How to Instill Confidence in your Team and Surprise Yourself

How to Instill Confidence in your Team and Surprise Yourself

In life we all want to make it to the top, but the reality check for all of us comes when we realize that we need a team and people along the way to reach great heights. This is no exception with your business. 

Have you been wondering how to get your team there? How to get the most of your team? How to grow the talent once you have brought them in? One-word that sums this up perfectly: affirmation. 

A Harvard business review recently did a study and their results stated that optimistic employees outperform their peers by 66%! That is an amazing number.

So, what do we mean by affirmation? This is when you are affirming your team. You are letting them know that they are doing it right and creating confidence within them. This is essentially when they are going to outperform their peers by 66%.

CONFIDENCE

The Harvard business review continues and says that confidence is one of the biggest commonalities among higher performing employees. Let that sink in.

As they did all these studies and identified people that are performing at higher levels, it was confidence that topped as the common factor for these exceptional individuals.

My personal story

I totally believe this. It’s not only from me being a business leader but more from other experiences. In providing affirmation and confidence to my team, I have literally seen their abilities increase. I played college basketball at a really small college (not that big of a deal) and I wasn't even provided a scholarship. I just went on to the team and honestly speaking I wasn't very good (sorry ladies). I'm just a tall goofy gangly guy, and I did my best when I was out on the court. When I first started out as a freshman and sophomore, I was terrible. When I got onto the court, I was more scared than anything else, especially when the whistle blew, and it was time to move. In my last year when I played, I had a different level of confidence. Things had changed, and I got more familiar with things and received different affirmations. I was practicing a lot and when I hopped onto the court, I had more confidence.

As a result, my performance differed and I excelled. Confidence was that key factor and the same thing translates into my team and work. 

I have hired people from all kinds of different places, ranging from youth pastors who worked at Churches to grocery store clerks. I’ve had such a diverse group of people and put them in sales situations.  When they first started, the unfamiliarity with the job showed that there really wasn't a whole lot of confidence. However, through affirming and communicating with them, the journey changed.

I let them when they are doing things right, and it significantly helped them build that confidence. These guys are some of the top performers in the country. One of them is in the top 20 in the state and another has the top 1% in the country award- these guys are great!

I know a part of that is that they are confidence changed. 

Pro Tip: When the pressure is on, and when we need our team to perform the best, affirmation makes a difference. Providing that confidence to them, is going to help them perform when you need it.

THE AFFIRMATION APPROACH

You might think, "I don't want to coddle my employees, it's not my job to manage their emotions. I'm not about fluff. 

I agree, because running a business and having employees isn't about having gum drops, rainbows, unicorns or skittles. That's not what this is about. You can provide affirmation with doing more than just saying you are doing a good job. You can provide affirmation and confidence even when you are communicating that they are doing something wrong. Right? 

If they are doing something wrong, and you tell them they are doing it this way and we need it to be done that way, then that can provide for them confidence because now they know the right way of doing it. 

You could say, "Hey you did do the right thing when you tried executing it like this, but whenever you did this, it didn't necessarily work out, so let's adjust it by doing it this way". 

Then you watch and wait and see how they respond to that, then you can affirm them again by saying, "Hey! You adjusted, you did it great, well done!"

Pro Tip: Affirmation needs to be done on the spot.

Repeat Affirmations

Waiting for quarterly reviews to affirm people to say “here’s your goals and here’s how you did” and waiting for every 90 days to affirm somebody, IS NOT WISE. You need to make sure as a business owner and as a leader, that you are affirming people all the time. 

Schedule Affirmations

Quite literally, you should be scheduling at least once a week, if not once a day, a time where you are walking around and talking to your staff about the great things they are doing.

You should have a note pad in your hand or in your phone, where you are writing down all the great things people are doing, as they are doing it. 

You should be constantly listening and looking for awesome stuff that your team is doing. It can be stuff that they need to be doing differently and making those adjustments and affirmations on the spot. 

We are hard wired as individuals to want to know how we are doing while we are doing them. Immediate affirmations are the best type of affirmation. 

Pro Tip: The immediate one is going to have the most impact. You must be intentional about it.

THIS WEEK’S CALL TO ACTION: Schedule your affirmations. 

Literally, put it on your calendar and schedule time for you to affirm your team. It can be as simple as saying, “Hey, on Monday’s at this time _____, and Wednesday’s at this time______, I'm going to walk around the office and I'm going to affirm my employees”. You can also make note that you are going to send out emails or Slack messages, or even write a hand written note. Do something to let your team know they are doing it right. Give them confidence and let them know that they are doing great! 

RECAP

It doesn’t have to be fluff, rainbow, gum drops and sugar candy. You can do it with negative affirmations as well. You could say, “you tried doing it this way, and I liked the effort, but you did it wrong, so let’s try to do it this way next time. 

Conduct affirmations frequently. Schedule it. Do it every single week and if you can, every single day. Hopefully you build a habit to where you are doing it naturally as you are walking around the office and engaging with your team as you affirm them.

When you affirm your team, you are going to be giving them confidence. When they have that confidence, they are going to grow in their abilities, and they are going to perform at levels that you probably never thought that they could perform at. Let them surprise you!

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