What Growth really means to me

By Nick Harrington, Managing Director, Eximius Group 

Today I wanted to focus on the word "Growth" and what that means within our value propositions and to me personally.

Growth is at the heart of most interesting and exciting businesses, creating more opportunity for its teams and more challenges and variety to the working day. Our mission is quite simply a continued focus on 30% growth year-on-year and a fixed target of 100 million turnover as our longer term goal.

Our growth model:

Our growth model is supported by an investment in training, at all levels I might hasten to add. This focus changed two years ago, when we made a plan to focus on our internal development piece and now we are rolling it out and enjoying the process. The physical growth of turnover and headcount is great, but I believe it is a by-product of the personal growth and empowerment we enable and encourage.

We start by understanding the personal goals, visions and aspirations of each of our team members and then set a program pointing them on that road to success but more importantly fulfillment. All these journeys start with self-assessment and acknowledging where you currently are on that road. Once someone is grounded in the reality of their current self then the fun stuff begins! The deniers and overly proud just push pause on the process, until the moment something triggers a time of reflection (I know this to be true, as I was that guy for the first six months in my fledgling career.)

Thankfully my mentor (the legend - Simon Johnston) persisted and we made a game changing breakthrough in my professional but also in my personal life. The thing I've realised 10 years on from those crazy days starting out is that professional and personal development are the same thing. Both require a huge focus from yourself but especially from the professional people in your life who classify themselves as leaders. The hours out the office with Simon, the values, the standards and the fun we all had, had a bigger influence on my career than any class room training. Now I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by a peer group that challenge, push me forward and hold me accountable for my actions and behaviours... Plus they are quite good fun too!

If you find yourself in any position of leadership I see it as your duty to ensure you create a platform for personal growth, especially if you are even considering hiring graduates / Gen Y.

So here are a few questions to ask yourself:

- Do I know / care what the personal goals of my team are?

- Am I taking any steps / providing any guidance around those goals?

- Are my team prepared for change? If not, start to understand why?

- How confident is the team really? Are you letting their personalities shine through?

- Do you focus the team more on Goals or Growth?

- Do you understand your team? Who is driven more by cause or profit, status or success, core values or work?