How the Right Mindset Can Turn Industry Challenges Into Opportunities

Working in tech is not for the faint of heart.

It’s a tough and relentless industry due to its rapid pace of change, competitiveness, constant demand to learn new skills, and pressure to deliver results quickly. Although these factors can make it a challenging and unpredictable environment for some to navigate, they are also what make this industry exciting and innovative. 

I’ve done a couple of short stints at other places, but G2 has effectively been my professional home for the last decade. In that time, I have seen a lot — incredible growth and exciting new opportunities, but also many obstacles that required pivoting and new ways of operating. Some of these changes were the result of standard business lifecycles; others were reactions to global and geopolitical events far outside office walls. 

I started as an intern in 2015, when G2 was still a small operation in Highland Park, IL. I have grown, changed roles, changed teams, became a people manager — I even left the company and came back (I’m what we call a ‘boomerang’ here at G2). 

If I had to summarize my journey in this industry over the last decade, it’s that the one constant has been change. But the constant change is also what opened up new opportunities for me and has continuously pushed me to grow and take on new challenges.

As a result, I’ve had to find ways to adapt, learn to be agile, and embrace it all. What has been critical to my journey at G2 has been adopting the right mindset at the right time to help me navigate change and seize the opportunities that inevitably come as things evolve and shift. 

A mindset is the way you see the world through your own lens. It is your collective assumptions and expectations about yourself and the situations around you. Research shows that mindsets play a significant role in determining outcomes. By understanding, adapting, and shifting your mindset, you can become more resilient to challenges and change. 

Three mindsets have been beneficial to me and have helped shape my professional journey. Understanding and adopting these mindsets will help and benefit anybody who wants to pursue a long-term career in this industry. 

Growth mindset: Work through and manage change

The growth mindset is the belief that intelligence, competencies, and abilities can be developed through hard work and effort. My favorite resource on the growth mindset is Mindset by Carol S. Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford. The book states that people with a growth mindset are more open to learning, taking on challenges, and growing from setbacks. This contrasts with a fixed mindset, which is the perspective that abilities and traits are predetermined and cannot be changed. 

Here are some characteristics of a growth mindset:

• Embrace challenges. Viewing challenges as opportunities to learn and grow, rather than obstacles. 
• Learn from criticism. Seeing feedback as a learning opportunity. 
• Persist through setbacks. Not giving up easily. 
• See effort as a path to mastery. The belief that abilities can be improved through effort. 
• Find inspiration in others. Inspired by the success of others.

Having a growth mindset has proved to be a critical competency for me over the years. With each new role I’ve taken on and each new team I’ve joined, my growth mindset has helped me step into every situation with an open mind and eagerness to learn. It also positions me to learn from every person I work with.

No matter their tenure, title, or role, there is something to learn from everyone — how they achieved their own successes and hit quotas and lessons from their own failures when they don’t hit quota. Over time, I have gathered all of these learnings and built upon my own experiences and opportunities.

Compound mindset: Set yourself up for success

The compound mindset is the belief that small, consistent choices will compound and lead to big results over time. Thus, you can achieve your goals by making small changes every day rather than taking big drastic actions. In The Compound Effect, Darren Hardy states that it is effectively a strategy of reaping huge rewards from small, seemingly insignificant actions.

Here are some other key considerations when it comes to a compound mindset:

• Consistency: Making small, smart choices consistently over time is critical. 
• Momentum: Consistency also builds momentum, which will help you stay on course. 
• Course correction: Small actions over time allow for regular progress review and thus correcting the course when needed.

As part of my routine, there are two things I do to stay consistent and maximize my productivity. First, each day, before logging off, I plan my entire next day. This allows me to stay focused on the smaller day-to-day tasks that need to be achieved. Second, at the end of the work week, I block off an hour on Friday to review larger-scale team priorities.

This practice helps me reinforce our team’s “bigger picture” and reflect on whether my day-to-day tasks throughout the week are helping the team reach our business goals or if the team and I need to course correct. Effectively, investing small amounts of time throughout the week contributes to helping my team and I reach our big strategic goals. 

Learner mindset: Seek growth, even when it's hard

The learner mindset views every new experience as an opportunity to learn. People with this mindset are more likely to adapt to their surroundings, absorb information quickly, and be resilient in the face of challenges. They are also open to unlearning to make room for new ideas. This is in contrast to a judger mindset, which is highly critical, quick to judge, often based on limited information, and not open to different perspectives or possibilities. 

According to Change Your Questions, Change Your Life by Marilee G. Adams, the key to a learner mindset, and ultimately positive results, all starts with the questions you ask. If your current state is a judger mindset, changing the questions you ask can help you switch to a learner mindset. Judger questions focus on criticism and limitation whereas learner questions promote curiosity, growth, and innovation. 

If you find yourself in a judger mindset and want to pivot to a learner mindset, consider asking the following questions:

• "What can I learn from this?"
• "How else can I think about this?"
• "What's possible?"
• "What am I assuming?"
• "What's the other person thinking, feeling, and wanting?"

As part of G2’s Revenue Leadership Team, I do a lot of cross-functional work. When I work with someone outside of my own team, or outside of Revenue, it can be challenging, but I push myself into a learner mindset because it’s a unique opportunity to learn from people outside of sales and gain new perspectives from experts in other fields. 

However, being a leader, you can also find yourself in tough and intense situations where difficult decisions have to be made, and there are conflicting opinions — which can feel amplified in a fast-paced industry like SaaS. In times like these, a learner mindset helps me take a step back and put myself in another person’s position — think about their priorities, why we are not aligned, and what their goals are. The learner mindset has helped me establish positive relationships and more successful collaborations across the business. 

Going with the flow

This industry certainly isn’t for everyone. I know many who love it and wouldn’t be anywhere else, but I also know others who decided to seek out other paths. For those of us who choose to be in it for the long haul, it’s necessary to continuously innovate, experiment, and effectively solve complex problems in a dynamic environment. 

The tech landscape is forever shifting, so a mindset that welcomes new tools, approaches, and learning is essential to stay competitive and resilient. As we’ve seen just in the last couple of years in SaaS, the ups and downs come fast and furious, so having the right perspectives will allow you to bounce back from whatever obstacles come your way. 

Everything is changing, but are you ready to change with it? Find out how to invest in your own professional development, so going with the flow is easier than ever.