Why Leaders Should Empower Their Teams

Many business leaders know exactly what it takes to achieve success. For many, it usually includes a strong vision, desire, and execution of a plan. This requires a lot of preparation, hard work, and sacrifice. In many cases, mistakes are made, but good leaders adapt, learn, and persevere. Also, somewhere along the way, leaders were empowered to make some very difficult decisions.

Empowerment is defined as the act of granting power, or authority to do something. However, in business, empowerment is a management practice where leaders share information and give power and autonomy to their key personnel. The goal of empowerment in business is to encourage employees to seek their own solutions that best serve the company.

Yet today, many leaders who became empowered themselves, are unable to empower their own teams. Perhaps they don’t trust the people on their team. Maybe they don’t know how to empower them or fear the negative consequences of empowering them.

I’m going to explore some of the reasons that keep leaders from empowering their teams, the consequences of not empowering them, and the long term benefits of empowering them.

Reasons Leaders Do Not Empower Their Teams

1. It’s a huge commitment of time to empower employees. Many leaders find it easier to make important decisions themselves than investing time to educate their people with all the possible outcomes or ramifications to consider before making a decision.

2. Leaders trust themselves more to make a difficult decision. Some leaders are unsure if they have the right people to entrust making difficult decisions for the company.

3. There may be an increased risk of business if a wrong decision is made. What is the total cost to the company if a poor decision is made?

4. Leaders lose their value if they empower teams. Some leaders believe their value is measured by making the difficult decisions for the company and feel vulnerable empowering their teams.

Consequences Of Not Empowering Your Teams

1. The company will struggle to achieve its vision and goals. Teams may not be fully committed to the organization if they feel they are not trusted by leadership.

2. Businesses will run less efficiently. When key employees are not empowered, processes are held up waiting for approval.

3. Companies will struggle to retain their best staff. Empowered staff are generally happier when they come to work and feel a greater sense of purpose when they are entrusted to make key decisions.

4. Leaders become burned out. It can be stressful and time consuming to always be asked for approvals and making business decisions.

   Benefits Of Empowering Your Teams

1. Empowerment will increase employee engagement. Empowered employees become more invested and aligned with the long term strategy and vision of the organization.

2. Employees will become more productive.  Process, operations, and workflow run smoother when staff don’t have to wait for approval from a leader.

3. Improved staff retention. Empowered employees are generally happier at work and will likely stay long term.

4. Leaders can focus more on business strategy. When leaders spend less time on day to day operations, they can focus more time on the company vision and long term strategy.

One of the biggest responsibilities of a leader is to motivate or lead a team towards achieving a common goal. In business, this often means directing teams to follow a strategy or process that helps the company achieve its goals.

As a leader, it’s important to share as much information and responsibility as you can with your team. By sharing your experience, and empowering them to find better solutions, you will support the vision of your company and the professional development of your teams.

Hi, I’m Kevin Marshall, a certified coach and mentor who is passionate about business and professional development. I help business leaders and professionals develop effective business solutions and strategies to improve their business performance and achieve their goals. I’m honoured to invite you to a complimentary 20 minute consultation to learn more about coaching.

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Setting Goals At Any Age

I met my new elementary school principal, Mr. Rose, on the first day of school in Grade 5. He ambitiously walked into my class and asked every one of us students, individually, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” After we all answered, he assured every one of us that we can achieve anything we want in life if we set our mind to it. That was the first time I really thought about my future and all the things I wanted to achieve in my life.

The next day, my teacher asked our class to write down all our school year goals for Grade 5. My goals included winning school athlete of the year, the school checkers tournament, and the spelling bee competition. I felt excited and motivated to practice and prepare in all three. Though I didn’t win all three competitions that year, the goal-setting experience inspired me to write down my goals for the next school year as well.

When Do People Start Setting Goals

As soon as children begin elementary school, competition and achievement become part of everyday life. They’re introduced to weekly quizzes, tests, and class games. Then, in secondary school, teenagers strive to achieve the honour roll, compete for spots on sports teams, debate teams, student council, and apply for acceptance into a college or university program. Goal-setting can inspire children and teenagers to focus, practice and prepare for the work involved in achieving their goals.  

Goal-setting continues to play a role once young adults graduate from university, build a new career, and start a family. As they work their way up in their career, young adults focus on earning job promotions, pay raises, financial goals for retirement, and purchasing a new house. It almost seems like goals are a common part of life when people are young. 

Why Do People Stop Setting Goals?

For many people, there comes a point in their life or career when they stop creating new goals.

One common reason is that people stop dreaming or looking into their future once they’ve achieved some success. Another reason is that people have been trained to start planning for their retirement since they began their professional careers and never think about other opportunities or possibilities.

It doesn’t have to be that way, nor should it. With years of expertise, knowledge and goals accomplished under your belt, you have an even better chance of achieving your goals, later in life than in the beginning. I want to share some simple yet effective strategies to help you set and achieve goals at any age.

Seven Ways To Achieve New Goals at Any Age

1.    Create a vision by asking yourself three questions:

·      What do I really want to achieve in my personal life and career?

·      What becomes possible for me when I achieve it? 

·      Who benefits when I reach my goals?

2.    Ensure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely) to strengthen your vision of achieving your goals.

3.    Create a Goal Worksheet (1 year, 5 year, and 10 year). Write your vision at the top of your worksheet and then write your goals, first steps, and a date to complete it by.

4.    Tell the people you love about your goals. These people will hold you accountable and keep you on track to achieving your goals. When you’ve opened up to other people about your goals, your commitment to achieving them will increase.

5.    Write your goals down so you can see them every day. When you are reminded of your goals each day, it will increase your focus and deepen your commitment.

6.    Ask yourself what might keep you from achieving your goals? Acknowledging some bad habits or outside factors that might challenge your goals, support you to focus on the good habits and steps required to achieve your goals.

7.    Consider partnering with a coach. A coach is trained to help people define what they truly want and help them design a strategy to help them commit to and achieve it. They can deepen your commitment to achieving your vision and help you move beyond what you thought you could achieve. 

Setting goals at any age can inspire people to achieve more than they thought they ever could. The journey and process of achieving new goals can bring more focus, clarity, and sustainable joy in people’s lives.

 I’m Kevin Marshall, a certified coach and mentor who is passionate about business, sales, and health. I help business leaders and professionals develop more effective business solutions and strategies to improve their business performance and achieve their goals. I’m honoured to invite you to a complimentary 20 minute consultation to learn more about coaching.

Please subscribe to my newsletter for new posts. 

How To Grow your Business In 2021

Like many young aspiring business professionals, my introduction to the corporate business was an eye-opener. My first day of work included some product training and joining my boss on customer sales calls. Late that afternoon, my boss gave me a business directory phone book (yes, I’m that old) and told me, “These are your leads. Start booking some appointments.” I was in a commission-only based role, had no existing customer base, and no experience booking sales calls.

Those were the days before proper business coaching, and training became part of the onboarding process to support business professionals to become successful. You either learned quickly or you failed even quicker. I initially struggled to book appointments, and then asked the top salesperson for some advice. She looked me in the eye and said, “People want to do business with people they like and trust. Focus on the customer’s needs first, and the rest will work itself out.”

These words have helped me so much in my career as a sales professional, sales leader, and entrepreneur.  They are even more important during these difficult times. Because of COVID-19, many companies are in a massive state of flux. Many companies have reduced staff and are struggling with sales revenue, productivity, and profit margins.

With the fourth wave of COVID-19 in full force, it’s imperative that businesses create a flexible business model to be able to adapt to changes in the economy, customer trends, and technological advancements. That means modifying your business and sales plans with more effective strategies to grow your business.

Eight Ways to Grow your Business in 2021 

1.    Use Referrals to Win New Business – Marketing at Work states that companies lose 10-25% of your customer base each year which means that repeat business is diminishing. While SEO and social media are effective at creating business awareness, asking for referrals can generate excellent leads and has a lower cost-per-lead than other marketing or sales channels.

2.    Use video to win new customers  – Customers like to work people they can trust, and it still means something to place a face to the name. Consider adding more personalized videos to your web site. If you haven’t sent customer proposals with video, try it now. It takes an extra step, but your customers will appreciate the extra step and it will increase your closing rate.

3.    Learn Your Customer’s Business - Research your customer’s corporate vision and business challenges, so you can present the best solution for your customer’s needs and strengthen your client relationship. When you become an expert on your customer’s business, you build trust with your client, and increase your chances of winning new business and retaining the business you currently have.

4.    Focus on Your Company Strengths – Many companies have several services or products they offer to clients, but most do 2-3 things well.  Narrow your focus to 2-3 services or products that will create the greatest impact on increasing sales revenue.

5.    Book strategy sessions with your customers - Present more effective business solutions to solidify your client relationships. Your customers will be more inclined to retain your business, instead of trying out your competitors who are desperately trying to win their business.

6.    Treat your best clients like a VIP- Yes, I said it. Did you know approximately 90% of business revenue comes from companies’ top 25% customers? That means the remaining 75% of customers accounts for only 10% of your business revenue. This doesn’t mean you should treat some customers poorly, but you should have processes in place to ensure your VIP clients receive high priority, and exceptional quality and service. They are the ones who pay your salary.

7.    Invest in professional development - When you invest in professional development such as coaching and training, your team productivity, efficiency, and sales revenue increase. It improves employee moral and retention. Businesses will end up spending a lot more money in recruiting, hiring, training, and onboarding new people than by coaching, developing, and promoting their existing staff.

8.    Set Team goals – All teams and divisions should feel inspired to grow, improve and achieve great results. Setting some achievable goals fosters a culture of continuous learning and development. Teams work and communicate better when they are focused on achieving a common goal.

I’m Kevin Marshall, a certified coach and mentor who is passionate about business, sales, and health. I help business leaders and professionals develop more effective business solutions and strategies to improve their business performance and achieve their goals. I’m honoured to invite you to a complimentary 20 minute consultation to learn more about coaching.

Please subscribe to my newsletter for new posts. 

How Can I Increase My Self-Confidence?

Have you ever known what it’s like to experience low self-confidence? On extreme levels, it can severely affect your sleep, eating habits, and cause major anxiety. Professionally, low self-confidence can cause you to withdraw and disengage from colleagues and can affect your ability to perform menial job tasks. Personally, it can affect your relationships, friendships, and ability or willingness to interact socially.

Many people live daily with some form of low self-confidence. In fact, it’s the most sought after professional or personal development topic that people want to work on. Low self-confidence can play a huge role in people’s day-to-day life, and even the most successful people lack self-confidence at different times in their lives.

Low Self-Confidence Affects Even the Highest Achievers.

If you’re someone who takes big risks, or is curious by nature, it’s normal to lack self-confidence in a new area of study or investment.  Perhaps you’re a successful business executive launching a new business. Maybe you’re a recently promoted manager, or a recent university graduate. In these cases, you may be lacking self-confidence because you lack the experience, or the skills required for the job. Maybe you experienced a poor sales quarter at work, or maybe you were passed over for a job promotion. This can create self-doubt in your ability to perform at work.

Where Does Self-Confidence Come From?

Before we discuss some effective ways to increase your self-confidence, it’s important to understand what self-confidence is and where it comes from. Self-confidence is a state of mind where an individual has belief and self-assurance in themselves to perform a task, role, or manage a particular situation. While some people appear to be born with self-confidence, it really isn’t the case. Self-confidence originates from our experiences and what we’ve been taught.

Many people have lost self-confidence quickly because they’ve suffered through a difficult experience, traumatic event, or received negative feedback in their personal or professional life.

You Can Increase Your Self-Confidence.

The good news is that if you are lacking confidence there are ways to regain it, and in some cases, become even more confident than you were before. Preparation and planning are keys to developing and improving your self-confidence. If you’re in a a situation you’re uncomfortable with or have never experienced, try to envision how it may unfold and proactively plan for how you manage it. Document, prepare, and practice it to remove any potential anxiety. Preparation and repetition creates a comfort and understanding of how to handle any situation.

Here are three additional steps you can take to increase your self-confidence:

1.   Do What You Love – Creating time and space in your life to enjoy the things you love to do will bring you joy and self-care. Happiness strengthens your mindset and enables you to bring clarity and focus to building your self-confidence.

2.   Exercise - Exercise releases hormones that can reduce stress, increase happiness, and stimulate brain cell growth. It can also make you feel better about yourself mentally, spiritually, and physically.

3.   Work with a Professional Coach – Working with a coach can be extremely effective towards helping you increase your self-confidence. They can help you create a vision of self-confidence and create actionable steps to achieve it.  A professional coach is a trusted guide who will support you, keep you focused, and can monitor your progress.

What Are The Benefits Of Having Self-Confidence?

There are many benefits to having self-confidence. When you’re self-confident, you perform at your best when it matters the most. You can influence others more readily. Self-confidence can increase your personal and professional drive. Self-confidence can increase your happiness and reduce social anxiety.

When you invest time and work into your professional and personal development, you can become the most self-confident version of you.

To learn more about how professional coaching can increase your confidence or schedule a free 20-minute consultation, click here.  

Why Are Some People More Driven To Succeed?

Have you ever been to a gym or fitness centre during the first week of January? I like to compare the atmosphere to organized chaos as people scramble to access workout space and equipment. Gym members are energized and focused on getting their workout in no matter how challenging the gym experience may be.

January is easily the busiest month of the year for gyms memberships. Many people feel dissatisfied with their health habits after the holiday season. Some people want to adopt a healthier lifestyle at the start of the new year. And some people just want to increase their confidence.

These are great reasons to join a gym. What’s interesting is that the gyms start to slow down about four to eight weeks into the new year. Fitness industry statistics show that 18% of new gym members quit going to the gym by the end of February. What’s even more alarming, is that 80% of gym members who join in January, quit within five months.

Why do people quit going to the gym or quit anything at all for that matter?

Whenever you create a new change in your life, there are going to be times when that change is challenged by some form of resistance. Whether it’s adding a healthy habit, starting a new business plan, or creating a new revenue stream, you may start out strong and feel fully committed, but your personal drive may fade over time.  This resistance can come in the form of stress, anxiety, frustration, or emotional fatigue. It challenges your desire or personal drive and threatens to stop you from persevering.

What Is Personal Drive?

Personal drive or desire is closely related to your inherent motivation. It’s aligned with your core values, identity, and capabilities. Inherent motivation offers personal satisfaction or fulfillment when achieving goals in life. In other words, it has a deeper meaning for you.

When something you want to change has a deeper meaning to you, you are more likely to withstand the resistance to change, and achieve what you want. When you have the personal drive within you, it’s easier to set and achieve external motivating factors such as goals and targets you want to reach.

How Can I Increase My Personal Drive?

Working with an experienced coach is a great option to help you increase your commitment to achieve what you want. They are trained to help you explore new possibilities and how they align with your core values, identity, and capabilities.

Here are some key questions a coach may use to strengthen your personal drive:

• By achieving this, what does it give you that’s even more important?

• What else becomes possible for you?

• Who else benefits when you achieve this?

• How might you commit to this?

• What might prevent you from achieving it?

In addition to helping strengthen your personal drive, your coach will also support you to stay focused when the resistance to change becomes hard to overcome. They’ll monitor your progress and ensure you’re staying focused and on track. Your coach is motivated to help you move beyond what you thought you could achieve.

When you combine a strong personal drive with actionable steps, you can achieve incredible results that can last a lifetime.

To learn more about professional coaching or schedule a free 20-minute consultation, click here.  

Seize Control Of Your Sales Career

Have you struggled to reach your sales targets? If so, you’re not alone. In fact, a study by World at Work , reported that 75% of sales representatives did not achieve their sales quotas in 2020, and predict similar results in 2021.  

We know that COVID-19 impacted sales performance in many ways. Enterprise corporations and small businesses cut budgets and spending across the board. Employee layoffs fractured long-term customer relationships and impacted KPI’s.

However, we’ve also become aware of the emotional impact COVID-19 had on sales productivity. Many sales professionals struggled to book sales calls during the lockdown and lost confidence in their ability close sales during a lockdown. Many people also experienced a fear for their job security. An uncertain future left some sales professionals unsure where to focus their time and resulted in decreased productivity.

How Do You Increase Your Sales Productivity?

History has shown that economies have thrived after global pandemics and world wars. Many experts are predicting an economic boom coming our way post-pandemic, with “signs of economic life picking up, and mounds of cash waiting to be spent.” As we enter the post-pandemic era, now is the time for you to take advantage of the new sales growth opportunities that will be coming your way.

If you are curious, enjoy learning, and want to maximize your full potential in your sales career, consider partnering with an ICF trained coach with experience in sales leadership.  Instead of telling you what to do, a sales coach will empower you to set attainable goals with a strategy that you can commit to. A sales coach is heavily invested in helping your reach your goals. They will measure your progress, hold you accountable and even challenge you. A great sales coach can help you achieve more than you thought you ever could on your own.

Here Are Five Ways A Sales Coach Can Help You Increase Your Sales Productivity

1. Become Inspired

Have you ever wondered where high achievers get their motivation from? Michael Jordan was famously cut from his high school basketball team. He used this experience as fuel to drive him to win six NBA Championships in eight years.

Tom Brady was the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL Draft. Despite being a sixth round pick that year, he famously told his New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, “Hi, I’m Tom Brady and I’m the best decision this organization ever made.”

An experienced sales coach uses high logical level questioning to help you create a strong vision of what you want to achieve. Questions that reveal your identity, values, and capabilities help create a stronger vision which can significantly increase your commitment to achieving your goals.

2. Increase Your Confidence

Self-confidence is essential to succeed in a sales career. However, there will be times in your career when your confidence is low. Perhaps you experienced a difficult sales quarter or lost a big sale. It can result in unwanted fears that affect your confidence. A sales coach can help you understand why your fear is there and learn what positive intention the fear has for you. The objective is to lessen the strength of the fear and increase the focus on your confidence.

3.   Increase Focus

Did you know, average sales professional spends one third of their day selling. The rest of their day is spent on tasks like:

·      Planning and preparing for client meetings, presentations, and team meetings

·      Managing sales opportunities through CRM tools

·      Handling customer inquiries and complaints

·      Managing estimates and sales proposals

 In the bestselling book, “The One Thing,” author Gary Keller suggests, “Don’t focus on being busy; Focus on being productive. Allow what matters most to drive your day.”

An experienced sales coach can help you focus and prioritize on the tasks that best support your vision or goal. Your coach may use some coaching exercises to balance your schedule around your goal. They may help you develop your skill set in the top two or three responsibilities

 4. Create A Schedule Around Your Strengths

We know that managing our daily schedule plays a huge role in creating efficiency and focus for our day. But everyone is different. Some people prefer to work hard during their day, with limited breaks and leave work early. Others prefer to incorporate more breaks throughout the day into their schedule. A sales coach can help you customize a schedule that is aligned with your identity and values, to increase your ability to reach your goals.

Tip: Consider incorporating a reward for yourself to help you celebrate your achievement at the end of each day or week. Make it something special that you can think about during your work day. When you create a reward system, you’re more willing to put forth the effort to achieve your goals.  

5. Create Better Sales Habits

One of the perks of being a sales professional is that you can manage your own workday. It can be empowering, but it also makes you susceptible to some bad habits that can negatively impact your ability to increase sales revenue. Some common bad habits that affect sales performance include:

·      Saying yes to every customer or co-worker request

·      Procrastinating over your next sales call

·      Responding to every email or text when they come in

·      Surfing the web

·      Holding onto lost sales opportunities

·      Letting other people control your schedule.

 If you spend just 15 minutes a day on each of these six bad habits, that equates to 7.5 hours per week or 375 hours over a 50-week year. How much more sales revenue can you bring in with an additional 375 working hours?

A sales coach may use a strategy of acknowledging the presence and intention of the bad habits, and then focus on adding good sales habits that eventually become more favourable over the bad habits. Your coach will recognize that this will take time and effort and help you set short and long-term goals to make them sustainable.

As a veteran sales leader, and certified solution-focused coach, I enjoy sharing my successes and failures, and learning from other’s experiences. I’m honoured to offer a free 20 minute consultation to experience the power of solution-focused coaching.

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Has COVID-19 Affected Your Work Performance?

There has been a lot of discussion about how COVID-19 has impacted people’s performance at work. Many high-achieving business professionals who have experienced success in their career, have found it hard to focus on their business plans and goals.

Even though there appears to be light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, many people are not feeling optimistic about the future. They aren’t necessarily feeling depressed, but lack a desire and inspiration to perform well in their career and personal lives. There is a word for this emotion: It’s called languishing.

Adam Grant, an American psychologist and author, recently wrote a very popular article for the NY Times, about how languishing is affecting so many people today, and that “it might become the dominant emotion of 2021.” He says of languishing “It’s the void between depression and flourishing — the absence of well-being. You don’t have the symptoms of mental illness, but you’re not the picture of mental health either.”

Languishing can feel like you’re existing in your life, but not truly leading it. For many people, this emotion is new to them, and they’re not sure why they have it or how to move beyond it. What is clear is that the isolation from family, friends, and colleagues during COVID-19, has had a major impact on a lot of people’s mental and emotional well-being. The lingering fear of the COVID-19 virus itself, lack of job security, and not knowing what the future holds, can contribute to higher rates of anxiety, boredom, and restlessness.

Six Signs That You May Be Languishing

• Lack of drive or motivation

• Unfocused at work

• Low optimism about the future

• Feelings of emptiness

• Focused on the past

• Disengaged at work 

How Can You Increase Your Performance?

The good news is that there are some strategies that can increase your ability to perform in your work and life. But before you take on any action steps, I encourage you to take some time to acknowledge where your mindset is currently focused today. Being mindful and self-aware can support you to become open to shifting towards a resourceful state of mind.

Create A Better Work Environment

A lack of focus is one of the largest contributors to declining performance in the workplace. Whether you’re working from home or the office, it’s important to work in a space that’s conducive to productivity. In order to maximize your performance, consider some changes that support a more productive working environment for you. Here are some examples:

• Create a workspace that invites a positive mindset towards your work

• Dress professionally (even if you’re working from home) to prepare yourself for a productive work day

• Purchase a whiteboard and write down your business goals and tasks

• Purchase some noise cancelling headphones that allow you to work uninterrupted

Create A More Efficient Daily Work Schedule

Business professionals are spending more time emailing and on video calls than ever before. Completing your daily work tasks while responding to every email and meeting request is unsustainable. Consider some of these modifications to improve your efficiency at work:

• Block 60 - 90 minute time slots working uninterrupted on one task

• Schedule your work day with small breaks to take a walk, hydrate, eat, and get refreshed

• Build in time slots to respond to emails, and keep Zoom meetings to 30 minutes when possible

Add Healthier Habits To your Lifestyle

Leading a healthy lifestyle can improve your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Additionally, it can increase your energy levels, alertness, and happiness throughout your day. Consider adding some healthy habits to your daily routine that are easy to maintain and print them out. Here are five examples of simple healthy habits to help improve your work performance.

• Wake up 20 minutes earlier each day

• Drink a large glass of lemon water

• Carve out 10 minutes for some exercise

• Eat real food for breakfast

• Take 10 minutes to set your goals for the day

*For more information about Health Coaching, click here

Consider Hiring An Expert

Another solution to increasing performance and productivity at work is to hire an expert. Not just someone you can talk to, but an experienced business coach, who can support you to increase your performance and productivity.

If you decide you’re ready to hire a business coach, search for an experienced coach who uses a brain-based coaching methodology that can empower you to create a strong vision of what you want to achieve. Whether you want to create a more effective business plan, master a skill, or increase sales revenue, a business coach can support you to create action steps that lead to sustainable results. A business coach will serve as a guide to ensure you are making progress and on track to achieving your goals.

Before you decide to invest in a business coach, answer these four questions honestly to help you decide if you’re ready to enter into a coaching relationship:

• Am I ready to explore new possibilities?

• Do I believe I have the solutions within me?

• Am I ready to persevere through any resistance to change?

• Am I ready to hold myself accountable?

If you answer yes to these questions, congratulations, you are ready to create positive changes in your career and life. To learn more about business coaching or schedule a free 20 minute consultation, click here. I can’t wait to hear from you.

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