“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.”
― Robert Jordan
As entrepreneurs, our ability to be nimble is one of our absolute biggest assets. But often times, that nimbleness can allude us. But why?
As business owners, we wear many hats and things can change quickly. So how can we roll with that? Before we jump into how we can thrive through change, lets first define what it means to thrive in our own business.
I define thriving via the below graphic. It's the ability to be in alignment with communication, your strategies and tactics, money, your team, your values, your role, the impact you want to have and the joy you feel. When you're filling up your cup in all of those areas, you're moving towards thrive culture.
It's not necessarily about being balanced in these areas because balance implies stasis. It's about prioritizing what has the biggest impact on your triple bottom line (people, profit and the planet) and then being as nimble as possible when change does come our way.
But what get's in the way of our nimbleness and ability to thrive when, let's say, the market changes, you get acquired by a bigger company, or you merge with someone your same size?
Failure to thrive, in my belief, falls into two buckets—lack of business planning (agility and preparation) and lack of integrity in our mindset (living in the fear mindset).
If you're feeling really fearful of change, that fear can consume all of your thoughts and really own you. Have you ever been so fraught with worry it consumed all of your thoughts every waking hour? I'm raising both hands over here. If your mindset or the voice of fear is getting in the way of thriving, I want you to journal on the following:
Any good insights? How did that feel?
Once you've moved the mindset roadblocks out of the way, it's time to get in integrity with your actions as well.
What are your current business challenges? What goals can you assign yourself and your teams to move through those challenges (make them SMART)? What vital actions can you take each day and what milestones do you need in place to ensure you're tracking? Fill out the table below with your plan.
Once you get on the court with your vital actions, you can check in with your milestones and see if you're meeting them or not. If you're not meeting your milestones, chances are there are some lingering mindset blocks getting in the way of your success. In which case, I invite you to take yourself back through the mindset exercise around your fears above.
Change is inevitable and as entrepreneurs we tend to come up against it more often, and faster, than most. Approaching change nimbly and with a growth mindset is the best way to equip yourself. What did you learn about yourself from doing this exercise? What did you learn about your business?