Showing posts with label motivate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label motivate. Show all posts

Monday, January 12, 2015

Good Communication Skills Will Help You Find Long-Term Success


Learning how to effectively communicate with others while choosing the right words can literally make or break your growth in the marketplace.
If you are a business owner, having the ability to communicate and point out small successes to your employees is a vital key for long-term success. If you are an employee, knowing how to become a more skilled communicator will increase your value to the company and marketplace.
Let’s take a look at three ways why mastering the skill of communication can improve your business and increase your success rate.

1. Expand your reach in the marketplace

You can know everything there is to know about your business, services, mission statement and vision, but if you can’t express it with the right words out in the marketplace, chances are your growth will be very minimal.
Think of all the great business leaders in the world. I can almost guarantee that they are poised and excellent communicators. If they have an idea or plan, they know exactly how to effectively communicate that idea or plan to the world.
Expand your reach in the marketplace by mastering the skill of communication.

2. Leading and educating employees

Over the years, I have come across and realized that the best educators not only have exceptional communication skills, but they make sure their employees walk away with new skills and abilities.
Think of it this way: You can have the most crafted and thought-out job description, but if you can’t verbally express to your employees what your vision, goals and plan of attack is, your growth rate will be hindered.

3. The ability to motivate

One of the most valuable aspects of mastering the skill of communication is having the ability to inspire your employees. The best business owners out there know the importance of finding the time to inspire their employees and help them see past the roadblocks and setbacks that may be present in their lives.
The hustle and bustle of everyday life confronts everyone on different levels, such as when an employee is going through a divorce and may need some words of encouragement. The list goes on, but the bottom line is mastering the skill of communication vastly increases your ability to motivate employees.
When employees are motivated and inspired by your simple, heartfelt words, they are willing to go the extra mile and work even harder. Just like parents encourage and give words of empowerment to their children, the same applies to business leaders.

Improving the skill

Now that we have listed three ways as to why mastering the skill of communication is so important in determining business success, what are some ways you can improve your communication skills?
The first step is to take out a sheet of paper and list what you feel are your strengths, along with where you need to improve. Do you feel you can effectively go out in the marketplace and talk all day and night about your services, but your ability to motivate employees is lacking? Whatever it is, write it down. You can then start to develop a plan of action to increase your communication skills. Here are three ways to get started:
  • Enrolling in a speaking class is a powerful way to improve communication skills. There are many classes throughout the country to help aid in communicating effectively.
  • Putting a dictionary in the bathroom is another way to slowly but surely increase your vocabulary, which always will help with boosting your skills.
  • Hiring a speech coach is another route you can look into. Working one on one with an expert can quickly speed up the process.
Do you know of any good practices to improve communication skills? Let us know in the comments section below.
Matt Mayberry

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

7 Concepts Every CEO Has to Nail


Just because you call yourself a CEO doesn’t make you one.
For one thing, if a board of directors doesn’t name you chief executive officer of a real corporation, you’re sort of like a silly little kid playing grownup. More importantly, you’re probably misrepresenting your abilities, as well.
If you don’t have these seven concepts down, you may want to think about changing your Twitter and LinkedIn profiles. And I definitely wouldn’t quit my day job just yet, either.   
Your product is your brand. You’re not. The secret to great marketing is to come up with a killer product customers need at the right price. You can promote your business and yourself all day long, but if you can’t come up with an awesome product that people want to buy, nothing else matters. Seriously.   
If you can’t sell your vision. Nobody will buy it. We all talk about the importance of vision, but you have to be able to sell it to potential customers, employees and investors and I mean all day long. If your stakeholders don’t buy it, nobody else will either. If you find yourself pitching your concept in your dreams, you’re on the right track.
You always have to have enough money in the bank. The number one failure mode for small businesses is they run out of cash. There was a time when you could bootstrap a company, but markets are so hypercompetitive these days it’s much harder than it used to be. I’m not a believer in Kickstarter, either. If you can’t sell at least one or two investors on your idea, you’re probably not ready for prime time.
You must focus on doing one thing better than anyone. Everybody knows they need to differentiate but few understand what that really means. It means coming up with a customer value proposition that your company and your company alone does better than anyone else. Once you figure out what that is, focus on doing that and just that.
Business is about understanding people. Business is not about building your personal brand, your network or your Twitter following. It’s not about your blog or what you post on LinkedIn or Facebook. Business is about people. It’s about relationships. If you want to do business in the real world, you’ve got to connect and build relationships with real people in the real world. Period.
You have to know what you’re doing. Passion alone won’t cut it these days. Whatever it is you’ve decided to do, if you have no idea what you’re doing, you will fail and fail miserably. Sooner or later you’ll have to make smart decisions and that means having enough experience and capability to know smart from not-so-smart. And no, just thinking you’re smart won’t cut it either. Everyone thinks they’re smart.
You’ve got to hire, motivate and retain talented people. This is one of the trickiest aspects of running a company. I’ve known dozens of real corporate CEOs who couldn’t hire the right people or keep them motivated to save their lives. It’s a remarkably common pitfall of small businesses and startups, as well.
If you think running a company is like falling off a log, be my guest, go for it. But I guarantee you’ll see things differently after falling on your face a few times. Save yourself the trouble and get a handle on things first. Don’t be in such a hurry to call yourself a CEO. Better off becoming one first.
Steve Tobak

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

10 Thoughts That Can Super-Motivate You

10 Thoughts That Can Super-Motivate You

The true difference between success and failure is your ability to get and keep yourself motivated.
Whether you're an experienced entrepreneur or just starting out, there's nothing more essential to success than keeping yourself motivated.  Here are 10 thoughts that motivational guru Omar Periu shared with me a while back:
  1. Motivation means choosing to do what you'd rather not do, which is why unmotivated people never get anywhere.
  2. Most people want to improve their situation but few take responsibility for motivating themselves to make changes.
  3. People can always validate the decision to avoid unpleasant work. Example: "Today, I'll get organized; tomorrow I'll make cold calls."
  4. Motivation comes from managing your mind and your emotions.  Fail at this and you'll live a life of quiet desperation.
  5. The most depressing and de-motivating sentences in the world usually begin with the phrase "Someday, I'll..."
  6. If you find yourself thinking negative thoughts, go someplace quiet and replace those thoughts with positive affirmations, prayer or meditation.
  7. To get big results, ask yourself big questions. "Why do I want to be a millionaire?" is far more motivating than "How can I make a living?"
  8. Don't set goals that just excite you; set goals that scare you a little bit. That way they'll strengthen your "motivation muscle."
  9. What holds people back is fear of failure, but if you don't take action, you'll fail by default, so what have you got to lose?
  10. You can have whatever you want in life, but nobody is going to give it to you.  Everything of value must be earned.
Article by Geoffrey James