Category Archives: Confidence

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navigating errors

Navigating Errors or Setbacks, Are You Prepared?

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Few people plan for navigating errors or setbacks, should you? Is that what some people call a plan B?

Mistakes happen, at least sometimes.

The recent launch by Virgin Galactic propelled its founder Richard Branson into space. What were the errors? Did no errors occur?

Preparedness accounts for much of the success that we witness.

When we watch an Olympic athlete, we often see a flawless performance. They might make things look easy.

It is true in many sports, many hobbies, and even in professional careers.

Errors are often fixed, overcome, or worked around. It may mean that a plan exists for some adjustment along the way, or perhaps past experience is used as a tool in an attempt to not make the same error twice.

Navigating Errors

Some might suggest that your life or career is a constant work in progress. Things happen, good luck as well as bad luck, seized opportunities and those that are missed.

Should you spend time planning for your reaction to errors, near misses, or other types of setbacks?

Does having a plan for navigating errors create a sort of self-fulfilled prophecy by creating a plan to fail?

There are people who argue against a plan B. There are others that may have a plan B, C, and even D.

In other cases, there may not be a secondary option. The only possibilities are complete success or complete failure. The options are only binary, one or the other, and no in-betweens.

Creating a plan to navigate errors doesn’t mean that you’ve created a plan to fail. It may mean that you’ve created a plan to succeed despite all odds.

An error caught early may prevent a catastrophic failure. Backup systems may keep things going. Building a form of redundancy may be the lifeline to support future success.

Insurance sometimes feels wasteful when not used.

That doesn’t mean that it is never a good idea.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


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peer approval

Peer Approval Inspires More Confidence

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Right before your big presentation did you look for peer approval? It is true for your recommendations to the board of directors and it is true a discussion among friends.

Not only will peer approval provide additional confidence it may also be what sparks change.

When the organization announces a big change, people look to their left and to their right. They are observing the reactions of their peers. They wonder, do my peers believe this will work?

People often know how they feel or what they think, but they are also often unsure if they are alone with their individual thoughts.

Change is more easily processed when the group believes it will work.

What are people looking for?

Buy-in.

Peer Approval

Groups, teams, and organizations stay stuck when they can’t decide. The lack of a decision often means that there is a lack of confidence to choose a path. The lack of confidence suggests that there is fear about moving forward.

What do politicians do? They often consult with the polls. Based on a sample, polls are supposed to illustrate what the masses believe or desire. It might be considered a form of peer approval.

Do you seek peer approval and is it a good idea?

Successful organizations are not staying the same. They are always shifting, building, growing, and finding their way. Otherwise, they may not be considered successful.

Do they consult with others?

Peer approval may come in many forms. It may come from customer response, survey tools, and in-person meetings or discussions.

Peer approval may help you find a direction and develop more confidence in the choice.

Correct or incorrect, what others believe seems to provide clarity to the choice.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


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identity confidence

Identity Confidence and Why You Should Have More

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Have you assessed your identity confidence? How do you self-describe? Are you confident about who you are?

A dozen or more years ago there was an unpleasant social trend. The trend was to playfully call people a “loser.” Some people even self-identified, “I’m a loser.”

Perhaps it started around1999, when Smash Mouth released their hit song, All Star.

On the surface, it seemed sort of OK. Surprisingly, it was often considered friendly and sometimes represented by holding your thumb and index finger in the representation of an “L” on your forehead. It was a way of identifying, “loser.”

When you look in the mirror, who do you see?

Believe It?

Everyone has good and bad days. Days when everything seems to click. Days that have magical moments and days that seemed filled with disappointment. In a general sense, this is normal.

What do you tell yourself in those bad moments? Do you hear echoes of “loser?”

In the workplace, people often decide on their ability to be more successful based on the stories that they tell themselves over and over.

The same is true for learning or when tested.

I’m not good at math.

I can’t spell.

I’m not a mechanic.

Will you ever really master the requirements of math competence when you consistently suggest that you aren’t good at it? The same is true for spelling or diagnosing why your car is shuttering and stalls.

Identity Confidence

If you tell yourself, you are not a people person, you probably won’t get along well with others. When you suggest you are, “just here to get a paycheck,” or “I never wanted to be a supervisor,” then guess what? Not much will change.

Have you passed on opportunities because of the story you tell yourself? Is that story based on reality or might it be a scar from some playful gesture long ago?

Self-deprecation may seem a bit humorous from time to time. In some cases, it may feel like a reality check. At what point do you start believing it?

Belief is a powerful tool, or a nasty weapon.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


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sharing confidence

Sharing Confidence Is a Workplace Dream

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Or is it a reality? Sharing confidence may actually be your competitive advantage. Are you seizing that opportunity?

What you focus on is what you get. If you don’t have focus, you are focusing on nothing. What will you get? Nothing.

Spend your energy on rumors and gossip, and you’ll have more. Spend it on production, efficiency, and providing stellar services, and you’ll be making better strides.

Does confidence play a role on what you get next?

Doubts or Confidence?

When you launch the new marketing campaign, some people will have doubts.

Build something new for the customer and some people may wonder if it will hold up under pressure or last long enough to be a great value.

Someone might suggest that it can’t be done. The change is too big, too wide, and not focused enough. Someone may suggest it is ridiculous.

Savvy organizations pursue it with passion. They set up metrics, measurements, and plot it all on a timeline with specific milestones. Do they get the work done? Have they accomplished the task? Is the strategy appropriate and are the tactics effective?

The hard part really isn’t in the planning. The plan is just that, a plan. A plan brings things to life. Brick by brick or drop by drop. The build occurs or the bucket fills.

What is the hard part?

The hard part is often inspiring the confidence to get started.

Sharing Confidence

Dreaming is pretty easy, at least when compared with fulfilling the dream.

Confidence is a competitive advantage. Less time is wasted on doubts and fears and more time spent on bringing the plan to fruition.

A lack of confidence stalls projects. It may even cause them to stop, or worse, never get started.

Organizations that build confidence within the employee teams have an advantage.

While everyone else is doing the easy part, teams with confidence are focused.

Don’t waste time sharing things that are project stoppers.

Do the hard part.

Illustrate confidence and then share it.

Dreams do become reality.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


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finding certainty

Finding Certainty Is a Never-Ending Position

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Finding certainty is one way to spend your energy. In an ever-changing world, it seems that certainty may be hard to come by. Yet, there still may be some things that you can be certain about. Change is one of them.

Many people set out to be certain. Low-risk is attractive but with little risk often not much is gained.

Confidence may be considered an aspect of certainty. Removing doubt and installing belief all seem to have linkages to being certain.

It is difficult to maintain the power of confidence while facing extreme criticism or ridicule. When there is a constant stream of new information, the difference between truth and lies, facts and opinions, and those who seek to see, in order to believe, all become blurred.

What is stopping you right now? Is it a lack of information or a lack of certainty?

Finding Certainty

It may be easier to find than you think.

A three-dimensional image is different from a two-dimension image. How things first appear are sometimes different after closer examination. The autostereogram is a perfect example.

Complexities surround human nature. The psychology of the work that we do is often hard to understand.

Driven by perceptions, expectations, and life experiences decisions are made and outcomes are realized.

What may be certain about every endeavor is that there will be an outcome.

In an uncertain world, doing something that produces a new outcome may be better than doing nothing at all.

If you live in South Carolina and you want to get to California by car, driving somewhere in a westward direction will put you closer. It may be driving to Nebraska or Texas, but one thing is certain, both of those are closer to California than South Carolina.

Certainty often exists in what you see and what you believe.

Sometimes the trick is having more confidence than doubt.

Often, that is where you find certainty.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


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workplace standards

Workplace Standards Usually Aren’t Perfect

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When you receive the meeting request, and you reply, “Perfect.” Is it really perfect? What are your workplace standards, and how are your words or thoughts connected to what happens next?

Striving for excellence is something everyone seems to understand.

It represents something better than before. Something previously unseen, or perhaps a comparison to build up to. Whether it is a standard, a metric, or created from a feeling, excellence seems to have a universal call-to-action.

What’s Perfect?

Is the project you’re currently working on perfect? Was your trip across town, down the highway, or into your home office before your workday started, perfect?

Something different happens when we start to analyze perfect.

People sometimes mention the perfect storm, the perfect taste of a food, or the perfect candidate for the job. Is any of this really perfect?

Most of what we pursue is not perfect.

The date and time of the meeting may fit nicely, or close, but we respond with enthusiasm by stating it is perfect.

Our dinner may taste really great, even better than what we can remember, but perfection may be a stretch.

When we travel to work or go through a morning routine it may be good, but chances are, not everything is perfect.

Does perfect matter?

Workplace Standards

Someone in the marketing department doesn’t want to launch because the new tag line doesn’t feel perfect.

The art department isn’t pleased with the colors of the hardcopy materials when compared with the website. In other words, things aren’t perfect.

The sales team doesn’t believe the market is big enough to achieve the goals. As soon as the goals are right-sized things will be perfect.

In the research and development department, the functions and features are something less than current capabilities. Waiting might be worthwhile. Just a little more time and they can make it perfect.

When you want to stall a project, seek perfect.

It is one of the best excuses for inaction.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


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talent bar

Talent Bar or Skills Gap, Which Is It?

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Has the talent bar been set too high? Do you have the talent required to do the job, to fit in, or to become a success?

There is a belief, and likely strong evidence, to support the idea that sometimes people give up too soon.

Children in sports are often encouraged.

Nice arm!

That kid is so fast!

Great eye on that one!

Chances are slim for the millions of young people who engage in adolescent sports to become professionals. Even rarer is that if they turn pro, that they will become an all-star.

It is also true for academic studies. True for the assessment of math skills, reading, or comprehension. Yes, of course, some think and achieve differently, yet the bar for success in most job roles is much lower than the academic requirements.

Is the bar about talent or developed skill?

Talent Bar Surprise

In most workplace roles, the concept of talent is given too much emphasis. Just like the Netflix movie suggestion you received from your social media feed, it is overrated.

A focus on developing the appropriate skill is much more appropriate.

Something strange develops from work that you focus on every day. Showing up and doing your part always builds experience.

You may not always get the kudos you feel you deserve or the reaction to your work may receive harsh criticism. Yet with every teeny tiny success, you can raise the bar on your personal levels of competence.

Most work isn’t a one and done.

It’s not a talent bar or a skills gap.

It is a persistent focus on cranking out your best work, day-after-day across time.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


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lost skills

Lost Skills Might Just Be Misplaced, Find Them

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Have you experienced the feeling of lost skills? When you believe you once knew how do something but since that time you’ve forgotten?

During the summer I bought two American flags, they were on sale. I sent one up the pole, but by the end of the summer it had lost some of its luster. Now I’m not sure where the other new one was placed. It’s lost.

On another occasion, I bought a hand tool that I didn’t think I had. When I went to put the new tool in a storage place, I discovered that I once bought a nearly identical tool several (or more) years earlier.

I went to a closet area in my home where I discovered several cool t-shirts that I completely forgot I ever owned or wore. Likely, they were worn one time, and then a change of seasons occurred. They were forgotten, abandoned, out of sight and out of mind.

There are various ways we can lose something we have. Sometimes we may forget that we ever had it in the first place.

Lost Skills and Confidence

Many successful business people have spoken with me about workplace situations where a bad boss or a rotten culture made them lose self-confidence.

Perhaps their confidence is still there, it is just being hidden by some unpleasant memories or painful and destructive criticism.

Skills or confidence may not be lost forever.

Maybe you’ve just forgotten where it is stored, or maybe something new or different is hiding it, even though it is right there in plain sight.

Don’t lose track of where you’ve come from. Don’t allow unpleasant experiences override the good of what you bring.

Use it or lose it may have many different meanings.

It’s true for skills, it’s true for confidence.

If you’ve lost something you once had, finding it again can be very rewarding.

Look before you decide it’s gone forever. You might be surprised by what you find.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


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smartest person syndrome

Smartest Person Syndrome, Do You Know Someone?

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Do you know someone who is suffering from SPS, aka, smartest person syndrome? We once called this a know-it-all but today with social media making some voices louder than ever before it may be a little more complex.

It only takes a short amount of time on social media channels to find someone who is smart.

That may be both a truism and sarcasm.

Smart People

Most people enjoy being right.

They want to be the person who has the answer, all of the time, and willingly (or forcefully) shares their opinions often while ridiculing someone with a different opinion.

Do you know someone like this? Has this ever been you?

Many people have strong opinions. Their opinions are commonly rooted in their values and beliefs and are formed by past experiences.

Only use this laundry detergent, nothing else works.

Never take the highway to get across town.

Don’t use margarine, only real butter.

Another problem with opinions is that they often sound like facts. If the listener is not careful, they may get caught up in believing other people’s opinions are in fact, facts.

This is often the goal of someone suffering from SPS. He or she wants to convince others that their way is the only way. It couldn’t possibly be any different.

Smartest Person Syndrome

If you know someone like this and wish to explore something new or different you will need a different approach.

The trick is to allow the person with this syndrome to believe that they’ve discovered an alternative path. Some new information, or something so compelling that it overrides their previous values and beliefs.

It doesn’t happen by telling. It typically happens by gently asking questions.

New ideas then come from new information. New ideas have been created in their mind, not because someone told them, but because they’ve discovered it.

SPS is, at least in part, about the person wanting to be right. When he or she discovers the new information then the idea is their own. They were right before and they are right again now.

It makes things much easier.

I’m not sure there is a cure.

Let it be their idea.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


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restoring confidence

Restoring Confidence Means Creating Certainty

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Are you good at restoring confidence? Do you believe that confident employees and customers matter?

A lack of confidence means worry. Worry means hesitation, procrastination, and delays. Delays within employee teams and delays in meeting the expectations of the customer.

Many people are facing new challenges when navigating the workplace. And now, more than ever, more people are working from home (WFH), and as such workflow and communication have changed. Certainty is at a premium and uncertainty is commonplace.

Timelines, metrics and measurements are keys to successful navigation.

When the boss asks, “When will we get an update on the project?” or when the customer asks, “When will my order ship?” how do you respond?

I’m waiting on one more piece from the team, we’ll have something together soon.

Your order should ship out by Friday.

Neither response makes an exact commitment. The unknown is hard to navigate.

Certainty builds confidence.

Restoring Confidence

A common reaction is to stretch the truth, be vague, and hope everything works out for the best. In reality, everyone is being short-changed.

People beg for transparency, truth, and certainty. In most cases, this is a transaction. It’s a transaction that can have the outcome of restoring confidence or the outcome of uncertainty and disappointment.

When we reassure with direct, not dodged, or fuzzy answers, we have a chance to change the level of confidence, certainty, and even manage the disappointment.

Better to say that the project will be finished by the end of the day tomorrow, or the order will be on the truck on Friday. Wiggle words don’t sound the same as a certainty, and its especially unlikely that they will restore confidence.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


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