Rethink the Growth Mindset Part I
By: Aliyyah Abdullah
Tags: Growth, Thinking, Mindfulness, Growth Mindset, 2021

This article was inspired by Andy Burrows and Anders Liu-Lindberg.

Protagonists for Finance Business Partnering or FBP, will mention that the growth mindset is pertinent to creating impact within firms. If you didn’t know, this mindset leads a person to worry less about ‘looking smart’ and putting more energy into learning.

But what about extending the growth mindset to a focus on the growth in the people (e.g. teams, peers, students) around us?

While we are aware that some of the concepts within FBP has been around for many years, it promotes learning and is considered pro-social when compared to many other areas within finance. But is the growth in others concept overlooked for far more exciting opportunities to directly creating value within firms?

In order for us to really grow, we must want to see others grow. What I essentially mean here, is sustainability but, for you.

Here’s why a focus on the growth in others is sustainable for you and why you should engage:

1 — In what I’ve seen, aside from being competent on the job, a CFO needs to have effective teams around him or her to really set them up for success. Promoting growth in others really places them in a well suited position, encourages innovation and ‘increases personal effectiveness which according to Gartner, only 22% of CFO’s possess regardless’.

2 — Appealing to the ‘quirks’ of Millennials (1981–1995) and Generation Z’s (1996–2005). Specifically, corporations that want to succeed must engage Millennials and Gen Z’s in particular, as their presence in the global workforce represents 59% according to the World Economic Forum. These groups already want to see purpose, learn quickly and desire real impact. They already thrive on life long learning as well. They generally also don’t stay long at firms where they don’t feel as if they are progressing either so abilities to learn and see impact is crucial and needs to be encouraged or else they may not stay at a firm.

3. At this stage, you’re probably wondering well, what is the real benefit for me?

So this is where I got really creative and decided to think a bit outside of the box. Mathematically, individual learning does slow down after some time if you analyze the learning curve model against a simple variable of experience. (But it’s a simple model and not the other varied models of the learning curve!)

As you can see, learning does slow down after some time and even so if you possess a growth mindset.

I really wanted to conduct a poll here but due to timing and mobility constraints, I decided to confirm this with my current CFO, Mark Talma, who at age 61 (and over 40 years of FP&A experience) stated that learning does slow down and even stop in some instances. But the key to extending the learning curve is really from learning from others. It’s more of a challenge yes, but it has more benefit than consuming intelligence from hard sources. It is also faster to consume and more convincing.

Personally, I believe material available on hard sources will always be beneficial but it will vary from interpretation and the persons who can really get something may not always be the person reading it. Also, we may all learn differently, what if you’re an auditory learner who soaks up information faster when you hear it and remembers up to 75 percent of it? You need peers and teams to bring out information that you may have overlooked and drive your creativity.

You may not always have the answers and so peers and teams can really challenge our existing beliefs leading to even further development but the key point here is that its beneficial for both you and them.

Lastly to really drive home the point of the benefit, I did stumble upon research which was published on the BBC earlier this week. (It’s on students yes, but the growth mindset is heavily built on continuous learning, so I felt it was truly applicable).

“Consider a study of more than 600 medical students, which found that the people who focused on their own progress, and cared little for others — performed very well in their first year. These students were good at extracting information, and by offering little in return they were able to focus on their own progress. Those who were more generous with their time and were willing to offer insights to their fellow students, got left behind.

But here is the curious thing….

By the second year, the 2nd group had caught up, and by the third year had overtaken their peers. Indeed, by the final year, the 2nd group had gained significantly higher grades. What was going on?

As students progress through medical school and the further they advance, the more their success depended on teamwork, service and collaboration. Whereas the first group won on independent roles where performance was based on individual results, the 2nd group thrived in interdependent roles where collaboration matters professionally.

As one researcher put it: a giving attitude is a powerful asset when allied to intelligence.”

Finally, here’s how you can encourage growth in others and by extension yourself:

1 — Be a role model first and foremost and get a mentor.

2 — Have discussions! Talk and share your experiences and what you know. Document your knowledge journey. With more and more finance professionals qualifying each year, it’s easy for ‘mainstream’ finance material to be more available than personalized ones (and FBP material as well) so get your stories out there because generally, people remember these.

3 — For teams, know that the myth’s been busted: genius requires hard work, not talent alone. Not all of us are born the smartest and so you really have to disassociate improvement from failure and reward effort. Don’t project who you have become onto others, growth takes time.

4 — Provide regular opportunities for reflection and feedback amongst team members, especially when things don’t go according to plan, because it happens. This is imperative so that improvements can be made in the future and especially if you want to succeed in the long-run!