success Archives « Confidence Coach

Leadership Tip for Engaging and Motivating Employees

Being a leader comes with a lot of responsibilities. One of them being: how do you keep your employees feeling engaged and motivated?

Here is a way we have found to further engage your employees, particularly if you have meetings or trainings.

At the beginning of every meeting, start by asking each employee to take 20-30 seconds to talk about what they are excited about right now. It could be a win they’ve recently had or progress that they’ve made at either work or in their personal life.

Doing this, will enhance your leadership, increase engagement and create enthusiasm within the company.

If you found this idea helpful, please share it with somebody that’s a fellow business owner. We’d love to hear back from you if you have any comments about this as well. To learn more about this or other ways to have a great meeting, schedule a free consultation or you can also subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Make it a great day!

by Scott Ballard , August 8, 2023

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

Acknowledge the Wins!!

Do you know how to start your meetings with wins so that everyone will want to attend your next meeting (be it virtual or in person) and be excited about it??

As we work with clients, one of the things we are seeing is that they’re having a lot of meetings and/or doing a lot of strategizing. They’re meeting with their team all the time. Those meetings tend to be a real drain, not only for you as the owner or manager, but also for the team. So our tip for you today is an idea that can help stimulate and make meetings much more productive so that you can get a greater result out of them.

Here’s the simple tip that you can add to each meeting at the very beginning once everybody is there. This has nothing to do with your agenda or the project that you’re working on, nor does it have to do with what you want to talk about.

Start your meetings with everybody in the group taking 30 seconds and sharing what they’re most excited about in their life right now.

For example, it could be at work, it could be personal, it could be family related, it could be a recreation or whatever they’re doing — but give everybody a chance to do this and share. What you’ll find is that mentally by doing this, their engagement will increase 10 times just because now they’re talking and thinking about something that they’re truly engaged in. There’s energy around this and it will then transfer on into what you’re talking about in your meeting. They’ll have this positive mindset and be ready for the meeting.

So this is how we change meetings from being basically the “death of a business” to something that people look forward to! Recognize and let people acknowledge the “wins” in their life. Because if you do this at every meeting, as you go on, people will come with the anticipation of sharing what they just did. Maybe someone will say, “Oh, I want to share with everyone that I just finished my first half marathon” or, “I just did this…” and they will say what they are excited about. This is how to change meetings from being this thing that people dread and they think are wasted time killers to making them productive, exciting and a great experience.

If you found this idea helpful, please share it with somebody that’s a fellow business owner. We’d love to hear back from you if you have any comments about this as well. To learn more about this or other ways to have a great meeting, schedule a free consultation or you can also subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Make it a great day!

by Scott Ballard , May 11, 2022

How to engage your employees

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 , May 10, 2022

Your Peak “Thinking” Time

Science, research, history, and plenty of personal experience all point to the fact that each of us have a peak ‘thinking’ time during our day. We have a time when our mind is working most efficiently, we get the most done, and we’re most productive.

Think about your own day and the times when you’ve had breakthroughs for your business: the times when you’re thinking the most clearly. When is that usually? Is it early in the morning? After lunch? Or maybe after you’ve taken a long walk in the afternoon? When is your energy the best for building your business?

Now, have you ever thought about putting your most important tasks or goals into that slot of time every single day? This is a simple way to leverage your best thinking to get the greatest results for your business. Use it, and create an unfair advantage against your competition.

If you’re not sure when your prime time is, set up a free coaching session with us — we’ll help you figure it out.

by Scott Ballard , April 22, 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

The Business of Marriage

The business of marriage is the idea of using lessons from your business life to help you in your marriage. And, using lessons and things you’ve learned in your marriage to help you in your business.

I love talking about this because Orlena and I have been married for 40 years and we’ve been in business and worked together for the last 10.

We have had many conversations about how we have learned different things from our business that we can apply to our marriage; and how we have learned different things from our marriage that we can apply to our business.

Business/Marriage

Here are a couple of things to think about that will help sharpen and make both your business and your marriage better.

In business you need to know your customer. You need to know their needs, what they like, and what they don’t like. You also need to know all the little details about them so that you can serve them well and they will stay a lifetime customer.
Well, that’s no different than what we’re talking about for a marriage. You need to look at your spouse and learn about them. You need to find out what makes them tick. Find out the things that are meaningful to them; the things that create value and build on that long term relationship.
How much time are you investing in your business? Let’s say you’re working 50-60 hours a week. When you do so, you expect a certain return, result or experience out of that.
So let’s flip that question around and ask how much time are you really investing in your marriage or your family? And are you investing in them with the idea that there’ll be a positive or good return out of that?

It’s a different way of looking at your marriage, and it’s a different way of looking even at your business result.

Where are you at in your business and your marriage these days? At Confidence Coach we are here to help business owners, entrepreneurs and CEOs to grow in their business and work, but our lives are not one dimensional, we all have a life outside of work. Are you putting as much time and effort into your marriage as you are your business?

Reach out if you’d like to talk with us about this. Schedule a free appointment today.

by Scott Ballard , July 22, 2021

The Halo Effect

The halo effect is the tendency to think positively about a person based on just one aspect of their character. Which can lead the most successful people to get trapped by their own thinking.

Below are some ways the halo effect can influence you as a person or as a business owner in different ways in your life.

A couple of sayings around money: Money doesn’t make you smart; wealthy people can easily confuse luck with skill.
Prior success does not guarantee future success.
Intelligence is often situational and specific.
Highly Successful People rarely have anyone to challenge their thinking. They’re often times surrounded by “yes” people.

Just some thoughts about this. If you have customers, vendors, or partners, you have people in your life that you have put a halo over their head. It’s good to remember that we all put on our pants one leg at a time. And, each person, no matter who they are, struggles in at least one area of their life.

Remember this when you are talking to a potential huge customer or you’re trying to close a deal or you’re seeking advice from your attorney, accountant or coach. Everybody has things that they struggle with; we’re all equal in that regard. These people have an area where they’re struggling and maybe you have a strength. Or vice versa, you’re struggling in an area that is their strength.

The halo effect is something we all do with people. We put people on pedestals; think of American Idol, Survivor or some billionaires for example.

A good thing to always remember is that we are all equal in some areas, in other areas we have greater strengths, and in other areas we all share weaknesses.

At Confidence Coach, we are here to help and encourage business owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs to build a better future. Feel free to reach out for a free consultation if you’d like to learn more about how we help people build their confidence and hope for a great future.

by Scott Ballard , July 15, 2021

Leadership

Question of the day for you: How is your leadership?

How has your leadership affected the results in your business in the past and presently today?

What do you need to change in order to get a different and/or better result in the future?

How is your leadership affecting your company’s results?

These are just a few things for you to consider and ponder today.

At Confidence Coach we ask deep questions that help business owners, entrepreneurs, CEOs and leaders create breakthroughs. Schedule a free consultation if you’d like to talk. Make it a great day!

by Scott Ballard , June 27, 2021

Achieve Your Dreams and Goals by Helping Others

Here’s an interesting thought by Byron Katie. She has an idea which takes the massive dreams, goals and aspirations we have for our business, our life, and our relationships and breaks it down to a very simple interesting thought which I have taken the challenge of, and I hope you will too. We can journey on this together because accomplishing your biggest hopes and dreams in your life and business are wrapped up in this statement.

“You can have anything you want in life if you’re willing to ask 1,000 people.”

Because of the experience with our clients and their employees using the Dream Employee program, I would change her saying a little bit. The second one that I came up with (and a lot of people have said this as well, maybe just a little differently) is:

“You can have all of your dreams and goals in your life if you’re willing to help 1,000 people achieve their dreams and goals in their life.”

I think these two statements can reframe the big goals and dreams you have for the next 5, 10, 15, even 25 years into bite size steps you can take.

How does that fit into you achieving your 10 year goal?

These two mindsets or ways of approaching goals, dreams and aspirations are incredibly powerful!

Let me challenge you to apply them as well. Send me an email with your thoughts and share your results. How are you going to apply these two mindsets to your life and your business going forward? Reach out today and schedule a free call if you’d like to talk. We are here to help you make progress towards your own goals and dreams.

by Scott Ballard , January 27, 2021