The Growth of Your People will determine the growth of your company

Authored by Whitney Johnson

Featured title: Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company

MQ4B Booster 22.1 — Using the S-Curve to Hire and Develop Top Talent

Interview Insights

Top 3 Takeaways

Ask yourself, and ask your people about where you are in your growth.

If employees feel like they can learn, grow, and develop, they will stay as long as possible. Making your people feel that they have purpose and are valued has a higher probability of retention than a salary increase or incentives.

When you grow yourself, you grow your business. Having personal development gives us control over emotion, allowing us to think clearer and therefore control our career better.

Read the Show Notes from this Episode

Whitney found the lead character Samantha from the hit TV series Bewitched to be a source of inspiration growing up. [01:51]
Just like the main character in the show, Whitney does not shy away from solving problems, no matter how challenging. [01:54]
Whitney shared her experience working on Wall Street and meeting one of the people she admired, author Clayton Christiansen.[03:33]
The book Innovator’s Dilemma, authored by Clayton Christiansen, sparked Whitney to think differently when she felt stuck on a career plateau. The ideas in the book clarified and solidified her decision to disrupt herself to advance her career. [06:50].
Some managers are so good and effective with their leadership that their employees follow them wherever they go. Sumeet Shetty is an example of such a leader, and Whitney shares some of his best traits and practices. [08:41]
The three stages of the tall S to maintain your people: The launch point, the sweet spot, and mastery. [11:24]
CASE: Patrick Pichette and Eric Schmidt at Google. How to keep a talented employee from getting bored or burned out. [13:25]
Egon Zehnder’s 2018 study about personal growth and how the pandemic drastically changed the result. [17:46]
Who is the peak performer? What defines a high-performing individual? What defines a high-performing team?[19:27]
Whitney shares tangible recommendations to keep your growth trajectory moving positively. [23:24]
My Quest for the Best lightning round begins. [27:30]

Expert Bio

Whitney Johnson is the CEO of Disruption Advisors, a tech-enabled talent development company, and an expert on smart growth leadership: growing your people to grow your company.

Thinkers50 ranked her among the top ten management thinkers in the world in 2021, and in 2020 she was a Top Voice on LinkedIn, where she has 1.8 million followers.

Johnson is an award-winning author, world-class keynote speaker, frequent lecturer for Harvard Business Publishing’s Corporate Learning division, and an award-winning executive coach and adviser to CEOs.

She is the author of several bestselling books, including Disrupt Yourself and Build an A-Team, and hosts the weekly Disrupt Yourself podcast.