Outdated Mindsets That Will Cripple Your Business
While you’ve been transitioning into being an entrepreneur, you’ve probably picked up on many habits that propelled you into being the successful business owner you are today.
These mentalities might have been the crutch you used to switch your mentality into being more like other successful business owners, and they proved to be irreplaceable when you were just starting out
However, with the constant change in the market and platforms on which you conduct your business, it’s becoming more and more apparent how some ideals and mindsets just aren’t cut for today’s digital age.
Are Some Business Mindsets no Longer Applicable?
It’s true that not every mindset can stay relevant for an eternity, especially not when the status quo has changed from physical to digital. Right now, successful people are those who prefer action over meetings, and business owners who like to take things slow and implement new features after countless meetings when they become irrelevant and find that they’ve crippled their business.
How Can You Spot these Outdated Mindsets?
Outdated mindsets are typically a ticking time bomb, you don’t know they’re not applicable anymore until it’s too late. So, we’ve gathered some of the most common mindsets that can cripple your business if you don’t change them ASAP.
Examples of Outdated Mindsets You Need to Stop Doing:
Preferring Culture Fits When Hiring
Back in the day, business owners used to prefer hiring culture fits that complement their workforce, you know the type of people that you look at, and you believe that you know the general field they work at.
In the past, journalists used to be these heavy set, wear checkered shirts, and have the same tone of voice and interviewing techniques, that’s because newspapers used to steer away from the “unpresentable” journalists.
In another example, nowadays you find tattooed people working in high business positions when beforehand they wouldn’t have been a good fit for the culture.
That’s because companies started realizing that hiring people that offer different perspectives and opinions is better than hiring people that have aligned views.
Business owners started realizing that limiting their hiring process to accepting people who are a good culture fit was detrimental to their brands simply because their workforce was unified in an opinion with no ability to offer arguments.
Hiring a diverse set of workforce helps the company to be better equipped to adapt to change, and as a result, you’ll be able to mold your company to be results-based, rather than opinion based.
Micromanaging in a Virtual Workspace
Micromanaging has always been discouraged, even before the move to digital workspaces. However, there are certain habits that we tend to do that might come as micromanaging.
For example, a manager might have been considered extremely well suited to the job because they preferred just watching their employees doing the work, rather than interfering with every detail.
That same manager would be considered to be excessively micromanaging, simply because they might ask everyone to have their cameras always on or require their employees to install programs that monitor their mouse movements while working.
Micromanaging has taken on newer forms, and if you think you’re being a good boss by telling your team that you’ll be taking a more active approach to their workflow, that only tells them that you no longer trust them to make decisions on their own.
Hierarchical Pyramid Leadership Trap
The age-old “everybody has to ask permission from the top” mentality was already degrading even before the digital age migration. However, there are still workspaces that cater to the hierarchical pyramid leadership trap.
If your workplace falls under that category, then you should consider implementing some more modern changes to the workspace.
Nowadays success is measured by having a team that contributes, everyone’s voice is just as important, and the manager doesn’t have much more sway than any of his team members.
This gives your team the confidence they need in order to be passionate about your business mission and vision, while at the same time proving that their voice does matter, directly increasing their engagement with your brand.
Do you want a team that clocks in and out every day, doing the bare minimum and only listening to their manager, or do you want a team that answers directly to you and helps make your business the best version that it can be? The answer is simple, hierarchical pyramid leadership is a thing of the past.
Taking the Time Until Everyone Agrees
As we previously mentioned, many businesses have missed out on golden opportunities simply because they had meeting after meeting until every aspect of the company aligns with the decision to improve.
This ties to all of the previous points, you need to have a team that’s not afraid to give their own suggestions and is diverse enough to have a meaningful discourse that prompts action.
It’s no longer applicable to conduct countless meetings that hope to get the best possible scenario for all members.
Nowadays, it’s better to have discussions, debates, and rapid executions rather than boring meetings for decision-making.
Formal Dress Code Rules
If you’re working in a law firm or a governmental headquarters, you need to have a formal dress code, we get it. However, there really shouldn’t be a formal dress code for most businesses.
It’s gotten to the point where business owners were requiring their employees to show up with formal attire even while working from home, thinking that it would help them get into the workflow much easier.
What was the answer to that? Many employees either only wore their formal attire in front of the camera, or they did the classic formal suit minus the suit pants.
The mindset that having a formal dress code will prompt you to work better is now outdated, you can work just as well in your pajamas (if not better) than you would’ve in tight and uncomfortable formal attire.
What are Outdated Personal Mindsets?
Outdated mindsets don’t stop at your business, sometimes your personal mentalities will cripple your productivity and stop you from reaching any opportunities more than any wrong business decision.
We’ve handpicked some of the more prominent personal mindsets that are starting to get outdated, our advice for you is to re-evaluate all of your decisions and ask yourself “Is this really going to help me succeed?” If the answer is no, you need to switch that mindset as soon as possible.
Thinking that Being on Social Media is a Waste of Time
This isn’t 2005, social media has become an integral part of our culture, and even more so, it’s a public space for expression and a digital marketplace of ideas.
If you’re feeling guilty that you’re taking time off work to scroll through your social media feed, don’t. You’re likely getting more information and broadening your horizons far more than you could’ve by watching the news or reading business articles.
Furthermore, you can be your own brand ambassador on social media, if you’re successful in marketing your brand on social media you’ll be getting organic engagement with your brand, something that no amount of money can buy.
Believing that Working on Your Business is Working on Your Skills
One of the most common traps that entrepreneurs fall into is when they decide to focus 100% of their efforts on their business, maybe they found some success with one of their ventures, and decided that the only way they can boost that success is by dedicating all of their efforts to that one point.
While we’re not against hyper-focusing on a single point in order to succeed, we’d also like to remind you that this is only an application of your already existing skills, it won’t really improve your talents.
If you’re not looking to fall behind all of your peers, you need to take time off work in order to improve your skills, take a course, read a book, visit a workshop, or do anything you need in order to increase your skill roof.
Believing that Hard Work Leads to Good Results
Nobody likes failure, which leads to a lot of entrepreneurs avoiding failure like the plague, thinking that it hurts their momentum.
However, that’s just a recipe for disaster, no matter how hard you work, sometimes you fail, and other times you can find out that you’ve been marching in the wrong direction all along.
The thing is, you need to understand that your viewpoint now will be much different than before you put in the work to succeed, and even if you didn’t get the good results you wanted, you’ve already made progress.
We hope this article has helped you pinpoint any of the outdated mentalities you may be suffering from before it’s too late.
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