One lesson my mother always taught us was to work on something as if it was our own. Be it doing the dishes or cleaning our room, she would expect us to do it the best way we know how because in the end, it will always be to our benefit. I carried that lesson when I left our province for college and even when I started working. When I became a manager, one of the first lessons my senior manager taught me was to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. When I asked her more about it, I realized it was similar to the lesson my mother taught me.
An entrepreneurial mindset is one where you work as if it is your own. This means you do everything you can to keep your organization going, and to consistently add value to your product or services so that your customers keep coming back for more. It is a mindset where you develop the necessary skills and attitude so you can do your best for your work and for the organization. Developing this mindset will allow you to see your work as a continuous process improvement, where the goal is optimizing your strengths and identifying opportunities so you can work smarter. Developing the entrepreneurial mindset in your team will help them become accountable for their own work, help them find opportunities for learning, and be discerning in their decision-making and critical thinking. When people in your organization develop an entrepreneurial mindset, they become more attuned to the needs of the organization and they would take the initiative to develop action plans to address them.
To develop an entrepreneurial mindset, you and your team need to keep an ear to the ground for new developments. Just like business owners who are always on the lookout for new ways of doing things, you and your team need to do the same. Keep yourself updated especially on new technologies so that you can study how they can be used by your organization. But be vigilant that you do not apply them just for the sake of doing it. You should always look at how new ways of doing things can reduce cost while increasing productivity and engagement. You need to look at these improvements as ways not just of increasing productivity and value for your customers, but also as a way of improving the work life environment of your team.
Just like entrepreneurs, you need to be decisive and know when to take risks. One of the things you can do to empower your team is to give them enough decision-making capability so they can decide for themselves. But just like any decision, it needs to be backed up by current events and logical reasoning. Any good entrepreneur would tell you that they always keep their eyes on the horizon for new developments so they can plan ahead and take advantage of opportunities. Or they offer new products and services to disrupt the market. At any rate, an entrepreneurial mindset entails looking ahead and making the most of events.
The mindset also entails benchmarking with other organizations in the same industry. Part of your environment scanning should be an understanding of industry standards and your differentiator from other organizations in the same industry. If you do not stand out, your customers will go to your nearest competitor. When you and your team have an entrepreneurial mindset, you will continuously look for opportunities to get ahead of your competitors.
Sometimes, you can learn from other industries, especially those with similar processes, products, or services. You can attend seminars or even get in touch with your network to have a walkthrough of their organizations. You might find something useful in their organization that can add value to your products or services. You also need to expose your team to other industries so they can widen their perspective and develop their creative thinking skills.
One of the most important ideals of an entrepreneurial mindset is taking accountability for your actions. When something goes wrong, some people resort to blaming people or circumstances for outcomes. If you want to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, you and your team need to take accountability for your actions because that is what a business owner would do. Part of that is taking risks and sometimes failing and making mistakes. A business owner would accept responsibility, but they would also use that as an opportunity to learn and move ahead because they also know what their ultimate goal really is. If you want your team to be resilient and flexible, you need to set the example by taking accountability for your decisions and actions.
And, lastly, someone with an entrepreneurial mindset has clear goals and objectives, and has the dogged tenacity to pursue them. Your team cannot follow someone who does not know what they want. As a team leader, you need to know what you need to accomplish so you can show your team how to get there. If your purpose and intent are clear, it will be easier for your team to also have clear goals and objectives.
The idea of working as if I owned the organization seemed right the first time I heard it because it echoes the lesson I learned from my mother. But at the back of my mind, if that is the mindset they want us to adopt, it should revert back to us in terms of benefits we can enjoy. We should also be treated like owners and enjoy incentives like better compensation or even profit-sharing. If an organization wants to reap all the benefits of an entrepreneurial mindset, they should also be willing to treat their employees as co-owners.
But the truth is, if you want your team to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset and obtain all its benefits, you must also be willing to accord them the concomitant benefits equal to their contribution to the organization. These could include higher pay, better training opportunities, or engagement activities. Otherwise, expect only the bare minimum from your team.
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