The Art of Instinct: Navigating Diverse Business Mindsets

As a consultant who has worked with businesses of diverse sizes and interests over the years, I have come to realize that having a strong instinct for detecting the mindset and motivations of the people you work with is crucial. In this post, I will share insight on why this is important and how it can benefit your business or team.

Mindset refers to the attitudes, beliefs, and values that shape an individual's behavior and decision-making processes. As a consultant, it is essential for me to understand the mindset of the people i work with, as it can impact their willingness to adopt new ideas or strategies. For example, if you are working with a team that has a fixed mindset, they may be resistant to change and less open to new approaches. On the other hand, a growth mindset can lead to more innovative thinking and a willingness to take risks.

The mindset of clients...

To detect the mindset of your clients, you need to observe their behavior, listen to their language, and ask probing questions. By doing so, you can gain insight into their underlying beliefs and values, which can help you tailor your approach to better meet their needs. This takes me back to a tech company prospect i met in Lagos years ago who wanted my services for the cheapest price possible. After our first meeting, I noticed that the CEO was willing to spend millions on maintaining a flashy lifestyle to look successful to investors like; renting an office in a posh part of town, renting a flashy SUV and popping bottles in the club. They did all this while their business appeared disheveled and poor on paper. This was their mindset about running a business and they were reluctant to drop it.

We had no choice but to drop them from our list of potential clients due to their unwillingness to commit to what it would take to breath life into the business. You need to understand where their mindset was here, they wanted to take shortcuts with the hope that some gullible investor would throw massive amounts of funding at them. They didn't want to apply the correct levels of importance on what truly mattered in sustaining their business. I see this a lot with people who start businesses for the wrong reasons only to run them into the ground due to their desire to appear successful.

I have also worked with clients with clear goals who are receptive to the strategies on growth and profitability. There is a certain hunger to see results for the business after investing in the services we offer. This straight forward approach is always commended as we can discern the mindset and motivations which helps us achieve even greater results for them

By identifying the motivations of your clients, you can better understand what drives them and use this information to create more effective strategies. For instance, if you know that your client is primarily motivated by financial gain, you can focus on demonstrating how your services can help them achieve this goal. On the other hand, if your client is more interested in personal fulfillment, you may want to highlight how your services can help them make a positive impact in their community or industry.

In addition to understanding mindset, it is also crucial to identify the motivations of the people you work with. Motivations refer to the underlying reasons why individuals do what they do. For example, some people may be motivated by financial incentives, while others may be driven by a desire for recognition or personal fulfillment. This takes me back to my time working with Davidson Oturu of Nubia Capital as a Business Development Manager and what we were able to achieve at the firm we worked together in at the time. His understanding of the concept of assembling teams that had the right mindset to carry a project was impressive. The ability of my team to take ownership of their tasks and duties is always going to be of a higher importance than simply appearing to be productive with busy work.

I believe it is crucial to note at this point that working with a large team comes with peculiarities that may not be present in a smaller team. It is important to consider other factors such as organizational culture, industry trends, and external influences which may define your approaches. By taking a holistic approach, you can create more effective strategies that are tailored to the unique needs of your team. I will take the time to explore these in greater detail possibly in another post.

If this is your first time reading anything from me, thank you. I am a Business Development professional and Manager at Nubianette who likes to explore topics that relate to business and personal growth.

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