For any business owner, setbacks are an unfortunate reality. While you can’t always prevent them—no matter how much you plan—you can minimize the damage and get your business back on the path to success by knowing how to handle these obstacles. In fact, challenges that might feel like failures can actually be an opportunity to take a fresh approach and push your company to even greater heights. From a product flop to constantly adapting to changes related to coronavirus, there’s no challenge that your team can’t handle if you put in the work to recalibrate.
Instead of allowing setbacks to define your business and deflate your confidence, face them head on, starting with these 5 proven strategies.
#1: Learn from Your Mistakes
One of the most important things you can do when your business suffers a setback is learn from the mistakes that led to the outcome. First, start by identifying what went wrong—was it an issue in the execution, was the idea a poor choice from the start, was the timeline too rushed causing a quality control oversight, etc. Not sure how to get started? Try one of these problem solving tools. Once you know which steps were the contributing factors to the failure, you can come up with a plan to correct course when you try again.
Take note of what does and does not work as you strive to grow your business. Keeping these lessons front of mind as you move forward will be important to avoiding repeat mistakes.
#2: See the Opportunity in Setbacks
Failures are difficult to come to terms with, especially when it comes to the business setting, but they are also opportunities. Often when you find the root causes of setbacks, you can come up with better ways of achieving the original goal, whether that’s saving money, improving efficiency, or even coming up with a better idea than you started with. It’s okay to be disappointed when your business hits a roadblock, but don’t let it completely derail your plans—whether that be having a product ready on time for roll out, pushing a website launch, opening a new storefront, or financing a project.
#3: Repurpose Stress & Disappointment into Productivity
It’s easy to get caught up and wallow in failure, however, that’s not the way to get ahead. As a leader, you need to forge the path to overcoming this challenge and the first step is repurposing your stress into focused, productive energy. We recommend CBD gummies as one way to clear and calm your mind when it’s time to sit down and plan your next move. Meditation is also a good way to redirect the anxious feelings that are typically associated with unforeseen obstacles.
Other ways you can reset and refocus your energy is taking a step away from the problem to re-energize whether that be going for a run at lunch or taking a day off. This will allow you to return to the issue at hand with a fresh set of eyes as they say.
#4: Be Transparent with Your Team
While not all details need to be shared, you should take a transparent approach when discussing the setback with your team. Taking ownership of major missteps made by management or simply acknowledging that you don’t know went wrong (if that’s the case), can help you garner trust and respect from your workforce and create a sense of unity when moving forward. No matter how large or small your company, being transparent about setbacks is an important step to growth and overcoming challenges.
#5: Host a Brainstorming Session
Getting other perspectives is an important part of problem solving, especially when you’ve experienced a major setback that needs to be fixed as quickly as possible. Get the department that’s most directly involved in the issue at hand and have them get all hands on deck to find a solution. Another popular brainstorming strategy is calling a management meeting, where authorities on different aspects of the process can collaborate in coming up with a plan of action. Even if your team is remote, there are smart collaboration apps you can use to work through the problem.
As a business owner, it can be easy to fall into the pattern of putting all of the burden on your shoulders when major issues arise. However, you’ve made the effort to hire the best and brightest in your field to help you make your company a success, so use the resources at hand. This is especially true when it comes down to specialized teams who have a better working knowledge of the technology or processes at hand.
With these strategies in mind, you’ll be better equipped to find a way to come out on top, no matter the challenge at hand.
