Two Vital Mindsets that Must Exist within a BusinessTwo Vital Mindsets that Must Exist within a Business
The Builder/Protector aspect of the 7 Stages of Growth is a measurement within an organization of confidence vs. caution.
It’s a critical measurement tool for a CEO and their leadership team to be able to assess the organisation’s ability to accept change, react with confidence to that change and help the organization achieve its stated goals.
Why should you care about what your Builder/Protector Ratio is?
- Because a good leader works from solid information.
Making decisions, determining how well the organization is performing, and knowing how the ‘behind the scenes’ culture is impacting productivity are all impacted by a balance of Builders and Protectors in an organization.
- 13/07/2020
- Posted by: Anaïs Bouvier
- Category: Your Business Growth, Your Personal and People Growth
- A “Builder” mindset creates new ideas, takes on new initiatives, and finds ways to expand the revenue and profitability of the enterprise.
- A Builder chooses to challenge and improve the way things are done. They are risk tolerant and highly supportive of growth.
- A Builder tends to be confident in the financial strength of an organization and hold a high degree of confidence in the organisation’s processes and systems.
When an organization is strong financially, when communication exists from the bottom up and the top down and is done consistently, and when employees feel valued in an organisation, it’s much easier to maintain and or build a Builder mentality.
Also, certain positions in an organization may be more Builder-centric. The leadership team in an organisation may tend to be made up of more Builders because these people have the pulse of the organisation at their fingertips and have control over their own destiny.
A “Protector” mindset is cautious and prefers to slow down the pace of change.
- Those with a “Protector” mindset are risk averse and highly suspicious of growth.
- Protectors may not feel confident in the organisation’s financial strength and are slow to embrace the optimism of the future. They tend to be suspicious of new markets and the stability of such.
- Protectors tend to keep the brake pedal on even during times of rapid expansion and react cautiously to leadership’s ability to take the organisation forward.
- Protectors tend to evolve more noticeably when there is a downturn in business, either from internal issues or external issues. When there is an attitude of fear in the workplace,
- Protectors emerge and begin to apply the brakes to new ideas, resource requests and change in general.
Companies want Protectors in certain positions, such as controller, accountants, CFOs.
A healthy mix of Protectors is beneficial as they help apply the brakes when things start going too fast and decisions are being made too quickly.
An interesting article from Gallup indicated that a make-or-break trait for organisations during tough times is resilience. They note that especially during any crisis, it takes an exceptional level of resilience for companies and their employees to thrive amid uncertainty and a disrupted climate.
Their recent study of 62,965 business units and teams, published in the peer-reviewed science journal Human Performance, reports that “… favourable job attitudes have a stronger relationship to organisational outcomes in bad economic times than they do in normal or good times.”
That study looked at the mid-‘90s through 2015 which included two major economic recessions (2001-2002 and 2008-2009) and evaluated how key cultural attributes impacted profitability, productivity, customer perceptions of service and employee turnover.
The conclusion was this:
“Favourable job attitudes have a stronger relationship to organisational outcomes in bad economic times than in good economic times. Resilient cultures survive”.
The reality is a strong Builder-Mindset will create confident cultures.
When the leadership of an organisation creates a culture that is open and honest in how they communicate, recognises the value that each and every person brings to the organisation, isn’t afraid to take on tough issues and difficult conversations, and holds people accountable to clear expectations, that confident culture (Builder Mindset) will survive and even thrive when times get tough.
The ability for the Stages of Growth X-Ray process to help uncover a company’s Builder/Protector Ratio can be an effective process to bring teams back together during challenging times.
These are just a few reasons why you should care about a company’s Builder/Protector Ratio.
Make a time to explore how your company culture can be more ‘switched’ on this vital approach to resilience and culture building, please feel free to give us a call or an email, and we’ll be delighted to explore your options with you.