Why Leaders Must Adopt An Entrepreneurial Mindset – 3 Steps To Success
Updated: Sep 14, 2022
Written by: Karolynn Hardy, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
You do not need to be an entrepreneur to benefit from an entrepreneurial mindset. The Great Resignation, hybrid working, and quiet quitting are just some of the trends facing leaders today. COVID-19, arguably, has prompted some of the largest changes in how we work that have been seen for decades.
The hangover of this continues with staff shortages, rising costs to attract talent, and lack of training, along with rising inflation and a looming recession. Amongst this change, many employees have opted to leave the corporate environment to start their own venture, embark on meaningful work and find their purpose. Not only are the trends of work constantly changing, but the future of work is also taking a new shape. Strong leadership is more critical than ever. Great leaders see things as they are.
Leaders are faced with creating culture, community, belonging, and effective communication in a workplace where teams may no longer see each other from one week to the next. To remain competitive and attractive to the talent in the market, leaders must display an entrepreneurial mindset. Leaders with an entrepreneurial mindset, also sometimes known as a growth mindset, “allow individuals to harness opportunities, overcome obstacles, learn and implement strategies and thrive in all sorts of competitive environments (Forbes,2021).
Entrepreneur.com build on this, listing the traits required to include optimism, openness, curiosity, persuasiveness, self-motivation, resilience to setbacks, and ownership. Leaders in the current working environment are required to balance the commercial requirements of their business and the needs of people more than ever. Richard Branson’s philosophy of investing in his people has stood the test of time and sustained success: “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”
So, how do you adopt an entrepreneurial mindset?
There are three steps to implementing an entrepreneurial mindset in your leadership.
1. Follower leadership
Steve Jobs once said,
“It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
Be a leader of your people. For your people. Enable others to do their best work. Allow your team to undertake work that is meaningful to them. Provide purpose and vision, so the team understands the bigger picture of how their work contributes to something that matters. Seek the perspective of your talented team, value their input, invite their contribution and act on their suggestions so they become part of the solution. Encourage everyone to learn from opportunities. Instill a mindset that there is no failure, as every experience creates new opportunities. Enable everyone to be involved in success!
2. Take Risk
“You can't make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.” — Michelle Obama
Get comfortable with the uncomfortable. One thing to be certain about moving forward, the future will continue to be uncertain. Work outside of the box. Do what has not been experimented with before. Encourage creativity and invite innovation. Practice weighing up the pros and cons of any situation and actively making decisions with the information available. Ask yourself, what would I do if it were my money? Taking considered judgement, followed by action planning and implementation, engages your team towards a common goal.
3. Intuition
“Follow your instincts. That’s where true wisdom manifests itself.” –Oprah Winfrey
Trust yourself. Back yourself to listen to your intuition. Intuition enables leaders to connect with empathy and act with confidence. Confidence breeds belief and optimism. Optimism enables the foundations to build resilience to bounce forward from setbacks. With purpose, the setbacks are worth the learnings that lead to success. Intuition leads to wisdom, and wisdom knows when a viable idea can be iterated.
Over and over, research demonstrates that leadership correlates to team engagement and engagement correlates to marketplace success.
You do not need to be an entrepreneur to benefit from an entrepreneurial mindset.
Be the leader your organisation requires in these challenging times to navigate these headwinds of change.
Be the leader you are destined to be!
Karolynn Hardy, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Karolynn Hardy is a proud Robbins Results Coach. PCC & Master NLP qualified, Karolynn is known for her honest, passionate, and caring approach. She couples her expertise in mindset and brain health with tangible strategies. Her desire is to help clients apply these strategies through their heart and their mind to create their best life. Karolynn loves asking that key question to get to the heart of a matter. With a special interest in veteran PTSD, Karolynn pledges to be part of a solution to treating this widespread condition. Also, with an extensive career in corporate development, Karolynn understands leadership. She believes leadership comes in many forms and there is an inner leader in each of us. It is her mission to help each of her clients find their inner leader, their inside perspective, to become their best self.
