Author: Ethan Theo

My grandmother gave me a chocolate bunny every spring when I was a child.  I always looked forward to getting it, but there were some chocolate bunnies I liked better than others.

Some years she gave me a hollow chocolate bunny. Now I really liked the chocolate, but when I bit into it, there was nothing but air.

Other years she gave me a marshmallow-filled chocolate bunny.  It was great because it had something inside.  But marshmallow does get a little old after a few bites and it’s just not chocolate.

My favorite years were those when my grandmother gave me a solid chocolate bunny.  I knew exactly what to expect with each bite because they were chocolate all the way through. An unbeatable combination!

Do your customers know what to expect from your business?

What about your employees?

Do you know what to expect?

Here are 3 delicious qualities of a Work Positive-solid business you can grow and give today:

Trust

Do your customers or clients trust you?

Can they turn their back on you, i.e., trust you to do what you say you’re going to do, the way you said you’d do it?

Do they have to read the fine print, covering their backside with you, for fear of you wiggling out of the agreement?

To create a Work Positive-solid business, one that lives up to its advertising appearances, be trustworthy with your customers. When clients take a bite of your business, they know what to expect, enjoy the taste, and come back for more with their friends.

Your cash flow will hop with delight as you build trusting relationships with your customers and clients in creating a Work Positive-solid business.

Integrity

If we surveyed your employees, would they say you’re an owner of integrity? Someone who keeps promises? Who backs up talk with walk?

They’re always watching you. They can tell when business is good, and when it’s not. They fill the information vacuum with their worries when you’re not talking and walking the same.

We all want low-maintenance employees; top-talent teams who help us achieve our Work Positive dreams. Attracting and hiring them is one thing. Keeping them is another.

Talk and walk consistently. Keep your promises. Conduct yourself with integrity as you create a Work Positive-solid business. Your employees’ productivity sky-rockets as you do.

Honesty

Are you honest with yourself?

Even if you know something is false, if you repeat to yourself often enough, you believe it. But what have you really accomplished for your business?

For instance, are you honest enough with yourself to admit to a customer when you make a mistake? Or, do you roll an employee under the bus?

You gain more business when you choose to be honest—“I apologize. I blew it.”—than when you employee-toss.

Your customers will be relieved to know that you are honest and take personal responsibility for your mistakes. Your employees will defend you to the last dollar when you tell the truth.

Be honest with yourself, your clients, and your employees. Tell the truth as you create a Work Positive-solid business. Your bottom line goes supernova positive as you do!

About the Author: 

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), coach, and speaker who help professionals discover success in the silver lining of their business and achieve their dreams. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org/speaking.

Why do so many people go through life feeling unhappy, dissatisfied, and unfulfilled? I believe that, in many cases, it’s because they’ve been taught to suppress their core being – the unique traits that combine to make them who they really are. This is one of the reasons why people often experience a sense of wonder after they take the Perceptual Style Assessment (PSA); they begin to understand and embrace their unique talents and skills.

I never get tired of watching the magic that happens when someone reads the description of their own Perceptual Style!

It’s profound; there’s a sense of wonder about how the description could fit them so well, followed closely by a sense of deep validation of something they have long known about themselves but couldn’t quite put into words.

When you read your own Perceptual Style description, you feel more than just delight in the accuracy of the description: there is also a great sense of relief when you realize that the differences you experience between yourself and others is not because there is something wrong with you. There’s real joy in understanding that these differences are normal, and that it is OK – great, actually – to be exactly who you are.

As powerful as I know the experience to be, I was still deeply moved by a story a client shared with me recently, after getting his PSA results: 

“I was angry as a teenager, and as an adult I have been unhappy and depressed much of my life. I have been through eight years of therapy, but it wasn’t until after contemplating my PSA results that I finally figured out what I was angry and unhappy about.”

These words were not uttered by someone who was struggling to make a living or who was a marginal member of society. He is a successful business owner who grew up in a loving home in an upper middle class neighborhood in the late 60s and early 70s. He is happily married, has successfully raised three children, and appears happy and content with life. So his declaration came as a surprise to me. Once I heard what he had to say, I realized his story was far from unusual and needed to be retold in a public forum. I asked his permission and he agreed. Here’s his story:

At first, he said, the results of his PSA results of Activity surprised and concerned him. Everything he read about Activity exactly described behavior that he had been taught to suppress and control. Reading the Activity PS description made him worry that he had been unsuccessful in learning how to hold those ‘bad’ behaviors in check. His great revelation: the reason he had been unsuccessful in ridding himself of those behaviors was because, at core, they were who he was. His great joy was that PST and Celebrate You were telling him that it was OK to be himself.

His anger as a teen arose from having his natural skills thwarted, undervalued, and/or ignored. His unhappiness and depression as an adult was due to his inability to stop suppressing his natural buoyancy and high energy level. He realized that he had kept who he really was deeply hidden from the world, and to a great extent, even from himself.

From a psychological perspective, his insight made perfect sense. In essence, the message he had received from his parents was, “Don’t be you.” As humans, we are able to adapt our behavior to whatever is required of us, but the core of who one is, as expressed by their PS, cannot be changed. The inevitable conclusion most humans will come to when faced with such a dilemma is that there is something wrong with them, and that who they are is not OK.  More simply stated, “I am not loveable”. The anger that an adolescent experiences from having his core being denied transforms into sadness and depression as he resigns himself to being a “responsible adult”.

My client’s PSA results and Celebrate You gave him the permission he needed to celebrate who he really is.

His story made me wonder how many of us received similar messages in the service of molding us into “successful” adults. How many of the 65+% of people who hate their jobs feel that way because their work allows them no expression of their natural skill set? How many people live their lives vaguely dissatisfied or unhappy for no apparent reason simply because their core being has been repressed? The answer to all three questions, I believe, is a much higher percentage than we know or suspect. Don’t be part of that percentage. Celebrate You!

About the Author:

Lynda-Ross Vega: A partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., Lynda-Ross specializes in helping entrepreneurs and coaches build dynamite teams and systems that WORK. She is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. For free information on how to succeed as an entrepreneur or coach, create a thriving business and build your bottom line doing more of what you love, visit www.YourTalentAdvantage.com.