By Luis Velasquez and Amanda Gibson
One of the biggest barriers to success is often mental, these executive coaches say. Here’s how not to make the same mistakes and set yourself up to soar.
Making a big change in your life is exciting but also risky and uncertain. Whether you are making the leap to entrepreneurship, starting a new arm of business, or moving into a new role, the stakes can feel high—and the stats support that.
Thirty percent of small businesses fail in the first two years, and 50% by year five. Ninety percent of startups eventually fail. Sixty percent of executives fail within the first two years of moving to a new role.
While marketplace or economic conditions may affect these failure rates, many people overestimate certain risks and underestimate others. In our work as executive coaches to organizational leaders and startups, we have found that one of the biggest barriers to success is often mental.
Entrepreneurs and executives alike can reduce these risks by preparing both mentally and emotionally. That means shifting your mindset to make a move with confidence, shrink the gap between expectations and reality, and increase the odds of success.
From task-focused to meaning-focused
When you feel a deeper sense of meaning around your work, it becomes possible to show up every day with more energy around what you need to accomplish—even if you still need to work on tasks you would rather not do. Tapping into this sense of meaning makes it possible for work to not feel as much like work, and for you to get into “the zone” or a flow state.
The Japanese concept of Ikigai can help access deeper motivations that provide that sense of meaning and fulfilment. Central to this concept are four questions: What do you love? What are you good at? What can you be paid for? What does the world need? The intersection of those four questions is the point at which you can most be yourself in your work, and feel fulfilled knowing others value what you do.
It can be tempting to create an idealized version of what life will look like after a change. Take care not to create a fantasy version of fulfilment based on imaginary external conditions. You must align your internal motivations with the external reality.
In addition to doing your internal homework to uncover your own motivations for change and conditions for success, do your external homework as well. Talk to others who have done what it is that you want to do, or consider running experiments to put yourself in situations that mimic the new role. This helps you craft a vision that is as realistic as possible.
From lack to leverage
Confidence is often at a peak at the beginning, and the doubts creep in when the excitement wears off. To maintain motivation and confidence in the face of the unknown, successful individuals remind themselves of their capabilities and accomplishments and use it as a foundation to tackle the new opportunity before them.
Make note of the work that has been most rewarding in the past. What projects are you most proud of? Why? How did you make them a success? What skills did you lean on? Why was it important? Who was around you? What did you learn? What was the impact? Who else was impacted? What became possible?
Write these examples down—if possible, before you make the move. Not only do these stories provide valuable insight into how you might need to structure your transition, but you need them readily accessible on those doubt-filled days when it’s harder to remember what worked well.
From me to we
Many of us want to solve problems by ourselves, or we have become accustomed to our current support network. Working alone can limit creativity, ideas, and opportunity for growth. A good support network allows you to gather support and resources, helps you overcome obstacles, and provides access to different networks, skills, and perspectives, which will improve your chances of success.
The people in your current support network may have more of a predetermined idea about what your path should be and what is possible for you, or they may simply know too much of what you already know. They may have outright conflicts of interest, or they may have resistance to you changing for fear of what it means for them. Sometimes they mean well but simply don’t have the broad perspective of what is possible that someone outside your network may offer.
You must be intentional about reaching out to people who can provide you with the perspective and resources you need, not just the people you are already comfortable with or who are readily accessible.
For best results at the beginning, build a more formal network of support by going outside your immediate circle to find people who have done what you want to do. Consider starting with weak ties—those people you once had a connection with but may not have talked to in a while—or second-degree connections. A warm intro or familiar reference point will increase the odds of response, but the weaker connection makes it more likely that they won’t have a strong opinion about who you are and where you should go.
Then, for ongoing support, consider your more informal networks of support, like the friend who can listen objectively when things get tough, the boss from long ago who always saw the best in you, or a partner who will be your biggest cheerleader and remind you of who you are and what you are capable of.
From unclear needs to clear milestones
While you will be able to leverage aspects of your past experience, doing something new will require you to bring different tools, skills, and behaviours to the table. Assuming you don’t have what it takes or that your past success will be replicable are both dangerous positions to take. One keeps you from changing in the direction you need to, and the other keeps you from effectively learning and executing what is needed in a new role.
It can be helpful to zoom out and assess the situation and determine what is needed given your objectives, rather than immediately jumping to what comes most natural or what worked best in your most recent situation. You may tend to jump to action, but actually need more learning. You may be one who likes to silently study the situation, but you may need more exposure. You may always lean heavier on completing tasks, but instead you might need to build relationships. Take a balanced approach to identifying gaps, and use these gaps as your milestones.
From whole picture to next step
Solving for the very next step in your journey allows for a more manageable and achievable approach to make steady and sustainable progress. When you have a clear picture of success, it’s easy to be eager to arrive at that destination, and to compare our progress to others. This can lead to overwhelm and discouragement.
If we consider all the steps at once, we risk taking on too much and failing to make meaningful progress. Breaking the goal into smaller, more manageable steps allows you to focus and take one step at a time. This also allows you to celebrate each step along the way, something that does more to sustain your progress than looking at how far you have left to go.
Pick the next reasonable thing to do—something within your control that will make the most impact. Do it. Repeat. Your goal will seem less daunting as each tiny step brings you closer.
From where you are now to where you want to be
When individuals believe in themselves they are more likely to take bigger risks and persevere, knowing they have the ability to reach their goals. They are less likely to be held back by self-doubt, fear, and feelings of inadequacy.
Yet it’s common for the voices in your head to get louder. Sometimes these are old voices. Sometimes they are new voices, as people pepper you with questions, offer well-meaning advice, or the marketing messages come through after the algorithms pick up on what you’re exploring.
Know that it is normal for even the most confident of people to succumb to these feelings during times of transition. Believing you should not have those feelings only heightens the sense of self-doubt and lengthens the amount of time it takes for you to continue making forward progress.
You must combat the voices in your head to maintain and grow your sense of self-belief. Learn to recognize when those thoughts appear, and don’t engage them. Look instead for evidence that proves those thoughts wrong. Use your collection of past success and your support team to help with frequent reminders along the way, and you will come out on the other side with an even greater level of confidence and resilience than you had going in.
With continued steps forward, what feels like a large distance between you and your goal will shrink with time. Making these shifts a part of your regular practice strengthens your ability to mentally sustain the progress that will lead to your success, and makes any new endeavour infinitely more possible.
Feature Image Credit: Delmaine Donson/Getty Images
By Luis Velasquez and Amanda Gibson
Luis Velasquez and Amanda Gibson are executive coaches to CEOs, senior leaders, and entrepreneurs. Luis is a leadership facilitator at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Amanda is strategic partner at Radix Strategy.