If you’re an entrepreneur leading a small team, you’re responsible for the livelihood of your employees. Your team looks to you for direction, vision, and purpose. And responsibility stops with you.
And yet, you’re still human. You still wake up some days and wonder if you’re doing everything you could and should to grow your business, meet customers’ needs, and empower your people.
For leaders of businesses large and small, doing their inner work to know themselves is critical. Understanding how you and your people are motivated and find fulfillment is vital.
Leaders don’t start a business and get a playbook covering all the bases. In many cases, entrepreneurs must do the hard work of gathering market analysis, reviewing customer insights, and finding product-market fit.
They must also ensure they create a business that serves them and isn’t just another job.
Entrepreneurs’ work requires an honest assessment of who they are and why they’re doing the hard work.
Know yourself
Knowing yourself is critical to entrepreneurial success. You’re committing to your business, customers, and people, and you must know who you are to show up as 100% you. The company reflects your values and vision.
But if you don’t know what motivates and fulfills you, your vision and values might not be firing on all cylinders.
Assessments like Motivation Code are foundational to understanding what drives you and how your business serves your fulfillment.
The benefits of motivational self awareness
The stories that brought you to decide upon entrepreneurship are the same success stories that Motivation Code uses to determine your Motivational Dimensions. When you enter your stories through the MCode assessment, you learn what uniquely motivates you. When you know how you are motivated, you can:
- Make better decisions
- Lean into strengths
- Hire to complement functions that don’t fulfill you
- Improve emotional intelligence
- Enhance leadership skills
- Manage stress and prevent burnout
- Build stronger relationships
- Identify personal biases that may negatively affect decisions
- Develop creative solutions and innovate
- Communicate more effectively
- Recognize opportunities that align with personal motivation
- Manage conflicts constructively
How to complement your motivation
Set clear and achievable goals
Start by setting SMART goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For entrepreneurs focused on growth, this could mean:
- Increasing sales by 20% in the next quarter
- Launching a new product or service within six months
- Growing your prospect email list by 1,000 subscribers in the next 30 days
Having clear objectives gives you something concrete to work towards and helps maintain focus for you and your entire team.
Create manageable projects
Building a business involves complex, multifaceted projects. Break these down into smaller, manageable tasks. If you’re in start-up mode and doing everything yourself, tackling projects more easily by breaking things down is crucial. Use productivity techniques to block time and ensure you can carve out focus time for critical tasks.
If you are managing a team, knowing how each individual is motivated so that you can leverage their Motivational Dimensions makes things easier. If you have an Optimizer on your team, tasking them with optimizing processes can ease projects for the entire team.
This approach makes the overall project less daunting and provides regular wins to keep you motivated.
Celebrate small wins
It’s easy for entrepreneurs to get caught up in the big metrics of sales. However, celebrating small achievements can be a powerful motivator. Acknowledge these victories to maintain momentum.
For your team members, ensure they stay motivated by focusing on their Motivational Dimensions. Knowing how each key team member is motivated helps you communicate in a language that taps into and fulfills their motivations.
If you have an Achiever on your team, recognize their efforts. While acknowledging efforts is critical for everyone, for Achievers, it is even more important as a way to fulfill them and keep them motivated.
Stay informed and curious
When you’re an entrepreneur growing a business, capitalizing on market trends and other opportunities is much easier than it is for a larger organization with more bureaucracy. Testing new market niches and experimenting with new messaging can uncover untapped opportunities that can lead to growth and more opportunities.
If you have a Visionary on your team, empower them to explore new opportunities and bring innovation into your organization.
Build a supportive network
Entrepreneurship can be lonely when you’re just getting started. Ensure you have a network of like-minded individuals who are growing their empires. Find these locally for in-person mastermind events, or look to forums online for connections.
Sharing experiences, challenges, and successes with peers can provide motivation and valuable insights. Finding a supportive network interested in Motivation Code can help, too. When you find other individuals who complement your Motivational Dimensions, you can experience a synergistic mindset of collaboration to inspire and keep you moving forward.
Maintain a motivated attitude
Burnout is a real threat for entrepreneurs. Prioritizing self-care and tapping into motivation can help. Revisit your MCode report to determine new ways to leverage motivation to keep your mindset positive.
- Set boundaries for work hours
- Take regular breaks, including vacations
- Engage in hobbies and activities outside of work
A well-rested, balanced entrepreneur is a motivated entrepreneur.
Motivation is critical for entrepreneurs
Motivation is a powerful tool in the entrepreneur’s arsenal. Success is often a marathon, not a sprint. As with anything, strive to enjoy the journey of entrepreneurship as an opportunity to discover greater fulfillment.
The key to finding fulfillment is knowing who you are and how you’re fulfilled. When you clearly understand how and why you’re fulfilled, entrepreneurship becomes less about the money and the bottom line and more about the true actualization of who you truly are.
Motivation Code can help no matter where you are on the journey. If you’re just getting started, Motivation Code gives you a roadmap towards creating an organization that fulfills you. And if you’re building a team to support you, Motivation Code can help create a team that complements your strengths, surrounding you with people who can help you succeed.
