If you’re not thrilled with your business right now, I have a real gem to offer you this week: Your business is a reflection of you, your feelings, your beliefs, your actions, and your self-image! And the good news is, these things are not permanent — they shift and change. So some days your business (and you) will feel great and hopeful, and other times you may feel defeated and hopeless. The great news is that YOU CAN CONTROL THIS! Here are my tips for a positive mindset at work.
You can control the culture of your business, by creating powerful culture statements, or “rules for how we act around here” with your team. Then, make sure to role model those statements, and refer to them often to coach your team. Post them in places your team will see often, talk about them in staff meetings, and make sure they are in the employee manuals. Most important though, is that you and your leaders role model these statements!
You can control the emotions of your staff, believe it or not! You can show up with the intention to be happy, excited, positive, and looking for the great and the good, instead of what’s wrong. When you do this, your team will be encouraged and inspired to follow suit. You must remember that your culture, or the environment in your business, is always created from the top down. If the leaders are not role modelling the culture statements it will be very hard to expect that from your team!
Here are a few of my favourite culture statements to use as examples/inspiration:
- We are relentlessly solution-focused.
- We are positive and look for what’s GOOD and GREAT instead of what’s wrong.
- We are kind, always.
- We are a team; we support each other, no matter what.
- We are professionals; we are experts in our field.
- Family comes first.
- We give back, in huge ways, that make a powerful difference for people.
- We do everything possible to make our customers happy.
- We constantly educate and improve ourselves.
- We are committed to being positive, and are committed to personal development.
Keep in mind that creating these potentially business-changing culture statements will be a waste if you and the other leaders do not role model them! As leaders, you are role models for your people, whether you want to be or not. People are watching. Role model what you want to see from your team.
You can influence the engagement, motivation and success of your staff! First of all, be a great role model, as I said above. Second, make sure you do monthly feedback surveys so that you can tell how your team is feeling, how happy they are, how engaged they are, and anything else they want to mention to you in terms of feedback, and making their work environment and job better. Google forms are great, and free. Third, make sure to have POWERFUL and EFFECTIVE LEADERS run your DAILY HUDDLES. The daily huddles should include:
- An incredibly positive leader to run the meeting.
- What is each team member grateful for? This opens us up to creativity and positivity, and is a great start to the day. Don’t give up on anyone! Most people will find this weird, as the average person is not practicing gratitude every morning. But you can make this normal and AMAZING for them! They will probably even integrate it into other parts of their life. And, side note, the most incredible part of being a leader is the ability to improve your team’s lives. You may one day be delighted to learn that your team members have brought the daily gratitude practice into other areas of their life, and that it’s really helping them to be happier and more grateful! So amazing!
- What is our goal for today? The leader (you or one of your other leaders) must be very clear about the goal and how to achieve it. It’s also a great idea to ask your team how to achieve it. Leaders listen, and QUESTIONS ARE YOUR SUPERPOWER as a leader. When you can ask and really listen (and I mean listen with the possibility of having your mind changed) you can solve anything. You can remove any barrier. You can come up with any amazing game plan!
- How can we achieve these goals? After getting your team’s input, make a clear game plan and set out to achieve the goals. Remember that staff usually have 2 thoughts about goals:
-Is it attainable? (It should be a stretch, and an improvement from past numbers, but possible!)
-Is it worth it? Great employees think achieving goals is worth it because they have that built into their way of thinking. They want to do a great job. Others may need some reward or incentive to make it worth it. Remember these two keys as you set and discuss goals.
- What ideas does the team have to achieve the goals? Really get the team involved in achieving the goal. When a team member gets the opportunity to contribute to the plan, goals, or ideas, they are much more bought in. As much as possible, have your team help you come up with ways to achieve your goals. *Oftentimes they are even BETTER than the leaders at coming up with ways to achieve the goals because they are so much more involved with the frontline and customers. ASK, and LISTEN. Your team is so full of amazing ideas and solutions — make sure they feel safe to share.
You can control the way you and your business are presented to the public, and therefore attract more customers and sales! Be intentional about your marketing, branding, and sales processes. Every interaction should be consistent. Your brand should be authentic, clear, and consistent across every platform. This includes when people see your social media, ads, or come into your store. The best way to keep all of these consistent is to make sure your team is involved in creating your brand, and role-modelling it from the top down!
As you try to grow your business, your personal money blocks/other blocks will also stop you.It could show up in self-sabotage, giving all of your money away, or simply feeling guilty and not charging what your services and products are worth.
If you grew up hearing things like “rich people are greedy” or “money is the root of all evil,” you will definitely have trouble making money if you don’t do something to change those beliefs. A belief is simply a thought you think repeatedly, so the trick is to think a new thought habitually, and replace that old limiting belief. Otherwise, you will unintentionally stop yourself from being a millionaire or billionaire! If you ever hear yourself saying or even thinking thoughts like those I highly recommend reading two books in particular to help you with your limiting beliefs around money:
I have had, and still have, many amazing business and personal coaches over the years, along with brilliant, wealthy and successful mentors. But none of them were able to help me get past my first million and beyond like these two books did. Read them over and over again. Do the exercises. Get your spouse or partner to do it with you! Leave sticky notes and set reminders on your phone. Do whatever you have to do to create those new beliefs that serve you. It can be as simple as repeatedly thinking positive thoughts! Beliefs really are just thoughts you think over and over again. Think, “I can achieve great wealth and freedom,” and “I can be a billionaire or more,” or “I have so much money that giving people huge gifts doesn’t even make a dent for me!” — whatever you wish to achieve. Remember, on average, people tend to think 300 negative thoughts a day so force those good thoughts in and make them a habit! Your beliefs will change, your circumstances will change, and before you know it you will be successful and wealthy. Well, it won’t really be all of a sudden but it may feel like it. It certainly did for me.
In summary, there are so many ways that you can improve your business, by working on yourself. I highly recommend you take me up on all of them! Check out my other tips for pinpointing and understanding limiting beliefs.
With great excitement for your newfound successes,
Kelli-Rae
