Mindset, characteristics and competencies of social entrepreneurs

‘Entrepreneurial mindsets are formed by training your mind to recognise possibilities by continually looking for issues and imagining how you would solve them.’²⁰

Core mindsets of social entrepreneurs

For a social entrepreneur, it all starts with the why? As a social entrepreneur, you must be certain of your "why" and have a strong desire to pursue it. That is the core reason for your undertaking. Check out the six core mindsets for social entrepreneurs.

1. Own Your Journey
2. Productive Paranoia
3. Camaraderie
4. Frugality
5. Adopt the Adoption Curve
6. Embrace Effective Learning.

Mind-set 1: Own Your Journey

Do what you believe is right and take full responsibility for your actions. Do not become angry if you hear contradicting advice; instead, embrace the variety of information and use it all to make the best conclusion.

Mind-set 2: Productive Paranoia

There are two sides to the productive part. First, it is about finishing your research without becoming paralysed by the analytics. Second, rather than seeing your paranoia as a disabling fear, see it as an exciting, never-ending way to develop and ultimately grow the impact that is your "why."

Mind-set 3: Camaraderie

In entrepreneurship, the value of teamwork is expanding. Camaraderie builds on that. It emphasises the deeper emotional links, connections, and resonance that occur when teams truly connect to pursue a compelling "why." Also, it sees the benefit of having camaraderie with people beyond your organisation, such as outside experts, colleagues, stakeholders, and the numerous communities you are truly a part of.

Mind-set 4: Frugality

'Frugality seeks just the correct amount of resources to get the work done.

Money is required for good venture ideas. The issue is that bad ideas also believe they deserve financial support. Frugality comes into play here. It forces you to ensure that the money will fix your problem, and then it ensures that you only take as much as necessary.

And never forget, too much money can be as harmful as too little because money produces expectations, pressures, and typically a stressful clock ticking somewhere.'²⁰

Mind-set 5: Adopt the adoption curve

The adoption curve is a model for predicting and tracking people's use of new products or technologies. All ideas that scale (or prosper) or 'change the world' go through the adoption curve. The concept behind this adoption curve is that not everyone would rush out and buy the product as soon as it becomes available. The number of users will grow over time until levelling out.

Mind-set 6: Embrace effective learning

'Focusing on these mindsets is a good start, but to master them, you must master the meta-mindset, the mindset that enhances all the others, effective learning.

Effective learning is shrinking your feedback loops as much as possible: everything you do that matters should either confirm your thinking or teach you something new. It should do so as cheaply, efficiently and quickly as possible. Effective learning is knowing what to test, how to test, and how to learn from the test results in a way that you use to improve your efforts and impact.'²⁰

When it comes to individual personalities, social entrepreneurs are diverse; however, they all share the same characteristics necessary for success: they are individuals willing to take significant risks and uncertainties to make positive changes in areas that may be resistant to new ideas or approaches.

Influencer marketing may be particularly beneficial to social enterprises. After all, more than half of Generation Z shoppers admit that social conscience influences their shopping decisions. This means that social entrepreneurs have the edge over businesses that do not engage in social good.

Potential pitfalls of social entrepreneur characteristics

While it is good to want to help others, social entrepreneurs can become misled by this urge.

The enterprise's vital financial stability is frequently jeopardised to achieve social goals. The business may have been started to provide social transformation, but if the entrepreneur ignores financial responsibilities in pursuit of social goals, the business will fail.

Acting on instinct can lead to extremely innovative results, but it can be disastrous when a social entrepreneur makes a mistake. It is a frequent fallacy to always "trust your gut," as this gives a lot of leeway for illogical mistakes. A new venture is unlikely to succeed if the primary business concept is based solely on intuition and qualitative data. There must also be a thorough examination and review of the company concept based on more than simply aspirations, dreams, and desires.

Social entrepreneur competencies

Successful entrepreneurs have accumulated a set of abilities that have aided them in achieving their objectives. While nerve and patience are required to start and maintain a new business, you should also focus on developing these seven vital abilities critical to your future success in multiple ways.

1. Leadership
2. Optimism
3. Grit
4. Resilience
5. Creativity and innovation
6. Empathy
7. Emotional and social intelligence.

Leadership

Social entrepreneurs take initiative and action to solve problems (rather than complaining about what is wrong).

Optimism

Entrepreneurs are confident that they can achieve a bold vision, even when many people doubt them. They have a strong sense of self-efficacy and believe that they have control to change their circumstances.

Grit

This is a combination of perseverance, passion, and hard work—the relentless drive to achieve goals, and complete commitment to achieving their task.

Resilience in the face of adversities, obstacles, challenges, and failures

When things fall apart, social entrepreneurs rise to the occasion. They thrive in the most ferocious storms. They see failures as valuable feedback.

Creativity and innovation

Social entrepreneurs people see new possibilities and think in unconventional ways. They see connections and patterns that few other people would imagine.

Empathy

Social entrepreneurs can put themselves in the shoes of others and imagine perspectives other than their own; this is one of the most valuable qualities for understanding the needs of others they serve.

Emotional and social intelligence

Social entrepreneurs are excellent at connecting with others and building strong relationships.

The crucial thing to remember is that each of these competencies is something that can be learned via repetition. People can improve their abilities in each area and see statistically significant progress.

Character vs Competency

But how does character vary from competence? Competency refers to a person's skill or expertise in a specific domain (like product, engineering, marketing, or sales). On the other hand, character is defined by the presence of the most valuable personality attributes, such as integrity, perseverance, honesty, fairness, humility, and empathy, to mention a few.

The distinction between character and competency is crucial because, while skill can be improved, 'characteristics are in our nature - they are what we are born with.' It does not say you can not add to them or be inspired by certain life events. You can improve your proficiency by learning a new skill, but your entrepreneurial character is largely set and equated to destiny for a purpose.

Entrepreneurial case study

You are to research two entrepreneurs, their successes, challenges and the various entrepreneurial concepts and principles they may have utilised in their journeys. These entrepreneurs may be from a diverse array of disciplines or concentrated in one specific industry sector such as tech or creative.

Produce a case study of these entrepreneurs that includes all of the requirements listed below.

Requirements

1. Identify, research and discuss a range of entrepreneurial concepts and or principles.
2. Research 2 successful entrepreneurs and their mindsets, and evaluate and describe why you think they have become so successful using the concepts or principles you have documented as a guide.
3. Identify and describe any opportunities to influence you in your entrepreneurial ecosystem or journey.
4. Produce a plan for what your day would look like if you were an entrepreneur and which daily practices you would apply to increase your success chances. Write a thorough plan for yourself that includes tips, tools, and action steps to increase your chances of success.
5. Ensure all sources are documented, and all writing is your original work and referenced accordingly.

Find a buddy in the forum. Send them your plan, and discuss why you chose these entrepreneurs to study. Find out who they chose and why.