How to Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset

In my previous blog, you would have come across the term "Entrepreneurial Mindset".

This article will elaborate on what is an Entrepreneurial Mindset and ways I built mine.

I will begin with a little background about me:

Born to service oriented professionals - my father from government sector and mother a teacher, and family background full of core government sectors and educationalists, my journey as an entrepreneur has not been easy.

The government or Raj concept is predominant in my family.  The motto is to stick with one job for the rest of your life, regardless of how one feels about it.  Even a simple concept of changing jobs when I was employed in the private sector, used to unnerve my parents initially.

So how did I convert from being "just an employee" to an "entrepreneur" now?  Read on.

Before you being your entrepreneurial journey, I strongly believe that you need to first adapt to how an entrepreneur thinks and behaves.  It is similar to adapting with any new culture one relocates to.  Having been exposed to several due to the nature of my father's job during my entire childhood, adapting to a new culture and mindset had become a habit of mine.

Believe me, even with this background, it was never easy to fit in totally.  It used to take a lot of time.  I was an introvert by nature. Gelling or clicking with other children used to take a lot of effort and time.

When I started my career as Business Management Trainee in one of the reputed MNCs in India, I used to have this service oriented mentality.  My behavior was very much similar to most of the people coming from like minded middle class families - get a job and stick to it.

When I started my job, in the year 2010, it was middle of recession and inflation.  I worked really hard.  Though, during my job, I came to realize and discover a lot of things:

• Having a learner's approach got people to talk to me and share their success secrets
• People from all walks of life taught me something new everyday
• Humility and ignorance made paths for me to come out of my comfort zone and try new things to make things work and on my own
• Planning gave me a start.  Though, without foreseeing probable obstacles forced me to adapt to creative problem solving approach
• Few of my roles exposed me to interact with other people.  Networking internally got most of my problems and jobs much easier.  Having realized this, I never missed an opportunity for networking more.  
• This got me addicted to understand and observe the behavior of those around me.

Over a period of time, I came to realize that being an entrepreneur is a way of life.  There were many behavioral changes one undergoes to become a successful profession.  Likewise, an entrepreneur is anyone who braves these changes and accepts challenges life throws at them with a pinch of salt.  There will be plenty of ups and downs in anyone's life.  But having courage, ownership for one's actions, taking control of one's life, determination and a strong will to over come challenges come what may, is the path towards developing an entrepreneur mindset. 

So when people ask me what is an entrepreneur by my definition:

An entrepreneur refers to that person who is willing to accept their differences, tries to make things work differently than others and contributes towards a larger dream and ambition, which is mostly above the "myself" concept.

How do you develop it?  Come out of your comfort zone and play the game your way.  Develop a courage to stand for your opinions and thought process.  Be the person you want to be and the change will automatically happen around you.

It took me more than 5 years to live a life which is more fulfilling, adventurous, self-satisfying, full of new learning and more rewarding. 

As an entrepreneur, I am proud to say that not only have I developed professionally but as a human being as well.

- Article contributed by Entrenador Shruti, a Neuro-Leadership & Business Coach.

Change Management for Self

You may have come across a lot of new terms recently or over a period of past few years:

• Change Agents
• Change Champions
• Change Enablers

Who or what are they?  And why are they held so important today?

Let's start by defining the terms:

1. Change Agents:  Popularly known as Agents of Change. 

Refer to those people who, from inside or outside the organization, help it to transform by focusing on improving business processes and interpersonal interactions.  They are responsible for:

• Promoting the value of the transformation that is being undertaken by the organization
• Formulating how the transformation will happen
• Guiding and supporting others through the transformation 
• Ensuring that the new processes, procedures, structures, etc., are implemented in ways that deliver the expected value that the organizational change was to produce      

     

      2. Change Champions:  Refer to those individuals, who within an organization, are either selected or volunteer to facilitate change.  They advocate for change actively.  They can be anybody and not necessarily from management levels.  Their role is to promote:

• New ideas for change
• Support the vision
• Motivate others to be part of the change process

Change Champions and Change Agents can also be used as interchangeable terms.  

      3. Change Enablers:   Refer to the change managers responsible for applying change management methodology.  His role is to:

• Conduct readiness assessments
• Segmetation of impacted employees
• Crafting of change management strategies
• Building change management plans suiting the needs of the people in a customized fashion

So why do we need to understand the terminologies?

In today's scenario, change management is the new requirement for better leadership success.  Since the recession, a lot of business dynamics and market changes have been witnessed.  There is just way too much pressure now than before for an organization to sustain and survive any economic or environmental change that comes its way.  

Today, holding any degree without possessing a skill can lead to be very hard for one to find a job.  From a qualifications based mindset, we are now entering a skills based mindset.  This means, a lot of people need to possess few skills to get a good or even a decent job at hand.  Therefore, people now need to prepare themselves for changes and also gear themselves up for adopting an entrepreneurial mindset.

An entrepreneurial mindset does not necessarily means that one needs to become an entrepreneur or open up a start-up.  It means that one needs to now craft their own career with a specific aim and strategy in mind.  

It has been observed from many senior professionals (from different backgrounds) that we are now entering a stage wherein skills over qualifications will matter most.  This means, a lot of times, people will be challenged to self-learn and adapt to newer technologies, methodologies and ways of working styles. 

One needs to be their own enablers of change to sustain their careers in the next 3-5 years' time.  It is now your decision whether you want to be a change agent or change champion.  

Choose wisely.

- Article contributed by Entrenador Shruti Misra, a Neuro-Leadership & Business Coach.  She provides free Career Consultations on LinkedIn to help professionals map their careers in the right direction.