September 2019 « Confidence Coach

Commit to Moving Forward

Are you in business and you’re feeling stuck?

You’re not sure what it is, you’re not sure why, but something’s plateaued.

You can’t seem to move forward with growth and strategy.

What’s going on here?

Well, without having to crawl into your mind, I’m pretty sure I know: You haven’t fully committed to moving forward.

You haven’t burned the bridges. You’ve left the back door open. You keep thinking that maybe, maybe there’s a way out.

But if you recall all the success you’ve had in your business in the past, wasn’t the first step your 100% commitment to going forward?

When you commit that way, your mind creates the courage and the capability to overcome fear and have that win.

We work everyday with our coaching clients to help them achieve their desired results. Sometimes you have to look back to see what you’re committed to before you can move forward on the path to success.

Schedule a free session so we can help you get unstuck and get you back on track with your commitment.

by Scott Ballard , September 29, 2019

Implementing the Circle of Encouragement

If you are looking for another great way to end a meeting on a positive note, I would suggest using the Circle of Encouragement. Since we talked before about starting a meeting with wins (sharing things that people are excited about), we wanted to give you this new strategy of how to end a meeting with a lasting impression.

It can be used after a long strategy meeting, a coaching session, or any team meeting you have on a regular basis. Using this will end a meeting on a high note and in a completely different way. Each time you use it, you will get amazing results.

The Circle of Encouragement is also something we use with our clients when we work with them during The Dream Employee process.

My wife and I even use it when we celebrate family birthdays with our kids. The power of encouragement goes a long way and you can never have too much of it!

This may be a real stretch for you. But, I guarantee it will create great culture, collaboration, and unity within your company in a profound way.

Here’s how to create a Circle of Encouragement:

Have your team stand in a circle.
One person starts by turning to the person on their right. For 30 seconds they say all the things that they appreciate about that person in the work that they do within the company. This is a time to speak only words of encouragement (it may be something you admire about them personally or professionally).
Then the person that just received the encouraging words turns to the person on their right and does the same thing. Speaking words of encouragement for 30 seconds.
This process repeats itself and goes all the way around the circle.
When you get back to the person that started it, reverse the circle (speak to the person on your left) and go the other way and repeat the process.
You are done when each person gets to speak and receive encouragement from the people on both sides of them.

I first learned how to do this when taking teams all over the world on mission trips to Africa, India and Haiti. After using this with about 30 different teams over the last 10 years, I’ve since adapted it to business.

Seeing the impact words of encouragement have on people prompted us to use this process with our coaching clients at the end of a meeting or training session.

What this really does is it brings unity, appreciation and respect. It creates a culture where positive things are verbalized and people get to hear about the things that they’re doing well.

This creates unity within the team.

It also helps people in the circle who don’t work together closely get to know one another better and understand what each person really brings to the team. It’s brings great value.

Do these negative comments sound familiar? “I’m overwhelmed because I’ve got 15 new things I’ve got to do”; “I didn’t understand that”; or “That meeting didn’t go well”?

I guarantee you will get a different result if you use the Circle of Encouragement at the end of the meeting.

Begin your meetings with Wins and End them with Encouragement!

Create a culture that is unstoppable and goes beyond just doing a job. You’ll be creating an atmosphere that is all about seeing the best in one another.

Everybody in this day and age needs encouragement! And so we actually put it in the meeting agenda. We teach it; we do it with people. It’s uncomfortable at first. The result is the whole culture will be transformed when people start receiving encouragement.

What we are all about at Confidence Coach is transforming cultures; making the workplace for employees and owners to be awesome.

In order to be awesome, people have to feel encouraged and to feel like they’re winning. For it to make an impact, you have to do this on a regular and consistent basis..

Let us know if you’d like more information on how to do a Circle of Encouragement at your company. We’d be glad to come in and show you how to implement it either virtually or in person. Subscribe to our YouTube channel or check us out at confidencecoach.org.

Schedule a free consultation if you’d like to talk about this area of employee engagement, employee retention, or how to improve the culture of your company.

We love what we do and we’d love to help you!

by Scott Ballard , September 22, 2019

The Secret to Getting that Extra Effort From Your Employees

Do you want to know the secret to getting that extra effort from your employees?

How do you get them to go the extra mile and consistently improve their performance?

Well, the answer might surprise you. It’s really not up to them.

It’s up to you!

I challenge you to take a walk around your business; really take a look at how your employees are working and what they’re doing.

Here’s the catch though.

Go around with your focus being these three things:

Look for what they’re doing right.
Look for what they are doing well.
Acknowledge them for the great job they are doing.

For example, tell them that you really appreciated the way they handled a difficult customer situation or maybe the quick way they processed an order; maybe it’s the way that they have kept their work area clean. The possibilities are endless. Look for the good stuff and then let them know that you see what they are doing and how well they are doing it.

Be Positive

It’s important to focus on the positive of what they’re doing right, well and good.

Now this can be really challenging because for the most part, we tend to focus on the negative. We are looking for what needs to be improved; what the problems are. We want to point out all the things that went wrong; and we’re trying to figure out how to fix them.

But what I’m asking you to do over the next week is to every day get up from your desk and get away from your office.

Acknowledge Them

Get out there where your people are. Acknowledge and look for the things that they’re doing right. Then, verbalize those things to them right then and there. Don’t just think it in your own mind. Actually tell them and acknowledge them. Focus on what they’re doing well, what they’re doing right, and how great a job they are doing.

You’ll be surprised how this changes the dynamic of your team and your employees. Suggest to your managers that they do this too. Create a culture of positivity and encouragement in your organization. Have everybody in your company do this by setting the example.

Looking for the positive is something that we have to train ourselves to do.

At Confidence Coach we have ideas, processes and thoughts that help you get the greatest return out of your biggest investment (which is your employees — they are your “first” customer).

If you’d like to talk about coaching or learn about different programs that we have, please schedule a free consultation. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel or to our blog by clicking on these links.

Remember, you have everything you need to be successful in your business with your employees right at your fingertips. All you need to do is take action today.

by Scott Ballard , September 15, 2019

Being Known and Heard

As we help business owners and CEOs with employee engagement, some of the questions that I ask them are: How do you engage your employees?

What’s fundamentally going on in the employee’s mind?

What are they really seeking in this working relationship?

Two Takeaways.

There are two things today that I want to point out to you that are really important for your employees.

The first is to be “known”. People want to be known for who they are and hear their name said. When you call them by name, it makes them feel good. Think about this — How many times do you walk down the hall, go through the warehouse, or maybe you’re out on a job site, and you don’t acknowledge someone that you see? Do you call them by name and say hello? Or, do you simply go on by? Do you ask how the project is going? How their day is going? Are you too focused on your own thoughts to stop and be friendly?
The second thing is to give your employees a place in your business or relationship where they have a voice and can be “heard”. Do you have a specific place where they can report to you about safety, a project, ideas for the company or just whatever’s going on in their mind? Do they feel comfortable expressing their thoughts or concerns to you?

When we work with companies, we not only work with the owners and leaders, but we also work with their employees using The Dream Employee. Being known and heard are two of the biggest needs we hear from employees. I hope you will use these two big takeaways to improve your company culture and engagement.

This sounds relatively simple to do. However, it takes intentionality on your part to really make your employees feel that they are known and heard. These two things are critical. If you’d like to learn more of what we do and how we can implement The Dream Employee in your company, schedule a free consultation today.

by Scott Ballard , September 8, 2019

What’s your employee engagement strategy?

Do you have an employee engagement strategy? If so, how are you following through on it and how do you know if it’s working?

Employee engagement is an area that we specialize in and are passionate about. We have employee engagement tools to help you.

One of our processes is called The Dream Employee. This tool is a great way to find out what motivates your employees. By going through a simple questioning process with each one of your team members at your company on a monthly basis, you can learn how to help, support and encourage them to achieve their own personal goals and dreams.

When you begin to know your employees on a personal level, it helps them to see the connection between their goal or dream and their work that they are doing in your company. It creates collaboration and helps them make the connection between their personal life and their work. It also helps with retention, motivation and engagement. They realize that you really care about them as a person.

When people are achieving their own personal goals or dreams, they are internally motivated. You don’t have to do all the motivating every day, every month or every quarter.

If you’ve been out there for a while trying to figure out how to improve your employee engagement and nothing is working, reach out to us for a free consultation. We will give you a free demonstration of how The Dream Employee works. The Dream Employee program is one that can be maintained and tracked and has been getting transformational results with our clients.

by Scott Ballard , September 1, 2019