How To Pivot When Things Aren’t Working

Sometimes things aren’t going according to plan and you need to make a change. But change does not have to be a bad thing. In fact, it can actually be beneficial to you and your business goals.

Pivoting is the embrace of structured and oftentimes planned change that can help steer your team in a better direction.

So here are some ways to pivot in your business that won’t leave you and your team worse for the wear.

Don’t Be Overconfident – Leave Room For Mistakes 

Mistakes aren’t quite mistakes if you plan for them. Much like any emergency strategy, having a plan in place when things aren’t going well will make for smoother transitions.

Being overconfident can be the downfall of many businesses who think they are immune to market turns.

“Thinking you’re better than you are means you’re not aware of where you could be improving. It is also likely you will take on challenges of which you cannot succeed, making failure a more likely occurrence.

We should adjust our confidence level down a notch, to match reality — and in essence, escape overconfidence.” – Medium.com

Reasonable business plans always leave room for error. Mistakes are bound to happen and they are a lot less painful when you plan for them.

Take Responsibility For Mistakes 

A sign of a good manager is the ability to take responsibility for their mistakes.

Holding yourself accountable for what has gone wrong will allow you to better assess what changes need to take place.

“…admitting you are wrong can change the way others relate to you, and can make you a stronger leader than you’ve ever been before.” – Wise Bread

You can’t hide from glaring mistakes. Chances are if you see them, so does your team. So shirking responsibility will only serve to make your employees lose confidence in you.

Embrace The Micro Pivot

“Pivoting does not necessarily represent sudden and crazy over-the-top change and direction shifts. Pivoting is actually a process.” – Inc.com

Every day in business we encounter more information. Micro pivots are a way to move with the tide. They are the realization a business is tied to a market, and that a market is a living, breathing, changing thing.

“Micro pivots allow you to inch closer to your vision. When done well, they can truly reignite the fire within you — and within your audience.” – North Star Messaging

So pivoting can actually be a series of micro moves or alterations over time which leads to long-term change.

Failure Is Inevitable – Admit It 

Sometimes pivoting a project or strategy isn’t enough to save it.

At the center of every pivot strategy is the requirement that you let go of your old view an embrace new information.

“Failure isn’t bad when we learn from it. But what we should learn is that we’re not as good as we thought, or that what we believed was wrong.” – Medium.com

Pivoting your project when circumstances call for it isn’t a complete failure, it’s survival. Much of the struggle occurs when projects have to take a turn are due to preconceived notions and rigid attachments to outcomes.

Embracing change will make it a lot easier to move on when things just aren’t working. While it is always good to have a plan and be able to execute, sometimes you have to be open to veering in a new direction.

If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!