Tag Archives: employee engagement

The 3 G’s of Happiness

I think that you would agree that we all want more happiness in our lives; less complications, less problems, less stress and MORE happiness. This is something I have shared with my clients when they come to me and want more happiness. It’s called the 3 G’s. I’ll break it down for you.

Gratitude. On a daily basis, find a small thing that you’re grateful for. Not some big thing, but something small that you can be grateful for every day.
Generosity. Be generous towards somebody or something in your life. That could be money, that could be time, that could be a note you write to somebody to encourage them. Or maybe it’s something you do for a coworker or for your spouse. It doesn’t have to be big, but you’re giving to somebody without the expectation of a return.
Goodness (or doing good). Is there somewhere or something you can do good around or for? It might involve your child — maybe helping out at your child’s school event. It could be serving at your church. Or maybe doing something for a stranger. It might be giving something away to somebody and doing good in that way. Anyway, get creative and think about something you can do that is good. It could be as simple as saying please and thank you or maybe leaving a really big tip for your waiter at dinner tomorrow night.

Now you have the secret to creating more happiness in your life — the 3 G’s of Gratitude, Generosity and Goodness/Good.

If you practice and do one of these every day, your happiness factor will go up.

We all know about the 3 G’s but unless you actually do them and practice them, you’re not going to get the benefit of Happiness that they bring.

by Scott Ballard , May 1, 2023

Retaining your employees

When we do executive coaching, it’s clear that every CEO, business owner, or entrepreneur comes to us with the dream to build something. That’s the mission that drives companies from a kitchen table to a billion-dollar empire. Unfortunately, there’s one thing almost everyone forgets. We forget that our companies are made up of people.

More than ever before, businesses are having a difficult time with employee engagement, retention, the great resignation, and ghosting. The best thing right now is retain the employees you have due to the shortage of replacements.

One important thing to remember is that each of the people that work for you has a dream. Everyone has hopes and dreams for themselves outside of work. But in the past those hopes and dreams were often seen as liabilities to mitigate instead of assets to leverage.

It’s essential that you change your mindset in regards to your employees and come at it from their perspective. For example, if you could help your employee make a connection between their work and their dreams or purpose in life, it would show them that you really care about them as a person.

At Confidence Coach, we help companies engage more with their employees by asking the question: What are your hopes, dreams, and aspirations? This actually shows your employees that you care about them by giving them support not only at work but in their personal life too.

This isn’t just about being nice. When people are in the process of achieving their dreams, that’s where real productivity happens — that’s where growth and creativity and connection happens. Bonuses aren’t enough anymore. People want to have hope and actually feel loved. I did a short video about this that you can check out here called Hope, Commitment & Love. As an employer, you can’t compete in this world anymore with just a paycheck. Employees want to live for a purpose, and if you can help give that to them you’ll have the most motivated team of employees you could dream of. There’s nothing like purpose to drive your team towards real productivity and customer connection.

Everyone has to live and work in their own greatness. If you can harness and build that up, you can make a huge impact on your team. And, together, you’ll have an even bigger impact on the world.

by Scott Ballard , April 21, 2022

Are you in control of your mind?

Finding a better path is all about thinking. Our mind does not control us; we control our mind.

Many people don’t realize that they are actually in control of the supercomputer in their head. They let their mind take them wherever it wants to go rather than consciously thinking and making choices. And for most people, myself included, if we don’t consciously choose to do positive things — to be all that we are supposed to be — our mind will lead us to making bad choices instead. Our mind will say, “I’m not going to get up and go to work today. I don’t feel like it. I’m going to call in sick.”

Changing your life’s path can seem like a huge, unattainable goal, but it starts with a very simple task — a tool that I give to my clients to help them change their choices and the way they think.

The task is easy.

First, every morning, say to yourself,

“What are the three achievements I’m going to go after today?”

Not a million achievements; just three things that are going to change your own world in the biggest way you can with your God-given ability.

Then at the end of the day, before you go to sleep:

Take inventory of the day’s EXPERIENCES:

What are you grateful for this day?
What PEOPLE are you grateful for today?
What you were able to CONTRIBUTE to the world today?

You have the FREEDOM to make a choice to do and to think and to live and to be a person who is going to make a great impact on the world today and everyday.

Be that world changer who will make a difference in the world, and then show your gratitude to those around you.

In my book The Biggest Disability is a Bad Attitude, I share more about the habit of gratitude.

by Scott Ballard , April 13, 2022

Paying it Forward to Elephante Commons

We started paying it forward with our Dream Employee membership in January 2021. Orlena and I are partnering with a group out of Gulu, Uganda, Africa called Elephante Commons. This NGO is being run by our great friends Quinn and Brit Neely. Elephante Commons is a community development project in an impoverished, difficult area to live in. Quinn and Brit moved there seven years ago and began a community center. It has now grown to include a restaurant, small hotel, training and education center, and health care. Their heart and Brit’s big vision is for the people in Gulu to become self-sustaining in their whole life.

Paying It Forward

This year and going forward, we are going to pay a percentage of each Dream Employee membership that we sign up here in the States. We will be paying it forward and sponsoring a membership for one of the community members at Elephante Commons.

You can go to our website at confidencecoach.org and learn more about Elephante and all the amazing work that Quinn and Brit are doing. Everything from learning to be self sustaining to education to healthcare to faith to community care — the whole 10 yards!

Orlena and I have been to Uganda and spent time there. We know, trust and love this couple and their dream. Through paying it forward, we are going to take the Dream Employee membership to a whole new level. Not only will we be helping our business owners and employees achieve their own dreams and goals through the Dream Employee membership, but we will also be going a step further and paying it forward. This cause will reach out to the least, the last, the forgotten, the orphan, and the widow in Gulu, Uganda.

Learn About Elephante Commons

If you’d like to join us on this mission and want to talk about it with me or Orlena, please reach out to us and feel free to schedule a free appointment. If you want to learn more about Elephante Commons, you can go to confidencecoach.org, go to the bottom of the front page and click on the logo of the pink elephant. It will take you directly to their website where you can learn more about what they are doing. They do a great job of visually storytelling. Amazing work is being done and lives are being changed.

I’ll throw this thought out to you. If you’re looking for a way to not only care and support your people becoming a better version of themselves, but you want your dollar to go deeper and make a difference in the world, this is a phenomenal way of doing it. We’re excited about it. We know the difference that paying it forward is going to make.

We have some surprises coming up over this year that we’ll be bringing to you as our partnership grows with Elephante over the year and into the future. Check out Elephante here.

by Scott Ballard , April 11, 2021

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

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

Who do you want to be a hero to?

In these challenging times, we have all seen a lot of heroes who are first responders, but recognize that you can be a hero too in your own way.

Our media, TV, movies and books are all built around the hero.

Who do you want to be a hero to?

Who are you being a hero to now?

And how can you expand, impact and influence those people and other people’s lives?

Heroes define a story.

Heroes are on a secret mission.

Heroes go the extra mile.

Heroes act when they’re afraid.

Heroes overcome amazing obstacles.

Heroes defeat the enemy.

Heroes are people that on the outside seem normal or average, but on the inside, they have something extraordinary.

Heroes are the people that make a difference and impact in the world.

Who do you want to be a hero to?

Who are you a hero to?

And, how can you be a hero all the time?

At Confidence Coach we are here to offer business owners a place to reconnect and rebuild their confidence and help you be that hero that you really want to be. Reach out today and schedule a free call if you’d like to talk. We are here to help and encourage you.

by Scott Ballard , December 8, 2020

Courage

Why is courage one of the most important values or qualities that you can have in your life and in your business?

“Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage. Just 20 seconds of embarrassing bravery and I promise you something great will come of it.” From Benjamin Mee’s book, We Bought a Zoo.

Sometimes you don’t even need 20 seconds of bravery — just one act.

What if you asked your team at the weekly or monthly meeting what they did that took courage in the last week or month and made this a question you asked them on a regular basis?

What if you asked yourself this question at the end of every workday for the next 30 days?

There’s one thing that I guarantee would happen. Your world would be transformed.

What’s one small act of courage you could take today?

Share it with us!

At Confidence Coach we are here to offer business owners a place to reconnect and rebuild their confidence; which leads to their better future in the days and years ahead. Reach out today and schedule a free call if you’d like to talk. We are here to help and encourage you.

by Scott Ballard , November 16, 2020

Is the Dream Employee for You?

Over the past several years of working with companies we’ve developed a process called The Dream Employee. It’s 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, we help, support and encourage them to achieve their own personal goals and dreams.

When you 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 helps create collaboration and makes a connection to their job that helps with retention, motivation and engagement to the company’s vision.

People that are achieving their own personal goals or dreams are internally motivated so you don’t have to do all the motivating every day, every month or every quarter.

All you have to do is help them make the connection between their job and their own personal goals. Your company culture changes once they realize that you really care, and show them that their work is a vehicle that can help them achieve some of their goals and dreams.

The Dream Employee is a benefit that you can give to your employees that is different from what other companies are doing. This gives you an advantage in the marketplace.

Reach out to us for a free consultation to learn more about what this could do for you and your company.

by Scott Ballard , September 6, 2020

Be Present

With all that’s going on in this difficult time, are you really being “present” and in the moment? Or, do you feel like you are spending most of your time worrying about the future and what’s going to happen tomorrow? Are you trying to figure out when and if things will get back to normal?

One thing I know for sure is that all we really have is today.

I encourage you not to miss what’s happening today — in your family life, in your business, with your customers.

Don’t miss the people you are with. Maybe you are chaffing at the social distancing and not able to get out of your home. In that case, you still need to be connecting with people although it may look differently via zoom or Skype. Or in some cases, your children are at home while you are working remotely. Are you actually spending more time with them or setting aside time just for them?

Decide today that you are going to be present.

Experience all today has to offer. You can never get this day back once it’s over. Once it’s gone; it’s gone forever.

Tell people that you love them.

Pass on joy to somebody whether it be a family member, customer or an employee.

There are a lot of things to learn during this difficult season. We all have a lot of areas to grow. There are lots of new things to experience.

Are you actually thinking about what new things you are learning today? Are you actually thinking about things this way? Is this your mindset at this time?

At Confidence Coach we offer business owners a place to reconnect and rebuild their confidence; which leads to their better future in the days and years ahead. Reach out today and schedule a free call if you’d like to talk. Let us help you make progress and really be present today.

by Scott Ballard , April 29, 2020

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