A little while back we addressed how data can help to improve office culture. But this time round, we are flipping it to see how the company culture can improve your data.
These 3 aspects of company culture are directly related to improvement of data:
- Growth Mindset
- Goal Setting & Follow Up
- Commitment
Expanding on each of the above, we will touch on why they are important and how you can cultivate them.
Growth Mindset
Over 30 years ago Dr. Carol Dweck coined the terms fixed mindset and growth mindset to describe the underlying beliefs people have about learning and intelligence. ‘Growth mindset’ is now a household in name in business, self development and parenting literature.
Without listing everything that pertains to a growth mindset, these are the most relevant to data improvement:
- A passion for learning
- Welcoming feedback and criticism
- Perseverance
In your recruitment process, you need to be looking for these qualities and on a daily basis giving recognition to those who are displaying these characteristics. It’s not just about results, but the effort and attitude behind it.
It is unfortunate that efforts and results don’t line up exactly, because we can get so deflated when the results are coming in from our hard work, that we take our foot of the pedal or change our focus, when all we needed to do was persevere. This is why it’s so important to recognise when people are in the trenches, working hard to improve something, but not necessarily getting the results. Cheer them on, let them know their efforts aren’t going unnoticed.
If you can provide your team the data and encouragement, each individuals personal motivators and growth mindset will lead to data improvement.
Goal Setting & Follow Up
Goal setting is formalising hopes and wants. If you are happy for your team to be in neutral, then don’t worry about goals. But if you are wanting acceleration, encourage your team to be working towards goals ALL THE TIME.
Depending on an individuals circumstances, long term goals might not be very motivating, as they might not be able to see past the next 3 months. If your team has long term goals, fantastic, but it’s not worth forcing them on people. Instead try to focus on quarterly, monthly and weekly goals.
At the beginning of every month set time to review the data and make new goals. If the weekly goals are in line with the longer term goals it is more likely the monthly and quarterly goals will be achieved, so be sure to encourage your team to think carefully about their weekly goals.
Why is the follow up so important you ask? When things are important, they will be followed up. When things are not important, they won’t be. So what precedent do you want to set?
Take the time with each member of your team to see how they went in achieving their goals. If they did achieve it, acknowledge their efforts and quiz them as to how they achieved it. This will help them to reflect on positive behaviours and build their confidence.
If they didn’t achieve their goal, it could be for a couple of reasons.
- It was too big hairy and audacious
- They just haven’t seen the results from their efforts yet
- They were inconsistent or didn’t apply themselves
You might have your assumptions, but just as you would do if they achieved the goal, quiz them, but this time to find out why they didn’t. The less judgemental you are in this conversation, the better. Listen to their reasons and ask questions to understand. From there, ask what their plan of attack is for the following month, offer guidance and support them in achieving their next goal.
Achieving goals creates a taste for winning…and we all want a winning culture!!
Commitment
Where there is trust, there is commitment.
If your team trust that you have their backs and feel safe with you, a level of commitment will be formed. What does commitment have to do with data improvement?
See how this feels for familiarity: “I’m not really doing it for me, I just REALLY don’t want to let them down”.
We are social beings and many of us are MORE motivated by the pain of letting someone down, than by our own personal need to achieve something. The more committed the team are to you and the company, the harder they are going to work on achieving data improvement.
So what can you do to foster a strong sense of commitment and loyalty?
Be yourself, be consistent, build an open and honest relationship, care about your team, follow through on your word, be involved in everyone’s quest of improvement and most importantly, encourage the shit out of them.
TO PROSPER: A culture committed to you and to self improvement go hand in hand with data improvement. You play a key role in your teams commitment, but if you have recruited the right people their growth mindset will naturally lead them to achieving their goals.
Hopefully you have had a couple of lightbulb moments in reading this. There is always more that can be done to improve business, it’s just up to you to put in the work and follow through.
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