5 Mindset Shifts to Become a Better Entrepreneur in 2020

If you want to excel as an entrepreneur, you need to be willing to look at your mindset and see the thoughts, habits and ways of being that are holding you back. I love what Deep Patel, entrepreneur, investor and writer, says:

“Change of any kind starts internally, within the mind. If you want to alter your life, whether in big or small ways, you first have to adapt your mindset. The best way to liberate yourself from old ways of thinking is to shift your perspective on situations and become more innovative in your approaches.

If you’re ready to be a better entrepreneur, consider how you can start to make these simple, yet powerful, mindset shits.

From Traditional Leader to Servant Leader

Whether you’re working with contractors or full-time employees, you’re seen as a leader. In our modern world, however, traditional leadership—in which you tell people what to do and maintain control over others—is no longer effective. Employees, especially millennials, want to be taught, lead and coached.

To be a better entrepreneur, shift your mindset to focus on servant leadership. SHRM explain what this means: “These leaders possess a serve-first mindset, and they are focused on empowering and uplifting those who work for them. They are serving instead of commanding, showing humility instead of brandishing authority, and always looking to enhance the development of their staff members in ways that unlock potential, creativity and sense of purpose.”

As an entrepreneur leading a new team, servant leadership allows you to guide and empower the people who are working for you. This makes it possible for them to grow and learn, becoming self-sufficient, rather than relying on you to tell them what to do and how to do it. In the end, this frees up more time for you to focus on the most impactful areas of the business while your employees do what they were hired to do.

From Glass Half Empty to Glass Half Full

You might think your bad mood only affects you, but when you’re managing employees and working in a shared space, that mindset affects everyone around you. The blog post, 4 Life Approaches and How They Affect Your Work Attitude, explains:

“While everyone has good and bad days, and even the friendliest people can have bad moods, a negative attitude is more than just a temporary feeling—it’s a state of mind. Negative work attitude can permeate the workspace, lowering office morale and productivity.”

Shift your mindset from seeing the bad or challenging issues to seeing the positive, or silver linings. There will always be hard times as an entrepreneur, especially as you grow. But a new work environment is a fragile one, and bringing the “glass half full” attitude with you to your work is critical to maintaining team morale.

From Quick Fix to Long-Term Benefits

When you’re the one managing revenue and making sure you get paid, it’s easy to constantly be in a quick-fix mindset. The thing is: now is the time to be looking long-term. As a new business, you need to be setting the foundation for success today, tomorrow and in the future, which is why a quick-fix mentality isn’t beneficial as an entrepreneur.

While there will be times when you need to “put out fires,” focus on long-term benefits by creating a high-level weekly to-do list. This tactic comes from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and the idea is simple: it’s easy to get caught up in crisis mode, jumping from one crisis to the other, instead of focusing on the things that will have the greatest impact—the ones that set you up for lasting success.

Your weekly to-do list, therefore, is focused on the items that need to get done but are easy to put off. Think: emailing that list of potential investors or researching for speaking gigs to further your brand. Watch the weekly planning YouTube video to get a better idea of how this tactic works and why it’s important to do.

From Left Brain to Right Brain

Being in charge of every aspect of a business can put you into a continuous state of stress. Instead of flowing through the day, using your right brain capacity to be creative, intuitive and holistic, you’re stuck in the left brain, which is often more rigid and deadline oriented. The thing is, shifting your mindset to find a balance between the two is critical to being successful.

With both of these in balance, you can ensure that you make time for things like developing your vision or creating new products, in addition to meeting deadlines and setting priorities.

The best entrepreneurs embrace both mindsets and use this equilibrium to develop a stronger company, one that’s built on a foundation of hard work and creativity; structure and free-form thinking.

From Lone Wolf to Community Member

It’s easy to get stuck in your own space as an entrepreneur. Not only are you often working alone, but with so much on your plate, it gets harder and harder to get out and make time for connecting with other people.

If you stay in this mindset, you miss out on the many benefits of leaning on the community of entrepreneurs who want to support you. When you take time for networking and connecting, you find people to bounce ideas off of, to share your struggles with, and to learn from, all of which makes you a better business owner.

Switch from the lone wolf mindset into one that embraces community to reap the many benefits of getting out of the house and connecting with like-minded individuals.

Shift Your Entrepreneurial Mindset

Shifting your mindset can be challenging, especially when your to-do list never seems to end and it’s hard to focus on anything but the business. In the end, however, you’ll find your business flourishes and you become a better entrepreneur as you open yourself up to creativity, better leadership, a positive mindset and community.