5 Steps to Make Your Success Create More Success (Even When you’re Not Always Successful)

People who don't know me ask me what I do for a living.  I say, "I run my own company."  With that answer, the follow-up questions are about the work that I do and what kinds of clients I have. People who already know me ask, "How's business?"  In both cases, I always include something like, "It's going extremely well."  And then I follow-up with some concrete proof such as, "I have a current client with whom I am partnering on an organizational development program, I'm running a leadership development program with another, and I have a number of coaching clients in various stages of progress."  

The goal is to link my past successes with your future success.

For all of us there are ups and downs. I can be very busy with clients one week and not making money the next. When I was in a corporate office full-time, some weeks were wonderful with lots of accomplishments and other weeks were mired with office politics, a mistake in a presentation, or a boss in a bad mood.  

It's not always easy. For anyone. 

But the trick is - you focus on your successes and wins both to keep your confidence levels high and to inspire others.

When someone (a work colleague or potential networking opportunity) asks you how things are going, talk about all of the great things that are going on.

People want to work with and be around successful people.

It's like putting a Facebook message on your situation.  Who puts lots of the bad stuff up on Facebook?  Success breeds succeed.

Success breeds confidence which brings more success. There's a mindset associated with success.  I've been there before and done well, so I will perform well again.  Having had success with other clients in many difficult situations, I feel very confident telling other people that I can be successful with you in overcoming your challenges. Even if I don't know everything about your challenge, I come from a place of confidence that by asking the right questions and being creative, I will work well with you, too.

People will want to work with you:

·         People want what others have.  I want people to think, "Marcy has developed and implemented a powerful leadership development program or has worked with other professionals and partnered with them in their successful career transition or coached them into their next promotion, I want that, too. If someone has seen success in working with her, there's a good chance I can have that success, too."  Which leads to....

·         She must be good.  Decision-makers want to hire people who are tried and true -- people who have demonstrated success before.

Remember THE GOAL:  To link your past successes to someone else's future success.

How can you use this?  Toot your own horn! Many find this incredibly difficult. My women clients, especially. Here are five steps to start:

1.  Think about and document your successes with a focus on results.  What great accomplishments do you have that illustrate the value you bring?  What results did you get from them?  Make sure to tie together the actions you took and the outcomes you generated.

2.  Build a few success stories. Now take those actions and outcomes and prepare a few stories that succinctly explain what you're good at and the results you have accomplished.  

3.  Learn about others' challenges or what they care about. Like all good influencers and networkers, it's imperative that you understand what's important to the other person and what they care about.  This information will provide the path to link your past successes to their future successes.

4.  Relate your successes to what other people care about. Now bring it all together. Choose (and on the fly modify) your story to create the link. Reflect on what you have heard:  "I hear that you have leaders in your organization that do not know how to communicate well and they are unhappy."  Link those facts to the results that are important to the other person:  "It sounds like that challenge is creating difficulties in achieving the results you desire."  Link your past success to their desired outcome:  "I worked with an organization much like yours and coached their top leaders on communication. As a result of the work, leaders understood themselves more clearly which enabled them to work more effectively with each other. They hit their numbers in Q4 with a greater sense of accountability and all have noted feeling better about themselves in their work environment."

5.  Make an offer. Here's your chance to make some type of offer.  It can be offering to listen more and be a thought partner, it could be to provide some high level advice from your experience, or you could go as far to offer of your expertise on a deeper level.

In a corporate setting, this approach is how people move to new positions, take on new responsibilities, or get tapped for promotion. For those successful in professional services, this technique is how they sell more business.

How can you use your own success to be more successful?

  

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