It seems everywhere you look there’s someone trying to sell the secrets to success. Whether it’s personal success or business success, social media is rife with tips, guides and courses guaranteed to make you better, richer and more successful.
The reality is much different. There is no secret recipe for success. Success on both a personal and business level always, without fail, stems from hard work, patience and a belief that you will succeed.
Of these aspects, it’s the desire to succeed (and the belief you’ll do it) that’s common in the most successful leaders. They don’t hope for success, they expect it. Christina Curtis a leadership and executive coach who provides coaching support for Olympic athletes and executives at Fortune 500 companies, says it’s this expectation which fuels the desire to succeed.
“Accomplished leaders anticipate success, and that helps them obtain it,” she says. “Research shows high expectations lead them to work harder and commit to conquering the challenges ahead. Like these individuals, teams stand a greater chance of achieving big things when they believe they will.”
Believing in what we do and how we go about doing it will provide us with inspiration on a daily basis. While there’s no secret recipe to success, there are ways this belief can be instilled in employees and throughout companies.
Love what you do
At Quinyx, our product is designed to help people in industries like retail, hospitality and leisure enjoy work by making their lives easier. This is something our founder, Erik Fjellborg, identified when we first created Quinyx and it’s an ethos that’s extended as the company has grown.
“As a founder, I thought it was extremely important to incorporate enjoying work into our own corporate culture and into creating a scalable business,” he said. “If you’re not passionate about what you do, you’ll never be able to achieve world-class results, and that’s a strong conviction we have at Quinyx.”
Don’t dwell on the negatives
We all suffer setbacks. Sometimes things go wrong. It may be our fault, it may be something we couldn’t control, what’s important is how we learn from, accept it and move on from it.
Christina Curtis adds: “We tend to process and remember events as stories. These narratives affect how we see the past and how we act in the future. When a setback occurs, team members may get caught up in a story of blame, guilt, or avoidance, which can put a drag on motivation and performance.”
In changing this narrative from one of blame to one of learning, employees will buy back into believing they can succeed, rather than being crippled by self-doubt. Create culture and an identity in the workplace that builds trust, confidence and respect among colleagues while being powered by positivity.
Give employees control
Motivated, inspired and valued employees are more productive, deliver a better service and will naturally work harder than those who aren’t. The more control they have and the more empowered they are the more motivated, inspired and valued they will feel. As well as performance and productivity, employee engagement impacts positively on levels of absenteeism, on retention, on levels of innovation, on customer service, on positive outcomes and on staff advocacy of their organisations.
Always believe you are going to succeed and the chances are you will. This clarity and confidence will drive you and those around you forwards helping achieve what you set out to do.
