“We need to develop a growth culture in our team…”
“We need people to have a growth mindset…”
Working in the product capability space I have lost count of how many times I have heard some version of this from product or P&C leaders. But what does it mean to build a growth culture?
A growth culture (or for an individual a growth mindset) speaks to a team or organisation that focuses on learning as the path to performance. It is a culture that deeply believes in, recognises and rewards self-awareness and our ability to improve as humans.
A growth culture can sometimes be misconstrued as an ‘intellectual culture’ – one that values knowledge and expertise over all else, especially over emotion. However, this is not technically not true as Tony Shwartz shared in HBR:
“In a growth culture… How people feel — and make other people feel — becomes as important as how much they know.” — Tony Shwartz
Self-awareness is the key – awareness of your own improvement areas, insecurities and bias – and then the ability to compassionately support others in identifying and reconciling with their own. Product leaders and organisations frequently see self-awareness as an individual pursuit, but in reality there are regular but under-utilised opportunities to support developing self-awareness in product teams by improving the structure and quality of professional development conversations.
Here we explore some tips for better utilising professional development conversations to improve growth culture and mindset.
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Professional development leads performance, but they aren’t the same thing
One common misconception we see frequently in organisations is that development and performance are the same thing. But development is forward looking, performance is retrospective. The goal of development is that it eventually unlocks performance, but they happen on two different timescales with two different goals.
Performance talks to the value extracted from your people, but development talks to the value provided to them. It doesn’t help that most organisations frequently mix the two together in ‘performance reviews’. In these instances it is natural for managers and organisations to over-focus on performance – as this is usually what is remunerated and what impacts the bottom line for the business most.
This is short-sighted. By focusing purely on current retrospective performance, teams are not unlocking the keys to future performance – which is driven by development. As the investment industry is loath to tell us “past performance is not a reliable predictor of future performance” and those who do not keep an eye on the future where capability is concerned will find themselves in the past.
Higher quality professional development starts with higher quality development conversations
So if better quality development conversations are the key to higher self awareness and to unlocking future (forward-looking) performance in our teams, what can we do to improve them? Two simple ways are with separation and reflection.
1. Separate conversations
For equal focus on development AND performance it is a good idea to separate these types of conversations. Performance conversations usually happen on a quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis frequently aligned to financial years for remuneration purposes. Remove development conversations to a different (ideally more frequent) cadence that does not align with performance reviews. This will allow greater focus on the task of developing your people and thinking of the future, while still preserving the performance conversation cadence.
2. Build in deeper reflection
Ensure development conversations go beyond tactical ‘feedback’ and offer deeper observation & reflection opportunities. Feedback and development are often mis-construed, but feedback frequently addresses performance, not development and self awareness. Development conversations should go deeper than feedback and dive team members to reflect more deeply on an experience.
For example, feedback may start with “Some feedback on your presentation to the execs…” You can turn it into a better development conversation by bringing in reflection and emotion “I noticed you seemed a bit nervous when presenting to the execs, how were you feeling? How do you feel it went?” This opens the floor for the team member to explore their emotions, why these emotions may be in place and how they believe they may or may not have impacted their capability in the situation. Connection emotion, capability and outcome is the key to self awareness and it requires looking ‘below the surface’.
Supporting better reflection with structured tools
A great way to improve the ‘reflection’ element of professional development conversations is by using a structured tool like a capability assessment built on a product capability framework. These tools are essentially pre-built ‘self-reflection tools’ that have individuals reflect on their capability strengths and areas of improvement. They act as a powerful starter for development conversations, especially when not tied to performance.
Many organisations purely ask people, ‘what is your strength’ or ‘where do you want to improve?’ This does not make self-reflection easy especially if you are not someone who is in the habit of doing this. To truely reflect objectively on your strengths and improvement areas, you already need to have high self-awareness and emotional regulation. Opening up about what you are truely not good at and wanting to improve (beyond the surface level) requires vulnerability.
Without this deeper understanding of self, people will tend to fixate on ‘known-knowns’ (referring to the Johari window, Luft & Ingham, 1955). This is a shallow reflection on self. Instead, by using a robust & comprehensive capability framework, in an environment that is open to emotion as a building block for psychological safety, this enables exploration of “known-unknowns” and “unknown-knowns”. This is because it requires people to look at a whole range of capabilities and reflect, is this something I believe I am good at, if so why and if not, should I be? This starts them on a path to a deeper reflection.
The Johari Window, a tool to build awareness
Some tips for using product capability assessments to develop self-awareness
Over the last 20 years, we have developed our own product capability model as well as countless for our clients, here we share some common best practices we see for high quality capability assessments:
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Define ‘non-perishable’ capabilities – to get maximum value for your people, make sure capabilities are ‘non-perishable’- this means they are long-lived elements of your talent profile, and also transferable outside your organisation. These capabilities will be used to develop talent over years and ensure they thrive no matter where they end up (inside or outside your organisation). Approaching it this way not only future-proofs business success, but demonstrates a deep care about your people and their futures.
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Capture it – while simply asking people to assess themselves is an option, this does not allow for adequate time for high-quality self reflection. This is where a dedicated tool can help as it allows for individuals to deeply reflect, practice self-awareness and capture this process for conversation.
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Integrate it – this tool needs to be used regularly and revisited. The best way to do this is to integrate the tool into regular conversations (at least quarterly) that are dedicated to reflection and separated from performance. Using an integrated technology tool will also help to track development over time and allow for recognition and celebration of growth, not just performance.
For a more in-depth discussion and tips for creating and using capability frameworks & assessments, download our e-book.
What if I don’t have a way to assess capability?
To aid in hosting better conversations utilizing a structured and comprehensive product capability framework is one of the reasons Brainmates developed our own capability assessment. If you don’t have your own framework, or even if you want to improve it, a great step is to consider using a third party framework developed by people who have been in the business of product capability for decades!
Find out more about the Brainmates product capability assessment and if it is right for your team.
But if I develop my people, won’t they just leave?
This is a final mis-conception that needs to be addressed, and one we hear unfortunately too often. A performance culture will often incentivise high-performing employees with promotion or compensation, but focus less on development. Now don’t get me wrong, compensation and formal recognition through promotion are important, but they don’t address the whole picture.
It is worthy of note that a better development opportunity is the top reason especially for younger generations to leave their jobs. By focusing purely on formal progression and recognition rather than balancing this with an equal (or arguably greater) focus on development and opportunity, product teams could be cutting off their nose despite their face as they face generational attrition.
Fundamentally, ambitious, high performing product professionals will always be looking for a better development opportunity. One way to ensure you attract and retain them is to take the time to offer them the best development opportunity you can, in a culture that celebrates and unlocks growth potential, not just performance. It is the small conversations, empathetically held that will be remembered the longest, and who knows where you will meet again!
