth mindset helps fuel the organization's growth culture. I held my first employee meetings, which were saturated with people hungry to advance their skillset and grow. They were curious about me and wanted my help to figure out a development plan for them. I was ecstatic.
As the company recruiter, I look for and am drawn to people who share this growth mindset philosophy - even if it lays dormant, waiting for inspiration to awaken it - as mine did for so long.
So how do we, as HR Professionals, seek out those with a growth mindset? What are the qualities these people share?
Oregon State University did a study on the characteristics that people with a growth mindset typically have. HR should form interview questions in a way that captures this information to identify growth-minded candidates.
People with a growth mindset:
1. Seek out new challenges
This is true regardless of the possibility of failure. To these people, failure is not something to be feared but rather a springboard into deeper understanding and (you guessed it) more growth
2. Are persistent
When obstacles appear, they become energized, and something special is activated. They power up and power through, and they don’t give up.
3. Embrace criticism.
This is particularly true when that criticism comes from someone they respect, admire, has their best interest at heart, and supports their desire to grow.
4. Draw inspiration from the success of others.
They love success in all forms because it serves as a reminder of their own goals. They celebrate the successes of others without comparing their success to someone else’s. They draw from the energy of another’s success and use it to fuel their own motivation. They celebrate the idea that there is room for everyone to succeed.
A growth mindset can only thrive when it has a culture of growth to support it. A growth culture must be purposeful and nurtured from the top. It must support collaboration and prioritize continued education and professional and personal improvement. It must encourage innovation by allowing its employees to have a voice, try new things, and fail - but with intelligent thought behind the failure. Most importantly, it must encourage its people to have the resilience to try again when a failure occurs. It must reward effort that yields results that advance the company’s objectives. It must also honor and recognize strong performance.
It is challenging to find employees with a growth mindset. But, according to many job seekers I speak to regularly, finding a company with a growth culture is even more difficult. Team Solutions is one of the rare companies that has both, and it’s also one of the reasons our job satisfaction rate is so high among our employees.
However, there’s a flip side to that coin. Employees who don’t share the growth mindset philosophy may find Team Solutions a frustrating workplace. They find it too fast-paced, too high-pressure, and too stressful. Pay increases are given more frequently here than in any company I’ve ever worked for. But those pay increases are based solely on results, performance, and innovative ideas and contributions - all things that add to our competitive edge and contribute to our employees’ professional development.
Team Solutions is willing to invest everything in those willing to invest in themselves and the organization. We work diligently to find applicants that share our passion for growth, and when we find them, they tend to react to the Team Solutions culture the way I did and seize every opportunity for advancement.
Typically, this time on our blogging calendar is reserved for the next chapter in our series, “From President to CEO” where we follow Jason DeFranco’s employee development plan. At this point, you might be wondering what this has to do with Jason becoming CEO of Team Solutions. That’s a fair question.
Jason’s growth mindset is a permanent fixture. It will never change; he will always be intrinsically motivated by growth in all forms. He also consistently thinks ten steps ahead, seeing the bigger picture that others may not. Part of his strategy to elevate himself into the role of CEO includes elevating others into higher-level positions, and that doesn’t happen overnight.
Jason understands that he must continue to inspire and cultivate the growth culture of his organization to create its future leaders, and he must develop these future leaders if he is to reach his own professional goals.
He must identify those employees within the company that have the potential to become more and focus on their development. He must discover the gaps in their soft and hard skills and determine the best ways to fill them through education and training. He must provide an environment that pushes and stretches his people while supporting them through their trials and errors. And he must do all this while continuing to run a progressive and successful company.
All this is a time-consuming labor of love for any leader worthy of that title.
For Jason to honor his own growth mindset, he must nurture the mindset of his people and encourage and oversee their growth and development first. That is where his focus is now, but his eye remains on the prize. There is a carefully laid plan behind everything Jason DeFranco does. This process is no exception, and I have a sneaking suspicion that something big is on the horizon.
So. How about you? Do you have a growth mindset? Do you think you would be successful here at Team Solutions Dental? Use the checklist below to find out:
Characteristics Of A Growth Mindset:
You believe that achievements are down to effort and not just inherent talent
You’re willing to learn from your mistakes and you value criticism
You believe that intelligence and ability can be developed
You’re willing to ask questions and admit when you do not know something
You seek out challenging tasks and take on risks
You persist in the face of setbacks and challenges
You work towards something until your efforts result in mastery
You are inspired by the success of others
You are comfortable with and not intimidated by uncertainty
You are curious with an active brain
You are unstoppable in your quest for knowledge
You are an independent thinker and learner - if you don’t understand something, you will seek to understand it through research and independent study
You exercise self-discipline and self-control
You are resilient with a strong bounce-back game
You learn from your mistakes and grow from your failures
You use critical thinking to assess and solve problems
You run toward problems and not away from them
You are a passionate and enthusiastic learner
You are not afraid to ask for help
You help others wherever you can
How did you do? Out of the 20 characteristics listed, how many sounded like you? Did anything surprise you about yourself?
As you commit to exploring your own growth mindset, we invite you to continue following this exclusive TSD Growth series. Follow us for more updates on Jason DeFranco’s ongoing growth plan into the role of CEO as well as other successful growth stories here at Team Solutions Dental.
