Entrepreneur James Sackl is all for positive team building. He speaks about fostering a growth mindset in the workplace and how it motivates and inspires.
Work and being at the workplace, forms a substantial part of our lives. In essence, most of us spend a third of our hours in a day working. Being comfortable in the workplace is crucial for our mental well-being, but also for an employer to have employees who are committed to the growth and ‘well-being’ of the organisation as a whole, says Sackl
Boosting staff mindsets and morale
Team members that have a growth mindset are vital to the existence and growth of the organisation. There will be good times but as with most things in life, it’s cyclical and the business will be faced with hard times. It is in times like this especially, that you need a team with a shared vision and common goal. It is a collective effort to stay focussed and push through when the going gets tough.
An environment that is conducive coupled with a resilient team is what has helped businesses weather through difficult times and unexpected economic headwinds.
According to Sackl, a committed team can make all the difference. He says, “We recently found out about a tender in Germany for COVID tests, and we didn’t have a German entity. We also didn’t have everything we needed to apply for the tender and the whole team realised the potential opportunities that come with winning this tender and they just jumped into action.
“In the space of four days, we had a German entity set up and had a tender documentation draft done. We had updated pricing, and everything was accomplished in those four days. This was a testament to how committed the team is and was a major boost for staff morale as well, to realise what they’re capable of under pressure.“
Success is a journey
Contrary to the idea that many people have about a business and success, it is failure that truly breeds success, says Sackl. “Failure isn’t necessarily a negative thing, especially if you evaluate what went wrong and learn and grow from it.
“A team with a growth mindset will use the insights from the failed venture and apply them to a similar problem in the future, to find a possible solution. In many ways, failure means that you’ve ventured into the unknown and the insights gained will pave the way to future success.”
Another Sackl team was working on an innovative building system, which was originally a house to be built on a production line. It was robotic and was to be built complete; and could morph into different shapes to suit different blocks.
“However, when we figured out the cost, the idea was no longer feasible,” he says.. “This was after investing six months of engineering time into it, so we had to figure out a solution that was achievable on a production line. It still had to be customisable, but standardised, so we built something that was able to morph but in a less obvious way. We ended up building a componentised building system that could fit into various formats.”
Leading the charge
An influential and respected leader is the ideal person to promote and foster a growth mindset at the workplace. As a leader, there is an obligation to both your product, customers and staff. It is crucial to define the vision and illustrate its importance at every opportunity.
”Promoting and reiterating a growth mindset has become more important than ever amidst a climate of doubt and despair in the current economy,”Sackl says. He believes that, even in tough times, valuable talent and employees should be compensated fairly, in a manner that will make them want to stay and give their best.
He also highlights the importance of ‘keeping the excitement levels up’ in the workplace through new product launches. Checking in with the team just to see how they’re going is fundamental to maintaining a workplace that exudes a positive vibe.
Sackl sums it up by saying: “You want to instill a feeling of winning and belonging, and making the team feel valued. That’s the formula for a workplace that thrives and grows, despite being caught in the current economic headwinds.”
