It’s no secret that businesses need to grow each year to remain profitable and continue operations. Beyond staying afloat, successful business owners must have a why for their business. With purpose, you will be significantly more focused on personal and team goals, which will lead you to feel more fulfilled and accomplished. In 2025 we expect big changes to occur in the business world, including changes in business regulations such as crypto, and shifting use cases of technology with the rise of AI. Keeping these trends in mind, businesses need to employ personal and managerial growth mindsets to succeed in 2025. While technological tools may help you achieve your goals this year, they won’t be the reason for your success. Effective businesses encourage personal and team growth so that they will have the foresight to decide which tools and business strategies to use. As part of our podcast interview series, we met with Patricia Boral from the Boral Marketing Agency and Roberto Coello at the Premium Advantage to discuss employing a growth mindset.

Personal and Managerial Growth Mindset

The first area in which leaders need to start creating a growth mindset is on a personal level. If you are not motivated to learn and grow, why should your team members listen to you as a leader? The same idea applies to team members; personal growth in your career and field will drive up your market value and improve your team and business. As one person in a team grows, the more likely it is that the team will grow together. While this momentum of motivation often starts at the leadership level, it is highly beneficial to grow at a personal level not only for the sake of your team but to positively impact your career trajectory. 

Speaking with Patricia Boral, one of the best ways to start growing at a personal level in 2025 is through learning. Whether you’re reading blog posts like this, reading books, listening to podcasts, or doing research, the more you know the better informed you will be. With more information, you will have a stronger sense of which strategies work and don't work, and how to run your business more effectively. One way Patricia encourages her team to grow is by creating personal learning days. Employees at the Boral marketing agency are assigned a learning day, in which they can pick any topic in marketing that interests them to research and learn. Another way of learning is by surrounding yourself with the right group of people. Whether it be surrounding yourself with people in your company or like-minded individuals in your industry, networking with smart people who have a growth mindset will make you smarter and more motivated. There’s a saying in psychology that you are the average of your five closest friends. In a business context, surrounding yourself with motivated people will inspire you to succeed, whereas hanging on to friends who have no drive or will to grow, will hold you back. Don’t use your network as an excuse for not growing. 

Putting in the Work

The other way to start your growth mindset is by putting in your 10,000 hours. In the famous book “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell, the author asserts that the difference between professionals and people who have not reached the top is 10,000 hours of practice. In a business context the more you immerse yourself at a personal level in your field, the better at it you will become. While putting in the work may not sound fun, oftentimes the best way to grow is through continuous practice and muscle memory through everyday skills. To grow efficiently, you must take your work seriously and try to continuously learn and practice new things each day. By only exploring what is familiar and not trying to learn more about your field, it is almost impossible to find new pathways. While I want you to think big about your growth potential, you start small, learning something new in your field daily. Similarly, Roberto Coello advises to be wary of overcommitment in situations. While risk-taking is good, learning from positive and negative experiences will help inform you now and in the future. When building your career or starting a small business it is almost impossible to take everything in at once and grow in every direction simultaneously. Roberto recalled the farm analogy when thinking about business and personal growth. Growing up on a farm myself, I can tell you that you can’t grow everything at once.  The soil must be tilled and fertilized and careful preparation needs to take place to get the best crop.  Instead of thinking too big, start by taking small steps each day and focus on creating value in the market. As you learn and practice each day, develop your processes and embrace chances to make your work more fun and efficient.

Business Growth Mindset

There’s a saying in sports and management that you are only as good as your weakest link. In the mindset of business growth, subpar team members will slow you down and serve as the bottleneck for your business. To build a growth mindset as a team, you must hire the right people who are motivated to work for your team and fit your company culture. While it may be difficult, Roberto suggests entrusting your employees. One way to do so is by setting expectations and delivering consistent and reliable messages for them to succeed in your culture. As a leader, you must be patient and deliver proper communication to ensure individual and overall success. Roberto explained that companies need to rely on their team, and a business is not a one-person show. By properly communicating goals, vision, and expectations your business will grow.

Embrace Feedback

Growing as a team is twofold; managers must set clear expectations and goals, and team members must buy in and be able to communicate ideas and feedback to improve the business. As a culture, great businesses grow with their team, and with their customers. To do this, your business must embrace a culture of feedback from both your team and customers. While everyone on your team has ideas good or bad, listening to those ideas and being open-minded will allow helpful discussions to take place, and for the best ideas to come out. Besides your team, learning and receiving feedback from your customers is vital to improving your processes and creating a better product. By putting your customer first, you will gain insight to make smarter decisions to propel business growth. In the shifting online business space gaining feedback is easier now than ever. Whether you are listening to customer reviews, sending out trials of your product to reviewers, or reading your comments on social media, learning from your customers is necessary for success. 

Gain a New Perspective

The final way to grow your business is through gaining an outside perspective. Whether you need to hire a professional consultant to help make a business decision or are looking for fresh ideas, an outside perspective will give you new ways of looking at your business that you and your team may not be able to recognize from within. Patricia mentioned her experience working with ActionCOACH and how outside coaching helped her receive feedback. Patricia,  like any great business leader, emphasized that businesses will still need to work hard, but coaching can help recognize areas for improvement, and help with accountability to stay on task. Using ActionCoach services Patricia created multiple 90-Day business plans to set realistic goals with actionable steps to grow her business. Working with ActionCoach, Patricia acquired talented employees and grew her business to double in one year! If you are hesitant about where to grow or unsure of how to improve your business, please reach out to Sugar Land ActionCOACH and take the first steps in making sure you have a successful 2025!

If you want to learn more from our conversations be sure to check out our Interviews with Patricia Boral - Boral Marketing Agency And Roberto Coello - The Premium Advantage