Confidence — it makes or breaks a deal. It’s thrown around like a garnish: a purely aesthetic addition to the platter. But confidence is the key to just about every contract successfully closed. It’s the reason why many people attend confidence-building workshops!
Of course, it works hand in hand with other key traits. In my book Mental Rockstar, I discussed the important evidence-based strategies for winning performance to guide thousands of leaders and managers into reaching their team’s full potential.
We love listening to people who speak with passion and conviction. The sad reality is this: many agents have become jaded after hundreds and thousands of rejections. They lost the spark they once had when they started.
As leaders, how can we rekindle that confidence in our team? How can we motivate our team and ourselves to show up and win, no matter how big the obstacles life throws our way?
Here are 7 critical strategies you can use to instil unbreakable confidence and nurture a winning mindset:
1. KNOW your strength and AMPLIFY it.
Confident people spend time defining and refining their abilities. Moreover, they know how to manoeuvre a situation to showcase their strength and gain the customer’s trust.
As a leader, schedule a time with your team members to help them identify where they already excel. Create an actionable plan where you can work together to assess and develop their strengths. You can also attend confidence-building workshops as a team.
People like to be reminded of what they’re good at. It gives them confidence in their abilities and skills. Further, when your team members know they are good at something, they will naturally be more confident and motivated to improve.
2. Master your industry
Knowledge is the foundation of confidence. Keep up-to-date with what’s happening in the market and master the ins and outs of the sales process. Also, get comfortable with every step of the work process and take advantage of every training opportunity that comes your way.
If you’re looking for a training program to boost your team’s skills and confidence, book an effective motivational speaker who’s proven himself a leader in the industry. Doing is the best form of practice. Rehearse, train, and drill your sales pitch into your head until the process becomes muscle memory.
3. Face your fears
Let’s get to the root cause of lack of confidence: FEAR. We are terrified of failure. We also fear the possibility of making a mistake. We let our fear get into us and focus all our energy on being afraid instead of training to improve.
But here’s a little secret from someone who has spoken in front of thousands of people: everyone’s a little bit afraid.
Fear is just another emotion; although it seems unnecessary, it serves a purpose. Fear triggers our fight-or-flight response. It also tells us to be careful and pay attention. Without instinctual fear, our ancestors would calmly walk into the lion’s den and we humans would have been extinct.
Acknowledge your fear and use it to fuel you. Don’t waste energy fighting it. Say “I am afraid to fail because I want to succeed as a leader in my industry” and then shift your focus on how exactly you should train so you can improve.
4. Stock the confidence tank
There’s this phenomenon called negativity bias; in a nutshell, it is our brain sabotaging us. For some odd reason, the human brain remembers negative events better than positive ones.
That first pitch where you couldn’t answer your supervisor’s questions? That time when you stuttered on stage when you had to present your big idea?
Notice how you remember these negative moments so clearly?
Here’s the lowdown: nobody’s perfect. Not me, not your mentor, not even our top billionaires. Do they let their imperfections bother them? Hell no.
Actively combat negativity bias by listing all the times you performed wonderfully. Treasure your wins and come back to them when you need a boost. You have done well before, and you will perform amazingly again. Don’t let your brain forget the good moments!
5. Surround yourself with positive influences
Our environment has a significant impact on the way we speak, think and act. We subconsciously copy and pattern our talk based on what we hear and see from our friends and colleagues. If you want to truly re-pattern the way you think about yourself, you must actively seek out people who inspire you.
Spend more time with positive goal-oriented people who make you feel excited about work and try to mirror their energy back. What you’ll get from this exchange is pure magic — a cycle of positivity and inspiration that cannot be purchased with money. Your energy is your most valuable resource, so spend it wisely.
6. Get a mentor
I believe that no matter where you are in your career journey, it is essential to have a mentor. Having someone who can advise you when you’re stuck and who can help you stay focused on your goals and objectives is so important.
You are not meant to do it all alone. The competition is fierce today, so you will feel more secure when you know you have great people on your side during challenging times.
Your mentor can be someone from your organization, a friend, or a seasoned professional. You can also attend confidence-building workshops to seek a suitable mentor. Take your relationship with your mentor seriously and show them that you are worth their energy.
7. Develop a growth mindset
Having a growth mindset means believing in your ability to learn and improve in anything, even when it doesn’t feel like it at the moment.
Everyone fails at some point in their journey, and that’s totally okay. Seeing failure as a natural part of the learning process allows you to convert the experience into data you can use to improve. Every time you lose or fail, understand that there is something to learn from that experience. The case is the same when you win.
Don’t rest on your laurels. Analyze both your wins and losses and assess how you performed and how you could perform even better.
Are you ready to take action? Invite a top motivational speaker to kickstart your team’s next-level performance.
Do what you can to equip your team with the skills they need to train to win, conquer their fears, and close their deals with confidence, whether it is helping them face their fears, stocking the confidence tank, or attending confidence-building workshops.
