Brain food, anyone?
There are three types of appetites for professional growth in the business world; the forever hungry, the binge eaters and the starved.
The forever hungry are always growing. The binge eaters grow only when they absolutely have to. And the starved are emaciated, barely functional, if not already dead, professionally, that is.
Those in the latter group are not only professionally deceased, but they are dead weight to a company. It’s not even that they don’t pull their own load, they actually hold the entire organization back.
These starving masses have no thirst for professional growth, never nourishing their minds. They know what they know. They aren’t interested in improvement. They spend an inordinate amount of energy trying to keep an ever-changing world from evolving, so they can maintain some semblance of relevance. Their careers, of course, don’t go anywhere fast and they complain about everyone passing them by. I kinda find it hard to feel sorry for these people.
At the other end of the spectrum, the forever hungry group are the leaders. They don’t just survive, they thrive. Oh, they hit bumps in the professional road occasionally, but their perpetual momentum carries them through it.
From a creative vitality standpoint the ever-hungry peeps know what they don’t know and they are always looking to fill that void. They are the risk takers. They fail more than average people, but, hey, in business where does average get you?
So what about the middle group? The binge feeders. Those who grow only when it’s truly necessary? Where do they fit into this professional growth food chain, as it were? If you’re at this site you are likely in the leader group and are probably quite interested in how to move these middle-of-the-appetite-road types to the fast lane of the professional growth feast.
The binge eaters at the professional development food bar, by nature feed their minds only when they absolutely must. Fine. You’re an insatiable mind feeder, so if you want to help your company thrive and grow you need to know how to engage these more passive individuals and help them thrive and grow.
As I said before these middle of the growth-appetite-buffett types typically only progress when they have to. So what does “have to” mean. It means professional survival; when their industry is in deep you-know-what, when their company is clawing to stay vital, when their actual jobs are threatened. Again, these slow-to-grow (I’m getting sick of all these hyphenated-word phrases) types face a no-choice (sorry) situation.
Well, if you’re in management you can give them a no-choice situation. And you don’t have to give it to them when the industry or company’s back is up against the wall (although if that is the case then you have no choice).
This no-choice option is called lots of things when it’s levied in a proactive manner - it’s called raising the bar, elevating the expectations, demanding improvement. And the companies that operate this way as part of their DNA they actually have a good deal of success getting more out of their people than most companies.
I work in all corners of the corporate world, with a great deal of experience in the ad agency sector and a ton more experience with companies in virtually all industries. It’s my estimation that roughly 1/4 of the working masses are in the “starving” category, roughly 1/2 are in the middle - “binge eaters” - zone and about 1/4 of people in business are the “forever-hungry” types.
That kinda weird brain thing I used for an illustration at the beginning of this article is actually a chocolate layer cake which was served at the break of a workshop I led at an ad agency at recently. The agency - Cline, Davis, Mann - is a company that is absolutely committed to continuous improvement. Yeah, words “continuous improvement,” words that lots of companies use quite casually. But, believe me, CDM lives by these words.
And in the context of this discussion that means providing an environment where everyone grows professionally. Now, do you think they have a staff made up of 100% hungry growth people? No company is that fortunate. But I will tell you that, since companies like CDM make continuous improvement and professional growth a priority, those who don’t embrace the new - the “what’s possible”, the future - well, they simply don’t last long in this perpetually hungry environment. They either gain the appetite or,…
I use CDM as an example because they are the ones who baked the brain cake. And this company has brought my firm, Before & After, into a number of their offices, some on more than one occasion. So they have certainly demonstrated a true commitment to professional growth for all. But, actually, most B&A clients fall into this category - companies trying to make all of their people hungry. Trying to help all their people grow professionally.
I solute this commitment. It’s walking the talk. It’s not just waiting for improvement to happen, it’s making it happen.
Any company can do it. All they have to do is,…ahem,… just do it.
And when B&A gets the honor to serve such a company, well, it’s just frosting on the cake.
