Old Spice Deodorant has been advertising their new product line called Swagger. The commercials feature celebrities (athletes and musicians) before and after they discovered Swagger. Before they started using this deodorant, they were shown to be nerdy, meek, clumsy, and lacking confidence. After using Swagger, they became the confident, brash, successful and popular superstars we all now know and recognize. Pretty funny ads.
While no deodorant (or any product) can give you supreme confidence (it's an inside game), as a business coach I do believe in the concept of adopting a mental swagger. When you look up swagger in the dictionary it says to walk with a bold and confident stride or strut. Today, the term swagger (popular in ads, music, sports commentary, etc.) has been expanded to mean possessing a bold confidence in yourself and your performance, both in mind and body. It's about carrying yourself in a confident, unbeatable, and winning manner...and yes, to even strut your stuff when necessary. While this business coach does not believe in an owner ever being arrogant or cocky, this business coach does believe in entrepreneurs having a deep confidence in themselves...yes, a little swagger.
Swagger is easy to see in athletes. Watch any kid or professional baseball player and you can see some of the most successful hitters go up to the batter's box with an air of confidence. They are calm, cool and confident in both body and mind...they exude confidence. To feel confident, at times, you must act confidently. Watch a batter in a hitting slump and you can see the slump in their eyes, body, and soul. They are mentally defeated before they even swing the bat. Since they don't act confidently, they don't feel and perform confidently.
As a business owner, do you have your swagger? Are you overtly calm, cool and confident? Do you carry yourself with a bit of swagger? Or, do your employees and customers see you sweating and panicking? As your virtual business coach, I believe having swagger, especially in these tough economic times, is essential for a business owner. You must have confidence in yourself, your company, your employees, and your future. Even when sales are down, retain your swagger. Even when the nightly news is negative, retain your swagger. Now is NOT the time for your employees our customers to see you sweat, panic, or lack confidence in your body, mindset or actions. You are the leader and must remain confident.
Running a business is a lot like baseball...a game of momentum and self-confidence. It can be tough, competitive, and quite challenging to perform at a high level day in and day out, especially during tough economic times. With any business, there are days when an owner is mentally beat up, strikes out, commits an error, loses the game. For the owners, who picks up their spirits and confidence? Who helps them regain their swagger? In the past, it seldom happened...owners had to grind it out and tough it out on their own. They suffered alone and in silence. Fortunately today, that has changed and more and more owners are turning to business coaches to help them have clarity of direction, a focused game plan, objective accountability, and as important, a greater sense of hope and confidence...confidence in their business vision and themselves. In short, business coaches help clients establish or regain their swagger.
As owners, two of our greatest assets are our business vision and confidence. We need to have a clear destination of where we want to take our business (in good times and bad) and confidence in ourselves and our team that we can get there...no matter what. When we are confident, we have less doubt and make better decisions. Therefore, it is our utmost responsibility to guard our vision and protect our confidence. Are you doing so? We can not afford to lose our confidence, no matter how rough and tough things get. We need to hold tight to and believe in our vision and not let the daily hassles, headaches, strike outs, and economy erode our confidence. Though we all feel vulnerable, isolated, lonely and even a bit lost at times, we can not afford to lose our confidence. We need to stay strong, positive and productive..maintain our swagger.
You know well that being a business owner can feel like a long, grueling, unforgiving baseball season at times. Some days you strike out, other days you hit a grand slam. Some days you win, some you lose. Regardless, don't try to carry the entire weight of the company on your shoulders. Don't try to be a lone ranger or tough it out in silence. To maintain your confidence and swagger, seek out the help of a business coach, educational and motivational CDs, books, business coaching blogs, or business owner support groups. Protecting your confidence is imperative...all other abilities, skills and opportunities depend upon your confidence.
Again, got swagger?
Daniel M. Murphy
President, Founder & Business Coach
The Growth Coach
Business Coaching Franchise System