This past week I spent a few days unwinding on Prince Edward Island (PEI) in Canada — hiking, biking and recharging with my partner, Corine.
We also visited Mark Bradley (founder of LMN) in his hometown on PEI. We enjoyed some local oysters and farm-to-table food together (photos at bottom.)
Naturally we discussed the big opportunities and challenges facing our industry.
I asked Mark about his big secret to scaling his own landscape firm.
Every contractor faces the same challenges:
- Recruiting staff who are committed and passionate
- Training up staff in order to scale with consistency
- Developing a team of leaders on board and aligned to the right metrics and results.
As you start to overcome these challenges, new ones pop up. It’s hard to tackle all of these yourself.
Ideally, you need a team who cares as much as you do.
Where do you find motivated people to build your team?
I asked Mark about the one thing that made the biggest difference in growing his 50M landscape firm.
His answer was simple:
We only hired people with a “growth mindset.”
You have probably heard this term before.
Growth-minded people:
- are not afraid to admit mistakes
- love to learn and grow
- embrace teamwork, and people smarter than themselves
They don’t play the blame-game, they don’t deflect responsibility, and they don’t give up.
You can’t teach attitude.
Growth-minded people may not come with the technical or management skills you need, but they come with the right attitude to learn.
Imagine the challenges you could conquer if you were staffed with fighters and learners.
Even like-minded young workers just out of high school could help you dominate in your marketplace.
Upgrade your recruiting process
You can identify a growth-minded person partly by the how they answer certain questions during interviews.
Here are some examples from Indeed®
- Thinking about your previous role, what do you think you could change to improve?
- Tell me about a time you received constructive criticism from your manager.
- When was the last time you felt inspired to learn something new?
- Was there a time in your previous position when a project or situation didn’t go the way you planned? How did you handle it?
Your Challenge – Instill a growth mindset into your leadership team
Not only do you want to hire for this attitude, you want to ensure you and your leadership team exhibit this trait.
Here are some questions from Inc. Magazine to get you thinking about your own mindset.
1. Do you seek out mentors?
“People with a growth mindset take on mentors and seek them out to enhance the likelihood that they can use their growth mindset successfully,” says Dr Carol Dweck, author of the seminal book on this topic, “Mindset”
2. Do you admit your mistakes to your team and yourself? And learn from them?
Are you blaming others, or are you leading your team with vulnerability and a learning approach.
3. Are you insatiably curious?
This means taking time from work to read books, listen to podcasts, and talk to others who can teach you new ways of looking at life
4. Do you surround yourself with smarter people?
This can be hiring leaders who are smarter than you in their field.
Or it can be joining a peer group with others who will challenge you. (Learn about ours here)
Overall: model this behavior and ensure your leadership team does as well.
It’s the first and ultimate step to building a learning organization.
Carpe Diem!
Regards,
Jeffrey Scott
Photo: Mark Bradley and Jeffrey Scott enjoying a drink before our farm-to-table meal on PEI
