2 minutes reading time
3 challenges entrepreneurs must tackle and how this may succeed
Success in business critically depends on the quality of human interactions – as much as a great business model and a skilled team. There is plenty of business building and scaling know-how accessible, but the “human factor” is barely covered. Thus, it is subject to luck rather than conscious action. Here is why changing this does move the needle.
A great asset can be waisted or leveraged. A versatile and powerful tool can be utilized to destroy or build. Your assets and tools include your great ideas, skills, and intentions. How you use these to interact with your customers, team and investors is critical to success. Here are 3 examples, which pose challenges to many entrepreneurs:
- A great pitch story needs conclusive delivery >>> read more
- Talented co-founders and leaders need to join forces and function as a team >>> read more
- High-potential team members need convincing guidance >>> read more
In essence, these 3 challenges target at winning and keeping stakeholders’ commitment to a shared goal. All 3 challenges individually can make or break your business. And they all are decided by spontaneous actions, often in situations loaded with adrenaline when things move into the wrong direction.
Tackling these challenges, you can strongly profit from insights into how your mind works. In critical situations, it is flooded with information. It computes what you just heard, your thoughts on this and on some unrelated topic you have been trying to solve for a while. At the same time, it deals with other sensory experience, your intentions, and your emotions – just to mention a few examples. In these busy circumstances, your mind triggers an action with limited capacity and time. To execute the best possible reaction, you need in the heat of the moment:
Awareness of your goals and good corresponding hypotheses about the situation
so you can identify relevant information and effective actions regarding your goal.
Here is an example: If an investor previously achieved bad returns on an investment into your market, you may fail to pitch him convincing arguments to invest unless you have an idea about the reasons of previous failure. In this example, the quality of our hypotheses can decide about whether you receive an investment or not.
Highly flexible and well-guided attention focus
so you are able to observe and choose the critical information with limited capacity.
Here is an example: If you firmly believe that your co-founder will always be an energetic over-performer, you may not pay attention to signs of his growing burn-out because it contradicts your assumption unless you can take the perspective of an objective observer. In this example, your attention focus can decide about whether you will have to deal with a leaver event in the future or be able to potentially prevent it in time.
A set of proven and pre-trained actions that you are committed to
so you have high impact with short reaction time.
Here is an example: If you are publicly confronted with unexpected criticism by your employees, you may react unreflected and not be able to solve the situation in a satisfactory way, unless you feel sufficiently confident and prepared to deal with these kinds of situations. In this example, your readiness can decide about whether the conflict with your team will escalate or be solved.
The good news is: Everyone can establish the required conditions to master such situations with a well-informed preparation, and train to access these skills even under high pressure and adrenaline – which is the more challenging part. In fact, top athletes use similar approaches to prepare for their competitions. Likewise, business leaders and entrepreneurs can de-risk their operations and master challenging interactions with increasing success.