Change Your Mindset To Grow Your Company

Few companies grow steadily year over year.  Business owners quickly discover that growth comes in stages, and become frustrated when their company hits a plateau.

What to do?  Often small business owners keep on doing what worked for them in the past, waiting for the market or the economy to change.  Unfortunately, past success can actually get in the way of future growth.  The management mindset that worked to launch the company and get it running profitably can hinder higher performance.

Alan Berson and Richard Stieglitz discovered that many successful managers struggle to become successful leaders.  The management mindset that was so helpful in directing tasks and getting things done can hold you back from becoming a leader who empowers others to achieve your long-term vision and goals.

In their book, "Leadership Conversations: Challenging High-Potential Managers to Become Great Leaders", Berson and Stieglitz show how managers and leaders engage in four types of conversations quite differently.

FOUR TYPES OF CONVERSATIONS

	Management Mindset	Leadership Mindset
Building Relationships	Build transactional relationships to get the job done	Build trusted relationships to envision and achieve goals
Developing Others	Teach people what they need to know for their jobs	Build an organization that will prosper long after you have left
Making Decisions	Make decisions based on the best technical approach	Choose courses of action that stimulate long-term growth
Taking Action	Provide resources and push people to get the job done	Balance the importance of long-term and short-term results

from page 97 of "Leadership Conversations Challenging High-Potential Managers to Become Great Leaders", 

by Alan S. Berson and Richard G. Stieglitz

The management mindset is tactical, the leadership mindset is strategic.  And if your mind is filled with tactical concerns, it's impossible to focus on strategic issues.

If you're truly committed to taking your company to the next level, you must delegate the managerial conversations to other people in your organization.  Then, and only then, will your mind be free to address the strategic conversations.