People growth = company growth
Spotify is a growing company. Hyper growing, in fact. Because we are expanding our business. So we are constantly looking for new talent to add to the existing. Our brand is strong which works out well, a lot of great people want to work here. But even more important for our growth is how we develop our people internally, so they can thrive and grow with the company. Because when our people grow, Spotify grows. This is one of our core beliefs and it shapes how we do things; how we organize to reach our targets, our take on leadership, how we set our values, and how we live by them.
It also shapes our take on performance and development, taking us beyond the traditional ways of performance management. Our approach includes both performance and development in the same package, we see them as inseparable. But that is another blog post.
This one is focused on how we make sure our people can grow in a way that benefits both them and the company:
A Growth Mindset for everyone!
We are huge Carol Dweck fans and one of the foundations of our take on development is to encourage a growth mindset. We need every employee to work under the assumption that they will get better at anything if they practice. So training on how to develop a growth mindset is a cornerstone of our employee training package.
Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose
We are fans of Daniel Pink too, and the Self Determination Theory research. We believe that motivation comes from the need to be the director of our own lives, the need to learn and create new things, and the desire to do better by ourselves and our world. Giving people room to grow is a lot about creating an atmosphere where mastery, autonomy and purpose are possible for everyone.
The employees own their own development
We are very clear on this point. Managers, tools, training, and principles are all here and ready to help people to grow, but the ultimate responsibility is with each employee. They call to development talks, they choose what support they need and they decide what tools to use. We have a special training package in place on how to be the master of this process. It is open to all employees and it includes growth mindset training, self-leadership and training on what our framework looks like.
Supporting leadership
We have no systems where boxes are checked to prove to HR that goals have been set and approved and evaluated. Instead we have a framework of principles and tools, all focused on giving each employee the power to drive their own development. We focus on having good conversations and continuous follow-up and feedback, which means our leaders need to be excellent in supporting team and individual growth. We don’t keep track of how many conversations are being held, instead we focus on giving managers the tools and abilities they need to have conversations that really help people grow.
