CHAPTER 6

Mindset on Change

Change—Adjusting to a New Set of Circumstances

I stated in the chapter titled “Mindset on Pioneering and Innovation” that entrepreneurs must remain on the cutting edge of their industries and be agile enough to switch gears as internal and external factors arise. Government regulations, customer expectations, new technologies, global economic conditions, and staffing changes are all catalysts of change. Refusal or resistance to change can cause a business owner to lose market share or, even worse, become obsolete. Embrace change. Change forces business owners into new territory that could result in an improvement of products, services, business operations, systems, and processes that they might not have otherwise experienced.

One way to stay open and be ready for change is to commit yourself to becoming a lifelong learner. Listen to fresh ideas from your team, advisory board, or mentors. Attending industry conferences is also an effective way to prevent getting too comfortable. Staying abreast of what’s going on in your industry helps to ensure that companies are not behind the innovation curve. One such example of having to be flexible to change at any moment is the healthcare industry. It is heavily regulated and closely monitored by governments, and the introduction of new laws or amendments to existing laws can affect a company’s policies and procedures.

People are creatures of habit by nature and will often change only when it is absolutely necessary. Avoiding change inhibits evolving, generation of fresh ideas, and improvement of antiquated methods. Business owners should make it a habit to be proactive in their approach to change. An entrepreneur with an open mind looks for ways to improve by reevaluating current processes, procedures, systems, and technology and makes them part of the standard business practices. A person with a mindset that embraces change will seek out ways be more efficient and more effective in business before they are actually needed.

The willingness to change and adapt not only applies to the business itself, but also to the business owner. Change begins with the change agent—the entrepreneur. If the person steering the ship doesn’t turn it, then the ship will continue on the same course. At some point it will crash and get shipwrecked. To become a change agent for your organization, start by being intentional about your personal and professional growth and development. You expand your capacity for change by first expanding yourself. This can be done by reading books, attending conferences, hiring a coach, getting a mentor, joining professional organizations, watching webinars, and networking with people who are smarter than you.

Although you might be ready for change, you have to consider that you may also have to get your team or customers on board with any changes that affect them. Change often affects the entire organization and the people working in it. As such, it is important to establish a culture that makes it as easy as possible to adapt to change. Company communication through team meetings, collaboration apps, newsletters, and emails is necessary to keep your team in the loop and to ensure that staff doesn’t feel like the change is happening “to” them rather than “with” them. This type of environment keeps resistance to change at a minimum.

Embracing change is about evolving, growing, developing, and expanding. There are occasions when an entrepreneur has to change the business model of the company. I started my business as a solo business strategist, coaching one-on-one clients who were launching or growing their businesses. As the demand for business grew, I was asked to facilitate corporate training programs, speak at conferences, help establish entrepreneurship centers, and more. I was writing books, doing media interviews, facilitating workshops, traveling internationally, developing new coaching curriculum for universities and other clients, and I soon realized that I had no room in my schedule to accommodate many one-on-one clients.

The demand on my business necessitated a change in the business model. I limited business activities that required the most time with the least reward and also became more exclusive with my services. Had I not done so, I would have lost money trading dollars for hours. My new business model focused instead on more passive income strategies and special long-term projects. I also began delegating more tasks to other team members in order to become more efficient and more effective. If I had resisted making this change, I would have been stuck in the same place with no capacity to grow.

As a lifelong learner myself, I decided to change by expanding my knowledge base and increase both my skill sets and my team’s with additional training. This, in turn, helped me to become a more effective business strategist, leader, and entrepreneur. My team also benefited. When you are intentional about your own professional development, you become proactive about making changes. It becomes easier to adapt when change becomes a normal business practice.

Have you ever noticed all of the ongoing updates to your Microsoft Windows operating system, smartphone, and apps? Or how about the constant updates to social media pages like Facebook and Instagram? There is an entire team working behind the scenes at these companies, making changes to stay fresh and to improve the current technology. As annoying as these updates might be, the users eventually adjust to the new and improved way of doing things and ultimately forget the minor inconvenience they endured.