It is said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and while no business owner, manager or team leader set out to demoralize their employees or team members all their "good intentions" does exactly that if the focus is on the negatives and the negative motivation tactic is the primary approach to management and supervision. Science now backs up what spirituality knew all along - we attract what we focus on!
How does this happen? Major changes within the organization or industry is presented and sold focusing on the negative rather than from a positive angle, highlighting the opportunities ahead. Management and staff retreat to micromanagement, using "bad cop" type tactics such as threats and intimidation to "keep people in line". In stead of seeking common ground and using a collaborative approach to supervision and team leading the controlling, restrictive style is employed forcing team members to feel like disempowered children.
The terms "growth hacking" and "growth hacker" have been showing up daily on my FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn feeds. This morning as I prepare to write this post I came across an article "What is a growth hacker?" written by Jonathan Aufray, Co-Founder & CEO of www.growth-hackers.net that was shared on Twitter so I decided to read the full article. Since most of the growth hacking related pieces have been posted by tech types, I haven't clicked on many but the curiosity was always there and this article would have the answer to the question I have been thinking.
Turns out "growth hacking" is a new spin on the age old challenge of businesses or all types and sizes - aligning the competing interest of different departments and functions of the business with the overall mission and objective of the business. Only now, new technological tools are available to fine tune analysis of every imaginable data that can drive behaviour and fairly accurately predict outcome.
So what does growth hacking have to do with the topic of this blog post? Hear me out. "Growth hacking is a set of cross-disciplinary skills with one goal and one goal only, to grow a start-up or a business........ A growth hacker is a multi-talented individual with skills in......" writes Jonathan. In an environment of rapid changes organizations that get lost in the weeds or in some cases it is more like bogged down in the swamp tend "majoring in the minor", micro managing processes and situations rather than engaging and empowering employees and team members. When this happens, people get frustrated, frustrations kill morale and when morale dies so does productivity. These outfits will lose ground quickly. On the other hand, organizations that embrace changes and use change as a tool to advance leadership and to grow leaders will quickly rise to the top. It never cease to amaze me how much money some companies spend on "junk" and "junkets" - meaningless razzle-tazzles promotional stuff and events that people attend out of obligation rather that something they are excited about while hardly putting any money in growing leaders on the front line of the organizations where it counts - with the people who acquire and keep the customers coming through the doors. Intrigued? here's the link to Jonathan's article: http://www.growth-hackers.net/growth-hacking-definition/
Leadership expert John C. Maxwell famously says "Anybody can steer a ship but it takes a leader to chart the course". Another of John's quotes is "If you are breathing you need encouragement". One of my favourite leaders, global entrepreneur extra-ordinary, Richard Branson consistently touts his employees as the most valuable assets in his companies. Some people are great at doing their job but the drive away customers and kill motivation of their workmates in the process which is not a win at all.
Happy #growthhacking!
BEVERLEY ALLEN, FLMI
Beverley
Investment Fund Advisor & Life and Health Insurance Advisor
Desjardins Financial Security Investments Inc.
Desjardins Financial Security Independent Network
Ontario Central Region (OCR), GTA West Branch
5070 Dixie Road
Mississauga, On L4W 1C9
#MoneyTalkwithBevAllen
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