To manage a successful startup company, you must be self-critical, if not cynical. You must be willing to question yourself and your ideas.
It’s a little like playing startup Super Mario when you’re a tech startup CEO scaling a digital firm.
There are several stages to the game, and your goal is to gain as many points as possible before moving on to the next one. You’ll make a lot of mistakes. That is to say, especially at the start.
But then you have to get back up and try again, and again, and again — carefully, of course — to finish the track and advance to the next level. It takes a certain amount of tenacity, and to achieve, you must strike the correct balance between being tough on yourself and maintaining your drive to your most fundamental ideas.
When they murder your darlings, you must recognize your losses, repeat endlessly, and be brutally honest with yourself. It’s all about leadership.
You must fight the temptation to rest on your laurels even after achieving startup success. There is work to do to stay up with the competition, and you must make improvements. The next level is always available.
The fail-fast slogan has become a worn-out cliché in the startup industry, but only because it is true. Admitting your incorrect and starting again is a big part of launching and developing a company.
Self-Criticism
This self-criticism dynamic requires a great deal of mental fortitude.
It’s difficult to admit when your ideas aren’t as fantastic as you hoped or when something doesn’t work out as planned.
What makes it much more difficult for the tech startup CEO is that most contemporary businesses are data-driven and driven by a culture of extreme openness, making mistakes even more visible. When the data speak for themselves, there is nowhere to hide.
We also display them on dashboards and leaderboards so that everyone can see them.
Previously discussed is the”Startup IQ” as an attitude that allows specific individuals to succeed in companies. As examples of Startup IQ, it was emphasized that there must be a capacity to flourish in chaos.
Moreover, a high degree of independence, and the will to complete a task push you over the edge.
That is to say, Startup IQ is measured when there is no manual or superior to tell you what to do.
The Next Thing
In retrospect, we should have included the mental courage to accept criticism, confess to failure, and move on. It’s not only an issue of agility and flexibility when it comes to pivoting or adjusting your plan. It requires bravery to do so.
As a founder and leader of a business, you can see there is a lot you can do to make this failure culture simpler and more comfortable.
The first point may seem trivial, yet many startups and scaleups may benefit from the practice of creating positive goals. It’s a positive psychology idea that encourages you to pay more attention to all the things you should start doing instead of all the things you should quit doing.
Shifting your emphasis from all the things you’ve done wrong to all the things you can improve will help you become more driven and self-assured. This mindset is one you want to foster in your employees. Instead of telling them what we’re doing wrong, tell them where you believe the team (including yourself) can improve. This is startup wisdom.
Startup Settings
The second thing is to tell yourself is that something has changed doesn’t imply it was always wrong.
What got us here won’t get us there, is a good scaling mantra. What has made us successful now will not always make us successful tomorrow. It’s more motivating to think about your task from that viewpoint. It’s been very successful, but it’s no longer enough. We must now improve even more. And that involves number crunching.
The third concept to establish in your staff is that what we’re doing is difficult. It’s not impossible, but it’s possible.
Only around 28% of seed firms make it through to the A-round. You’re beginning a business with a brand-new product. It’s not simple to decide to work for a startup. It’s putting yourself out there and attempting the unthinkable. Only startups are capable of doing this.
As a result, working at a startup or scale-up requires a certain level of mental toughness and self-worth. But, apart from praising all of your impressive victories, there are methods to make frequent self-criticism more motivating. This should make sense under any tech startup CEO circumstances.
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