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When you’re struggling to grow your business, everyone seems to have a magic formula. Some experts will tell you it’s all about sharpening your skills, while others will suggest creating a more strategic vision for your company. But those outward efforts will never transform your business the way inner work on your self-esteem will. While all of these are important, your self-esteem (how you see and value yourself) is the most important element of business growth. Having solid self-esteem will dramatically influence your confidence (how much faith you have in your ability to achieve a specific goal or use a particular skill), performance, and business success.
Self-esteem is created or destroyed by various experiences in your life, including childhood events (like being bullied), friendships and relationships (like having a supportive romantic partner), accomplishments (like winning an award), or defeats (like not getting a promotion).
You can lead your business to next-level growth by improving your self-esteem with these three tips.
1. Harness the power of your unique strengths
Knowing your zones of genius helps you perform better in business and feel competent. For example, maybe you’re excellent at creativity, marketing, planning, program development, strategy, coaching, or relationship building. If you’re unsure of your strengths and how they can be best used in your business, seek external input. A coach, past colleague, business partner, or a psychometric assessment tool like TAIS or CliftonStrengths could help uncover skills and talents you might not have been aware you had.
Once you’ve identified your zones of genius, reflect on how you feel when you use them. Do you feel excited, content, grateful, happy, in awe? Reflecting on these positive emotional states improves your mood, and when you feel good, you can focus better and stay on track with your goals, build better connections with stakeholders, and experience less stress.
Next, identify how often you are using your zones of genius. If it’s less than 80% of the time, there’s a good chance you could be feeling exhausted, frustrated, and even disengaged from your business. To avoid experiencing these negative emotions, minimize the amount of time you are doing tasks outside your strengths. For example, sub-contract services out, hire a virtual assistant, or skill swap with another rising entrepreneur to support you in doing your best work to optimize how you feel and perform.
