Unwinding The Corporate Mindset
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By: Sam Cartagena
I always wanted to be a corporate girl. When I finally landed my first corporate job, I quickly learned that hard work wasn’t enough to be successful; I would have to adopt a corporate mindset too.
What is a corporate mindset? Just like there’s corporate speak – let’s circle back and take a 30,000 foot view on that initiative – there’s also corporate think, or a corporate mindset. These are the shared thoughts and beliefs that uphold a corporate culture.
Two of the most popular corporate mindsets I’ve seen for myself and my clients are:
Your work needs to be approved
Prioritize productivity above all else
While adopting these corporate mindsets can be helpful for the corporate world, it can quickly become a hindrance in the entrepreneurial one.
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That was my experience when I no longer wanted to be a corporate girl, and wanted to start my own business instead. All of a sudden, the old mindsets that helped me succeed were the same mindsets that were holding me back.
Here’s how these common corporate mindsets were keeping me stuck, why they don’t work in entrepreneurship, and what mindset I swapped them for instead.
Someone else is the authority vs. My intuition is the authority
The corporate world is built with hierarchy in mind. That’s why “someone else is the authority” or “your work needs to be approved” is an essential piece to the corporate mindset. Whether that authority is your boss or their boss, there’s always an added layer of approval.
Adopting this mindset in the corporate world is helpful because it makes you a team player. No one wants to be seen as a lone wolf within a corporate culture. However, when venturing into an entrepreneurial journey, this mindset will keep you from owning your own authority.
As an entrepreneur, you are the leader. You are the authority.
My new mindset: My intuition is the authority.
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Prioritizing productivity vs. Prioritizing your well-being
The corporate mindset serves the larger corporate culture, and is less concerned with the individual. That’s why an unspoken part of the corporate mindset is that your well-being comes after your productivity.
This mindset is helpful in a corporate space because it sets you up for lots of doing, which looks great on a performance review. However, the entrepreneurial track isn’t just about doing, it’s also about being. Your well-being is just as (if not more) important than your productivity. Because there isn’t another worker bee to replace you when you’re not well.
My new mindset: My well-being is my greatest asset.
A mindset is simply a set of thoughts, practiced over and over until they become beliefs. So whether it’s a corporate mindset or another mindset that’s not serving you, you can unwind it.
You get to choose which mindset you want to operate from.
Sam Cartagena is a certified mindset coach who helps ambitious women unwind the corporate mindset and create their own definition of success. Her signature coaching program, the Intuition Incubator, is designed to help women bring their vision to life, using their intuition as a GPS to success. Follow Sam on Instagram @sam.cartagenaa.