What's Your Confidence Level?

If someone were to ask you to state how confident you are, what would be your response? Ten? So very confident that you easily articulate your point of view, present ideas as required, make decisions swiftly without a lot of second guessing? Or zero?  You have no confidence at all since you believe others have desire to hear thoughts and you are hesitant, can't make a decision without wanting to know at least three people's opinions. Or is it somewhere in between?

I was shocked to learn recently there is a crisis in self-belief running rampant among women these days: not just professionally, but in their personal lives as well. Women, it seems, are missing the self-confidence to articulate or offer up their two cents or receive acknowledgment for a job well done.

Sounding at all familiar? At first the thought seemed foreign to me, but then I started looking around at the ladies in my life and I realized that yes, the truth of the matter is that a good number of my conversations with friends and associates indicate they lack the confidence to move out and into doing more than just merely existing in their lives. Wow!

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Money Talks; Everything Else Walks

Recently in a conversation with an associate, we were discussing venture capital opportunities of the past and how we both have invested more than just money but also our time, dedication and expertise; and for a few of those investments we've wound up with some beautiful-looking ownership certificates that have no cash value but make great wall paper. When it comes to having the desire to move your business up in the world, expertise is nice but money is what ultimately pays the bills for those direct and hard costs associated with running your business. For individuals to invest their cold cash into your business, they need to believe that what they're investing in will provide a return, and their belief is ultimately based on your own belief, the trust you have in yourself and your business idea.

You possess an impressive business plan, you've worked on your business design, and you've finished a feasibility assessment that indicates your business has the makings for making huge money. Great! The only thing stopping you from taking the leap is your need of raising money.

In this economy, finding individuals to invest in a small business isn't the easiest thing. But don't lose hope; they are out there, and yes, they are willing. These individuals are best known as "Venture Capitalists" or "Angel Investors." Basically, VCs impart fiscal backing to a company or firm that is in its early stages but nevertheless exhibits high potential in terms of forthcoming growth and profitability: exactly where you seem to be finding yourself. Their goal? To make larger-than-typical profits (i.e., stock market investments) on their investments. Don't fool yourself: VCs are fully aware that a number of these types of investment projects can and will end up losing money. However, VCs recognize that great earnings from some of their projects will more than compensate for their losses along the way. Venture Capitalists are receptive to taking high-level risks when other people may not be.

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Your Health, Your Business

We've all heard the sayings "Money can't buy happiness" and "Money isn't everything." Today you will discover how, even though these perspectives regarding money may be true on one level, they certainly aren't true on all levels of our lives. Money or financial wellness will and does provide the means for having a foundation supportive of the other four key areas of your life being in balance, which ultimately impacts your health, relationships, spirituality and overall personal wellness.

In my line of work I see a lot of individuals who are self-employed and take active steps in ensuring they're doing right by both their businesses and themselves. They not only understand but embrace the philosophy that what affects one area of their lives will and does affect another. They also realize that when they are healthy, they actually end up positively affecting their bottom line financially.

Not quite sure how this all fits together? That's okay, because most people have a hard time grasping it as well when they allow themselves to see from a new perspective.

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Love Your Children? Hate the Chaos?

Don't get me wrong. I love my children – immensely, unconditionally – and would not trade, give away or accept any other option that might be presented to me. But (and this is BIG "but") I hate the chaos that came with being a mother. Before having children, I adhered to a daily ritual of getting a coffee in the morning, sitting down to write my three pages of "stress dump," and then 20 minutes of meditation focusing on being centered and having a proactive day.

I truly thought I would be able to keep some (if not all) of this ritual in place once my son, who is now three, was born. But reality set in quite quickly, and it took me almost 10 months to find my groove again. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do it, but I did. Then in May 2011 I gave birth to my daughter, and the groove I was able to find is once again changing.

Chaotic? Yes. Manageable? Yes. What did it take? Three simple steps (Remember Coach Karen's three simple steps to managing chaos and emergency life situations is I.C.E.) and a lot of self-patience!

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So You Think You're Confident?

Self-confidence is what empowers you to take action in periods that are difficult and down right scary. Confidence is created over time as well as through experience. The big question is, "Do you still get butterflies when you are about to take action?" If your answer is no, then you need to ask yourself if you truthfully believe you hold the desire and feel deserving of what the outcome of your actions will be. One of your greatest inhibitors with regard to being confident that I've experienced with clientele is they try hard to create and work toward the life they desire, but their self-worth and the value they possess of themselves stands in their way toward reaching it.

So yes! Your self-confidence impacts your self-worth. And yes, your self-worth impacts your self-confidence. The opinion of life in general is that we have a tendency to magnetize what we believe we are worthy of receiving. Consequently, self-worth is one of the most important elements of how we go about escalating our self-confidence; that is, you need to possess belief in your own skills, abilities and most notably, you need to consider yourself truly deserving of the outcome you desire.

You can picture all you want, make yourself feel good, concentrate on encouraging emotions, etc. But unless you sincerely like yourself for who you are and think with every thread of your fiber you deserve to get the best out of life, you might not be able to improve your self-confidence, which in turn brings about good fortune, friends, love or success.

So here are a few questions to ask yourself in order to find out if your view of self stands in your own way to success:

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Coaching and Your Business

As a small business coach, I work with different types of clients – both individuals and companies. Some individuals work for somebody else but hold the desire to begin their own company, while others have been in business for a few years yet seek to move their business to the next level. A growing pattern in both small and large corporations is the human resources division acknowledging the importance of coaching for personnel, which in turn supports a more powerful bottom line for the company. Before hiring a corporate coach for you, your business and your staff, it would be advantageous to have an understanding or an appreciation of a few simple corporate coaching concepts and techniques. The familiarity of how coaching works and what it can help you achieve will make it simpler and easier for you. These are:

a)  Select the appropriate coaching model
b)  Communicate effectively with your coach
c)  Get maximum returns on your investment (on hiring a coach)

Coaching Objectives
Coaching essentially works on three tiers and in a corporate setting can often meld with the roles of consultancy. The first level or tier is performance, the second is behavior, and the third or outer layer is solution. The following provides a brief description of each layer.

Performance  Your coach will observe as well as study your sales and profit levels, employee productivity, business financials, and your senior management team or leadership team. Depending on your business situation, your coach may end up making suggestions and offering new perspectives to enrich your profitability from its current levels. To make certain the coach stays in a coaching role and does not fall into a consultant's function, it is imperative that your senior management team is on board with the styles of brainstorming for solutions communication that will take place. Performance transitions into reviewing your guidelines of effectiveness to make certain the staff is empowered to be as efficient as possible. Keep in mind, employees can be only as successful as the tools they're given, and your business's guidelines and processes are vital to their success.

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Mentoring: Encouraging Success

Once you establish your own company, we have a tendency to look at our previous experience and how it has encouraged your employee's success – to notice what worked and what didn't. One of the essentials of a flourishing business is the openness to share your wisdom and enthusiasm of doing what you love with others. One of the easiest ways is to create a mentoring program. Mentoring doesn't always mean you are "grooming' new employees for their rise in the corporation; it also means mentoring students toward gaining much-desired skills in the work place.

I would like to share with you a few of the advantages of how establishing a mentoring program can encourage your small business to be even more successful while also touching on how setting up a mentoring program in a small- to medium-sized organization can help you develop your human resources and use these resources in the most efficient manner possible.

To begin, let's identify the key advantages of mentoring programs.

Reduced Learning Curve

When an organization establishes a mentoring program, it can prove to be individually one of the most important resources for employees in their initial learning phase or the new hire period. When a member of staff is transferred or promoted to a new department, having an adviser supports a less-demanding or stressful work environment.

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