March 2021 « Confidence Coach

Connect, Care and Create

Today I just want to talk a little bit about and give you some tools as an owner or leader of how to connect, care and create an improved and better relationship with your employees.

These are soft skills that don’t often get talked about. They aren’t taught in school or in an MBA program nor are they focused on a lot anywhere else. But we’ve seen when they are used in the right way, they are powerful.

Connect with Employees

The first tool that we use is “connect.” A lot of owners have told me over the years that they aren’t sure how to have a conversation with a new employee or somebody that they don’t seemingly have much in common with. I have a simple tool that I teach them how to have a five-minute conversation based on FORM. It’s an old insurance adage to get to know somebody. What FORM stands for is: Family, Occupation, Recreation, Message. Here’s some sample questions: Do you have family? What was your job before you came here? What work were you doing before you came here? What do you like to do for fun? Then the message part can go something like this: “We’re so glad you’re here, and now that I know more about you, I’m excited to go deeper with that.” Use this simple “form” to connect with an employee. It’s very simple and only takes a couple of minutes.

Care Through Listening

The best way for owners or leaders to connect with their managers or supervisors is to ask them a question and then listen deeply to their answer. Don’t interrupt, wait until they are done talking so they feel they are truly heard. When people feel like they’re heard, they feel like they’re connected to you and that you really care.

The second step to caring is to listen. This is almost a lost art in our society today. But listen, take a couple of minutes and really listen deeply to people in your organization.

Create

The third step is to take the time to create an ongoing relationship with the people that work on our team as individuals. The fastest and simplest way to do this is find something that they care about. Maybe it’s something work related, it could be family, something they do for fun, or perhaps a hobby or an organization/cause that they care deeply about. Find a connection there and care about it also. Ask them questions about it or what’s happening around this situation, what progress are they making, is there some way you might support the thing they care most about. This is a great way to create a connection.

These are the three C’s that we use and teach about that are really effective connecting tools. Use “form”, care and listen deeply, and then create a connection around something they are care deeply about that you can also care about or talk with them about on an ongoing basis.

Hope you find this helpful and useful today. Let us know at Confidence Coach if you’d like more information and suggestions on how to connect, care and create a great relationship with the people in your organization.

by Scott Ballard , March 28, 2021

Batteries

Are you a battery charging station or are you a drain on the people that you work with?

Are people more energized, encouraged, lifted up, challenged or confident after they are with you?

Let’s step back and ask this question: Who and how do your batteries get charged?

Here are some simple ways to start charging other people’s batteries:

Encouraging words.
A smile.
A sincere compliment about something about the person.
Listening100% to what they’re saying, how they’re saying it, and the words that they’re using.
Look for times to give other people credit for a job well done.

Reach out today and schedule a free call if you’d like to talk more about this and learn other ways to change and improve your mindset and keep your batteries fully charged!!

by Scott Ballard , March 21, 2021

A 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 a modified version of this 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. (If you are doing this virtually, just give instruction as to who starts first.)
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 , March 16, 2021

I have to . . .

Most entrepreneurs, business owners, and leaders begin their day with a “to do” list of what they have to get done that day in their life and business. Maybe it’s a list of all the responsibilities that have to be taken care of. Either way, this can be burdensome and a tough way to start the day and gain momentum.

I’d like to suggest you test and experiment with an idea I have around changing the words from “I have to” to “I get to.” Instead of saying “I have to” do accounting today say “I get to” do accounting today. Change from “I have to” make sales calls today and rephrase it to “I get to” make sales calls today. You get the idea!!

Instead of telling yourself “I have to” hire someone today, say “I get to” hire someone today. Change the phraseology of having to do something to you get to do something. Those three little words of “I get to” will change your thinking, change your attitude, and also tremendously change your energy as you proceed throughout the day.

Most people view their “to do” list as an “I have to” list. Instead, call it your “I Get To” list!!

My challenge for you is to change the “I have to’s” that you have on your to do list to “I get to’s” and see what effect it as on your results. I think the volume of work you get done will increase as well as the amount of things you accomplish.