Traits Of Successful Entrepreneurs: The Problem-Solving Mindset

There is one entrepreneurial mindset that you can adopt today to improve all aspects of your business, and it’s simpler than you’ve probably ever realized. The answer?

The problem-solving mindset.

As an entrepreneur, you solve problems daily. But adopting an intentional problem-solving mindset can make your business function more efficiently than ever. And bonus, it involves you taking on fewer problems to solve by yourself.

What is a problem-solving mindset?

Adopting a problem-solving mindset is to take any challenge— and look at it through a different lens to overcome it—with all facets of the business in mind. 

It's all about understanding that you can approach a problem by widening the aperture to see it through multiple lenses. You turn to your peers, colleagues, and team and utilize their strengths to resolve the problem.

Because, truth be told, as an entrepreneur, it's easy to fall victim to the trap of problem-solving independently. But once you realize that every human has different experiences and expertise and that your colleagues bring lifetimes of different lived experiences and career insight to the table (which are of value to solving any problem), you gain invaluable new perspectives to work within.

Challenge yourself to be open to all aspects of the business. 

Having a synthesized approach to any obstacle suddenly makes problem-solving a breeze. Why? Because you can take a step back, remove yourself from the equation, keep your ego in check, and see the challenge through fresh eyes.

You might be a marketing entrepreneur, for example. But when you open yourself up to the experiences of your peers who specialize in other departments of the business, such as scalability or finance, you realize that their different skill sets and specialisms could shed new light on ways to solve the problem.

After all, there’s a reason why they say two heads are better than one.  A problem-solving mindset makes for the most successful partnerships.

The best partnerships boast individuals with different experiences who know how to utilize each other’s skills to their greatest advantage. I know that from experience: I have four partners and have learned that the more time you spend with individuals, the better you’ll be able to understand and benefit from their unique approaches.

For instance, recently in a transaction, our client needed an Amplified Entertainment Permit (essentially, a permit used for bars that will be playing loud music). Poring over the finer details of the municipal codes is not my forte, but my colleague, Pat, is tremendous at combing through the fine print and ultimately found the clause which allowed us to achieve our goal.

The truth is, I would not have uncovered this resolution using my experience alone. The problem-solving mindset is an essential practice for high performance teams, and this situation made clear to me the benefits of this mindset to overcome any challenge.

Of course, this mindset can help in negotiations too. Because what are negotiations, if not problem-solving? Once you understand how other people think, you can become a skillful negotiator—and the benefits of this mindset trickle down into all aspects of business. 

It’s about your mindset… and that of your peers.

Ultimately, the problem-solving mindset goes beyond your own mindset. Really, it’s about using other people’s minds, their resources and experiences.

You’re not going to have the solution to every obstacle you encounter in business. But knowing where to find the solution can be the secret to success.