Quick question: Does your employer value your personal development over short-term metrics? I’m sure your answer is no. That’s because most organizations are performance-obsessed, they prioritize short-term results.

An article from Harvard Business Review titled “Create a Growth Culture, Not a Performance-Obsessed One,” emphasizes the importance of fostering a growth-oriented culture within organizations rather than being solely focused on performance metrics.

While performance-driven cultures prioritize short-term results and often create high-pressure environments, a growth culture promotes learning, development, and long-term success. The article mentions the following ways to create a growth-obsessed culture:

1. Emphasizing learning and development: In a growth culture, organizations prioritize continuous learning and development of employees. This includes providing opportunities for skill-building, encouraging experimentation, and supporting ongoing growth through coaching and mentoring.
2. Redefining failure: Instead of penalizing failure, a growth culture views it as an opportunity for learning and improvement. Organizations should create an environment where employees feel safe to take risks and learn from mistakes.
3. Encouraging collaboration: Collaboration and knowledge-sharing are essential components of a growth culture. Breaking down silos and fostering cross-functional collaboration helps to harness diverse perspectives and enables collective growth.
4. Promoting transparency and feedback: Open communication and regular feedback are crucial in a growth culture. Leaders should provide constructive feedback, encourage dialogue, and create an environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their ideas and concerns.
5. Supporting employee development: Organizations should invest in resources and programs that support employee development, such as training initiatives, career pathing, and mentorship programs. By providing these opportunities, organizations demonstrate their commitment to employee growth.
6. Aligning goals with purpose: A growth culture focuses on aligning individual and team goals with the organization’s purpose and values. This helps employees find meaning in their work and fosters a sense of ownership and commitment.

By shifting the focus from a performance-obsessed culture to a growth culture, organizations can create an environment that nurtures employee development, innovation, and long-term success. By valuing learning, collaboration, and continuous improvement, organizations can adapt to changing market dynamics and achieve sustainable growth.

The difference between a growth-obsessed and performance-obsessed culture

Below are the differences between a growth-obsessed and performance-obsessed culture:

While there are many companies that have a growth-obsessed culture, there is one I like to focus on: Pixar Animation Studios.

Pixar is well-known for its culture of creativity and innovation. They have a system where employees are encouraged to pitch ideas, and failures are seen as a part of the creative process. They hold “Braintrust” meetings where candid feedback is given on projects, not to mandate solutions, but to highlight potential areas of improvement. The emphasis is always on producing quality films, not on meeting a specific sales target. Their approach to continuous feedback, learning from failures, and valuing the creative process over immediate results is a hallmark of a growth-obsessed culture.

Here’s Ed Catmull explaining the concept of the Braintrust:

With that said, what are some additional ways you can create a growth-obsessed culture?

Ways to Create a Growth-Obsessed Culture:

1. Leadership embodying the growth mindset: Leaders need to showcase a growth mindset in their actions, decisions, and communications. They should demonstrate that they value learning, experimentation, and long-term growth over immediate results.
2. Encourage continuous learning: Offer training, workshops, and courses. Encourage employees to attend conferences or industry events to enhance their skills and knowledge.
3. Celebrate effort, Not just results: Recognize and reward the process and effort, not just the outcome. Celebrate the journey of getting to the result.
4. Promote openness and feedback: Foster an environment where feedback is welcomed and acted upon. Employees should feel comfortable sharing their ideas and concerns.
5. Cultivate resilience: Teach teams to see challenges and setbacks as opportunities for growth, not as failures.
6. Encourage intrapreneurship: Allow employees to work on passion projects or innovative ideas that may not directly align with their job description.
7. Iterative processes: Implement iterative processes like agile or lean methodologies, where continuous improvement and adaptability are key.
8. Collaborative environment: Promote teamwork and cross-functional collaboration. This can lead to diverse viewpoints and ideas, fostering an environment of growth and learning.

Bottom line: Creating a growth-obsessed culture is about people’s growth. When your people grow, your company grows. A leader’s most important job is to create a culture that values talent but celebrates growth because a growth mindset equals innovation.