The Mindset of a Growth Company: A Preview from The Four Forces of Growth

After years of research­ing, writ­ing, rewrit­ing and rewrit­ing again, I’m thrilled that my new book, The Four Forces of Growth (work­ing title), is launch­ing this fall. Ear­ly reviews have been strong — but more impor­tant­ly, it’s already spark­ing pow­er­ful con­ver­sa­tions with CEOs and leaders.

And these con­ver­sa­tions? They’re not just about strat­e­gy or tools. They’re about some­thing much more fun­da­men­tal: mindset.

At its core, The Four Forces of Growth helps lead­ers notice the shifts in their own think­ing — moments when they’re oper­at­ing from a gen­uine growth mind­set, and moments when they qui­et­ly (but pow­er­ful­ly) slip into pat­terns that stall growth.

The Uncom­fort­able Truth

Most lead­ers say they want growth.
Most com­pa­nies aspire to grow.
But some­where along the way, some­thing shifts.

With­out even real­iz­ing it, lead­ers start mak­ing choic­es that pri­or­i­tize safe­ty over pos­si­bil­i­ty, famil­iar­i­ty over bold­ness, and cer­tain­ty over oppor­tu­ni­ty. The result? Growth stalls — not because the oppor­tu­ni­ties dis­ap­pear, but because the think­ing behind the deci­sions changes.

In the book, I call this phe­nom­e­non spa­tial dis­ori­en­ta­tion — a term bor­rowed from avi­a­tion, where a pilot can lose their sense of direc­tion and not even real­ize they’re veer­ing off course. The same thing hap­pens in busi­ness. And unless lead­ers recal­i­brate, they risk keep­ing their com­pa­nies safe­ly on the ground — pro­tect­ed, pre­dictable, but not growing.

The Growth Mind­set Pattern

The growth mind­set I see in high-growth lead­ers is sur­pris­ing­ly sim­ple — but not easy:

• They act, even when risk is present.
• They lean into uncer­tain­ty, rather than wait­ing for per­fect clarity.
• They stay focused on pos­si­bil­i­ty, even when prob­lems are pulling at their attention.
• They under­stand that courage isn’t the absence of fear — it’s mov­ing for­ward in spite of it.

Con­verse­ly, lead­ers who stall often fall into what I call prob­lem think­ing — con­sumed by what’s bro­ken, what’s miss­ing, or what could go wrong. They hun­ker down, cling to the cur­rent mod­el, and wait. Iron­i­cal­ly, many of these lead­ers were once bold risk-tak­ers — but over time, expe­ri­ence, pres­sure, and even suc­cess itself can lure them back into the com­fort of the familiar.

The Growth Quad­rant Model

In The Four Forces of Growth, we map this out simply:

• Growth hap­pens when your mind­set is focused on oppor­tu­ni­ty and you act with courage.
• Improve­ment hap­pens when you’re focused on prob­lems, but still act with courage.
• Analy­sis shows up when fear keeps you stuck with problems.

• Agony is when you see prob­lems, but fear pre­vents you from acting.

Prob­lem-solv­ing is still impor­tant. But growth requires a dif­fer­ent alti­tude of think­ing. You have to train your brain to stay ori­ent­ed toward oppor­tu­ni­ty, even when prob­lems are shout­ing for your attention.

A Real-Time Exam­ple: AI

We’re see­ing this in real time with AI. Some lead­ers are frozen by fear, risk, and com­plex­i­ty. They see noth­ing but dis­rup­tion and threat. Oth­ers — often the same lead­ers at dif­fer­ent moments — are ener­gized by the scale of the oppor­tu­ni­ty AI presents.

Same world. Same facts. Com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent mindset.

The Mind Con­trols the Model

And this is the cen­tral point I want to make — and what I empha­size with every lead­er­ship team I work with:

If you can’t get your brain into growth fre­quen­cy, don’t both­er work­ing on strat­e­gy, peo­ple, or finan­cials.
You’ll uncon­scious­ly build every­thing to pro­tect what you have, instead of cre­at­ing what could be.

Chal­lenge:

Before you craft your next strate­gic plan or hire your next leader, ask yourself:

• Am I see­ing the full set of opportunities?
• Am I will­ing to take bold, imper­fect action?
• Is my mind in growth alti­tude — or am I play­ing it safe?
   

That sin­gle choice — where you allow your mind to oper­ate — might just be the most impor­tant lead­er­ship deci­sion you make this year.

Resources:

• Over­com­ing the Dilem­ma of Big­ger vs. Better
• The Shift from Chief Prob­lem Solver to Strate­gic CEO