9 Beliefs That Can Block Innovation in Your Business

August 31, 2023 By Karen Layman, aka Karen

It’s perfectly normal to have self-doubt as a business owner. However, being overcome with these doubts can hold you back and inhibit innovation. These beliefs may also be holding you back from achieving your goals. However, there are ways to work through these beliefs to reframe your way of thinking. Here are a few beliefs that can block innovation in your business:

1. Thinking You Have to Compare or Keep Up With Other Entrepreneurs

It’s been said that comparison is the thief of joy. However, it can also be the thief of motivation. Thinking that someone else is doing much better only feeds into your feelings of self-doubt. Success is different for each person. Constantly comparing yourself to others can hold you back. Focus on your goals instead of what others are achieving.

However, you should be networking with fellow entrepreneurs. Having a solid network of people in similar situations is a great way to get advice and support. Building a network like this is an important tip for first-time entrepreneurs.

2. Believing Everything Has to Be Perfect

This is an unhelpful belief because it limits your innovation. To innovate, you need to try a variety of different things to find what works best. You won’t find that out unless you fail a few times first.

Behind every successful entrepreneur is a history of mistakes, bad ideas, and roadblocks. The ability to try and try again will take you much farther than perfectionism.

3. Thinking Success Should Be Easy

Thinking that success should come easy is a belief that’s definitely holding you back. If you’re disappointed your hard work isn’t giving you immediate results, it might be time to temper your expectations.

It’s important to focus on areas of small growth. For example, make a goal of gaining ten new followers on social media. This is a small, measurable goal that can be expanded in the future. Setting realistic goals is an important step if you’re not sure how to develop a successful business growth strategy.

4. Convincing Yourself That You Need to Know Everything Happening in Your Business

It’s important to have a solid grasp of what’s happening in your business. It’s even appropriate to double-check on some things now and then. However, micromanaging may be hurting you more than you think.

Firstly, babysitting every aspect of your company will overwhelm and overwork you. It might be manageable if you only have one or two employees, but as your business grows, it’ll be hard to keep tabs on everything.

Secondly, micromanaging employees often stifles creativity from your employees. If you don’t trust them to simply do their job, they’ll never have the confidence to try new things. That’s a lot of wasted potential.

Make sure your employees know you trust them. Also, encourage them to come to you with ideas. Even if you don’t end up using them, you’ll be fostering an environment of creativity. It’s important to hire people you trust. If you do that, you can channel your focus and energy into being a strong leader and growing your business.

5. Thinking Taking Risks is Too Risky

Never trying anything new is a common business marketing mistake to avoid. However, there’s a big difference between making reckless decisions versus taking calculated risks. Knowing the potential losses of taking a certain risk is just as important as knowing the positive outcomes.

Do plenty of research and have a backup plan in place. There are a few pros and cons of case studies, but they can provide some extra information and insights for determining potential outcomes and evaluating risks. This can make them powerful tools when making big decisions for your company.

6. Thinking Negatively

It may sound cliche, but negativity can hold you back in innovation. Negativity affects mood, confidence, and productivity, which are essential in innovation. Negativity will affect your work culture and you may lose good employees over it.

Work at changing your language. Instead of thinking, “I can’t” visualize a more positive outcome. Implementing this type of thinking will boost your self-esteem and self-confidence. It can also make you more creative and even improve your brainstorming sessions. Instead of taking a negative mindset and immediately shooting down ideas or strategies that could be good, you create opportunities for real innovation.

7. Convincing Yourself You Don’t Need to Delegate

Every good leader knows the value of delegating. You will be sure to burn out if you try to do everything yourself. Your job as a leader is to provide direction to your employees but you’ll need to trust they will do their job.

Start by analyzing your time spent. Track every task you finish over a week. Take note of the time spent on each task, too. Was this a task you needed to do yourself or could someone else have taken it on? Did you need to put out a fire for someone else or do a task someone else forgot about? Anything you need to do for someone else, write it down.

At the end of the week, add up all the time you spend doing tasks for other people or tasks that someone else could have taken care of. The results may be shocking to you. You will see just how many hours were wasted that could have been spent on projects and tasks that pertain to running your business.

Leaders are there to build and carry out the right work culture. Work to create a culture of support and avoid burnout. Encourage your employees to work together and support one another in their work. Be sure to show gratitude as well as appreciation so your employees feel valued, and extend that to their coworkers.

8. Thinking You’re Not Good Enough

Just like negativity, thinking you’re not good enough can be toxic and hold you back from innovation. Many entrepreneurs keep waiting for the moment when they do feel ready. However, if you keep waiting for that feeling, it may never come.

Stop waiting for a sign that you’re ready and just begin. It’s better to start now than wait too long. Starting now gives you room to start small and grow. Decide on a few small, achievable goals to aim for. Meeting these smaller goals will help build your confidence and prepare you for bigger goals. It’s also a core strategy to remember as you develop a successful business growth strategy.

9. Believing You’ll Never Be the Best

This belief is often the result of many of these other beliefs. Constantly comparing yourself to others, not believing in yourself, and aiming for perfection can sabotage your business. These can lead to negative thoughts filling your mind and impeding innovation. Plus, the constant need and drive to be the best can lead to severe burnout.

If you are experiencing burnout, there are a few things to help you recover from burnout, like building a good support network and finding time to do things you enjoy. It’s also important to take time to acknowledge your achievements. Put more emphasis on your progress, rather than your big end goal. Changing this mindset will help you find inspiration again and help you keep some perspective.

These are just a few beliefs that can block innovation in your small business. It’s easy to fall into the trap of not believing you’re good enough or comparing yourself to other entrepreneurs. But changing your thinking will help you break out of a rut and start innovating!