An entrepreneurial mindset promotes the economic, personnel, and innovational successes that elevate the quality of deliverables and perpetuate a continual drive for further achievement. You need to be inventive, driven, emotionally invested in your work, passionate about changing things for the better, and have enormous aspirations. You’ll be as comfortable with success as you are with failure and actively work towards a positive relationship with everyone in your company.
One usually thinks that an entrepreneurial mindset is for one person, one who stands alone to make their businesses prosper. But one entrepreneur doesn’t make a company successful, contrary to popular belief. An organization requires a group of like-minded people with different skill sets to make dreams into realities. And on a micro-level, an entire team can work as one entrepreneurial organism attempting to strive for achievement together.
Ways to Make An Entrepreneurial Mindset Part of Your Work Day
Every team can make an entrepreneurial mindset an integral part of their functioning. Here, we’ll break down some of the most critical facets of this attitude and some questions that teams can ask one another to gauge how entrepreneurially-minded your team is.
1. Confidence
One thing an entrepreneur has that few other people do is an unwavering sense of confidence. They might not be walking into the office giving everyone finger guns, but they’re absolutely sure that their ventures will succeed. Despite a lack of experience, entrepreneurs are willing to learn – putting their time and money in and betting on themselves.
Team questions:
- What is everyone’s definition of a growth mindset?
- How do you think your self-esteem at work manifests?
- What do your expectations of success for this project look like?
- Have you experienced any negative self-talk today? What does it sound like?
2. Decisions
An entrepreneur is decisive – some can be pushy, others can be lax, but they all have a clear image in their heads about how to put the pieces together. Their resources are all their own, so they’re careful about how those resources are utilized, and they weigh their options heavily before acting.
Team questions:
- What emotions factor into this decision?
- How important is this decision? How much time does it deserve?
- How will this decision motivate us to accomplish a goal or multiple goals?
- How informed are we in making this decision?
- Do we have a backup plan or backup decision? What does that look like?
3. Responsibility
When you’re an entrepreneur, it’s your business on the line, so when something goes wrong, it can get personal. Without beating yourself up or throwing a pity party, you can take accountability for how your actions may have impacted your team’s success and make a plan to change it in the future. Responsibility to an entrepreneur isn’t just about admitting fault. It’s about never making the same mistake twice.
Team questions:
- What’s my social role on the team?
- What are team norms around responsibility, and what are the feelings around responsibility (shame, respect, sadness, frustration, etc.)?
- Do we have any legal or compliance obligations? What about moral or ethical obligations?
- How do you treat personal responsibility? What kinds of things do you take responsibility for?
4. Strength
Being resilient is all part of an entrepreneurial mindset, as you’ve got to be prepared for the best and worst of times. At the same time, strength means knowing your boundaries and limitations. Even the hardest-working entrepreneurs understand that a burned-out worker is an ineffective one.
Team questions:
- How do your teammates conceptualize dependability?
- What does a success-oriented mentality look like on your team?
- What hinders your optimism?
- How does burnout look on your team? What causes it?
- Is self-motivation a part of your team? How does it look on a day-to-day basis?
5. Respect
When entrepreneurs get too big for their britches, they start losing the loyalty of those closest to them. No matter how good you are at your job, an entrepreneurial mindset means staying humble. You’re never too busy for your team or too good for check-ins and feedback.
Team questions:
- How often do we thank each other each day? Is our appreciation authentic or manualized?
- How do we deliver constructive criticism?
- What does empathy look like on our team?
- Do we respond to each other in a timely manner? What stops us from doing that?
- What are our daily attitudes in meetings? Is there a general tenor of celebration, frustration, apathy, or other emotions?
6. Hustle
Hustle culture isn’t for everyone, but it’s a must for those who want to pursue an entrepreneurial mindset. While it has a negative meaning now, hustle culture has some positive aspects. Everyone is invested equally in the outcome of a project, and they’re all willing to put the same amount of work in to get there. No one’s at work just to clock in, quietly quit, and clock out. The job has deep and personal meaning for everyone involved.
Team questions:
- What opportunities have our input granted us this week? Can we see the fruits of our labor?
- How do we define “mental toughness”?
- What does a solid work ethic mean to this team?
- What are we striving for a week from now, a month from now, and a year from now?
7. Network
Lastly, an entrepreneur constantly networks to plan for the future. Whether they’re focused on expansion, connections, or making sure everyone in the company knows each other, they realize the value of socialization in the workplace.
Team questions:
- How is our relationship with other teams?
- When was the last time our company had a networking event?
- What kind of external networks would benefit the organization long-term?
- Are we maintaining relationships with former clients? Why are they a good fit for future projects (or not a good fit)?
- Has our team volunteered recently? Would we be interested in other philanthropic efforts?