Use Your Strengths in Strategic Planning for 2022

Smiling entrepreneur happily planning for future

“If you can tune into your purpose and really align with it, setting goals so that your vision is an expression of that purpose, then life flows much more easily.” – Jack Canfield

If you’re a service-based business, entrepreneur, or business leader who wants a remarkable 2022, then it’s imperative you leverage a strategic plan around your unique strengths to scale your business so you can grow stronger, work smarter, and live richer.

I know first-hand how hard it is to do that and not know where to start. Thanks to my hero, Jack Canfield, I was given the foundation of a plan and I’m going to share a few parts of my updated Strengths Champion Solutions version with you to jump-start your strategic planning for 2022.

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The 10X Business Growth Plan & Journal

In every matter that the king consulted them about [Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego], he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom. Daniel 1:20

God gifted those four young men including Daniel, with great knowledge and understanding. Daniel specifically also gained an understanding of visions and dreams of every kind. As they consulted with King Nebuchadnezzar and strategically planned their interactions, rapport was built between them. Daniel became the epitome of entrepreneurial excellence. He and his fellow young men were 10X better than everyone else. But it wasn’t through luck and talent alone. Daniel used his God-given talents and strategically applied them to his success.

That’s why this tool is the 10X Business Growth Plan & Journal. Because I believe God has gifted us – you, with talents, and when you turn those into strengths, like Daniel, you can be 10X better.

Top 10 Strengths

Top Ten Strengths - 10X Business Growth Plan and Journal

Perhaps the most important thing you can do before you start planning is familiarize yourself with your strengths. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to unlock your full 34 CliftonStrengths. As a leader or entrepreneur, or as I like to call us, Strengthspreneurs® having access to your complete strengths profile allows you to go beyond the basic understanding of your own strengths as you work with others to accomplish goals.

Write your Top 10 Strengths down on your strategic plan. Every day, every week, as you visit this plan, remind yourself of your strengths. This will allow you to create strengths-based goals and strategies for success.

Word of the Year/Quote of the Year

Word of the Year - 10X Business Plan and Journal

Like any plan, you need to find a place to start. Coming up with your one word of the year is an excellent way to focus your plan. It can help you align your purpose, vision, and goals.

This word can be anything and come from anywhere. Here are a few ways you can hone in on your “Word of the Year”:

  • Prayer
  • Meditation
  • Quiet time
  • Reading inspiring books
  • Free associate
  • Reflection

There’s also a place on the plan for a “Quote of the Year.” Sometimes a quote can help capture the direction you desire and goals you have with more clarity than a single word.

10X Business Goals

10X Business Goals - 10X Business Growth Plan and Journal When we look at our goals there are 10 specific areas of business that I’ve defined. Here are a few of them from the 10X Business Growth Plan & Journal tool:

  • Vision
  • Strategy
  • Marketing
  • People
  • Culture

Your goals need to be personal, positive, present tense, purposeful, and with passion.

For example, I am [Brent] humbly launching a NY Times Best-Selling book called Strengthspreneur® by 12-31-2022 with my Futuristic and Significance strengths.

I know it’s tempting to write a list of goals that have been swimming in your head since you started your business, however, I want you to focus on one big breakthrough goal for each specific area. I call this a S.E.T. goal.

Specific
Emotional
Time-bound

Monthly Wins & Biggest Challenge

Monthly Wins and Challenges - 10x Business Growth Plan and Journal

If you’ve seen my strategic plan before, this part is new and improved and I’m pumped to share it! My favorite part of my strategic plan is the journal. Planning doesn’t stop after goals are set, but it’s an active process that requires your ongoing participation to become a 10X business. A monthly guided journal can help with that.

On the 10X Business Growth Plan & Journal tool, there’s space for all 12 months. For each month you’ll start by recording 3 wins or successes you have experienced with any of your goals during that month.

Then you’ll follow that up with 1 of your biggest challenges during that month in reaching your goals.

This 3:1 positive versus negative ratio is called the Losada ratio. Research has shown it helps encourage a higher degree of performance.

Tracking your celebrations, challenges, and money helps you visualize your growth. My tool will even calculate your profit for you and all you have to do is enter your revenue and expenses.

What you celebrate is what you do more of.

Now You Decide

The 10X Business Growth Plan & Journal is one of the most successful tools I personally have used and the coaches I work with have used it to grow stronger, work smarter, and live richer. Before we dive into 2022 I want to give you the opportunity to take advantage of this tool and give you access to the 90-minute webinar I had earlier this month around how to use it while applying your unique Strengths.

Join the Mastermind

If you are a solopreneur or business professional with a small team wanting to scale your business faster with best practices, join our ongoing monthly 1.5 hr virtual Zoom mastermind facilitated by me. You’ll get access to the 10X Business Growth Plan & Journal, the 90-minute guided webinar on how to use it, a complimentary 30-minute Ask Brent Anything coaching session, and ongoing support from fellow Strengthspreneurs and the first-ever Gallup Certified Strengths Coach.

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Join the Mastermind

Not Ready to Commit?

10XBizChallenge-2021 Webinar

I get it, maybe you’re not ready for a monthly commitment. I still want to help! If you just want this easy and awesome tool and access to the webinar to guide you through using it, you can buy it now. I’ll throw in a free 30-minute one-on-one coaching session where you can ask me anything. Because at the end of the day, it’s my goal to help you succeed, even if it’s one small step at a time.

Get it Now!

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Does Balance Mean a Drink In Each Hand?

Woman working at desk with a glass of water next to her

If balance means a drink in each hand to you, let’s discuss your physical health and a healthy balance.

Have you ever wondered how to climb the ladder of personal success without getting all wrung out? I once climbed 45 terrifying feet to the top rung of a ladder to keep it from swirling and falling over during a windstorm. I climbed down and retraced my steps up the ladder with my chainsaw. Trembling in my boots, determined to cut gnarly branches that blocked the sunlight from my swimming pool, I climbed, shaking all the way. Whether you’re trimming trees in your backyard or climbing the corporate ladder, personal success takes a balance of the physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being and awareness.

Physical Balance

You know that to climb a ladder four and a half stories high in a swirling wind with a running 15-pound chainsaw takes physical coordination, strength, and stamina. Life balance begins with physical coordination, strength, and stamina. Our physical life is made up of our health, weight, appearance, sexuality, energy, and exercise.

Did you realize that not drinking enough water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue? Most Americans suffer from chronic dehydration, and a busy professional can get lost in his busy schedule and ignore his need to hydrate. A mere 2% drop in your hydration can trigger fuzzy memory, irritability, and lack of focus. If you want to restore physical balance, practice these top 8 benefits to drinking water:

  1. 8-10 glasses of water a day not only keeps you hydrated, but it also helps shed the pounds.
  2. 8-10 glasses of water per day increases metabolism to fight the afternoon fatigue.
  3. Staying hydrated flushes out toxins. Want to stay looking young? Drink water!
  4. Drinking water lubricates joints and muscles. Staying young and productive depends on your mobility. Hydrate.
  5. Water moisturizes the skin, staving off wrinkles and increasing elasticity. If you want to look younger longer, water can be the anti-aging formula.
  6. Water makes up 85% of your brain and 80% of your blood. Drinking water increases focus, alertness, and strength.
  7. At risk for a heart attack? Drink water. Research from Loma Linda University found that people who drank a minimum of 5 glasses per day were less likely to die of heart disease.
  8. Drinking water decreases your chances of kidney stones and urinary tract infections. It keeps the pipes running for better health.

After Hydration

Get sleep, eat clean, drink eater, exercise, repeatAfter you are properly hydrated, it’s important to exercise. Most of us make excuses not to exercise. If you find it hard to stay committed to an exercise routine, and make excuses, here are some solutions. Engage your focus and discipline strengths to support you in this commitment. Here we go:

  1. It’s inconvenient. Make it convenient. Can you purchase a stand-up desk and do five minutes of walking in place every hour? Could you get a group of co-workers together to walk around the building before eating lunch?
  2. I don’t have time. As a high-performing leader, you and I both know we all find time to do things we like. Make exercise enjoyable and schedule it as an appointment in your calendar.
  3. It’s boring. If you are thinking inside the box, such as going to the gym and walking on the treadmill for an hour, it might get boring. Exercise encompasses movement and cardio. Do something you enjoy: skiing, golf, kayaking, or other sports.
  4. It’s hard. Again, as a leader, you know how to tap into your strengths and understand what motivates you. Build in a reward system that motivates you.
  5. I’m out of shape. Exactly. When exercise isn’t a habit, it’s easy and doesn’t take long to get out of shape. Start slowly and build on that.
  6. I’ve tried and failed. We’ve all tried and failed at something–from the time we started walking. It’s okay. It takes 6 weeks of consistency for you to begin to see results from your workouts. Set small, obtainable goals and keep going.

There is so much more to being fit. Your physical health is simply one aspect of fitness; however, when you feel healthier, it always improves your mental performance and your mood. Start with something you can achieve, give it time to work, and build on that. You’ll be glad you did! And, if you want to connect with me, you can always Ask Brent Anything.

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Four Strengths-Based Tools to Add to Your Coaching Toolbox

entrepreneur woman holding up arms to reflect strength

Four Tools for Strengths-Based Coaching

As a strengths-based coach or Strengthspreneur® , you know the power of the data in understanding talents, personality, values, and tendencies can provide in coaching clients. You know that all of this data can help you build trust, improve client success, and see potential pitfalls. Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses, values and personality tendencies can also help you navigate pitfalls in your business, and shore up weaknesses by finding a support network to hold you accountable.

Gallup CliftonStrengths

Gallup CliftonStrengths logoThe Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment is the first tool in your toolbox. The assessment defines 34 talent themes. Your top five are known as your signature strengths and are where you will operate from subconsciously. The top ten are known as your dominant strengths, those that “show up” naturally, frequently, and with the most force.

Finally, 10-29 strengths are known as the supporting, & your bottom 5 are called lesser themes – which are non-pattern strengths. You may see these occasionally; but, they will never dominate your behaviors. However, understanding them all is important to understanding and bringing out the best in people.

VIA

The VIA logoWe understand that values drive our talents, behaviors and decisions as well. VIA the institute on Values In Action, offers a free and paid assessment that identifies your core values also called character strengths. By identifying your unique set of values, you create a framework that guides every decision, relationship, and priority for your life. Zest, Wisdom, & Courage are my core values & are examples of the 24 evidenced based universal values.

Again, by understanding what drives someone’s values, you can gain clarity that will provide relevant, meaningful coaching for them. Add a values-based assessment to your toolbelt.

Builder Profile 10

BP10, a builder profile assessment by Gallup, helps you understand how you are wired as an entrepreneur. Knowing your ranking of the top 10 entrepreneurial talents will guide you in building entrepreneurial excellence.

First, the BP10 will increase your entrepreneurial self-awareness, as well as recognize opportunities for growth in building your venture.

Second, it will help you identify the talents of those on your team and activating on your innovative ideas.

Although building a coaching business depends on you, there are supporting roles, and perhaps junior coaches, that you’ll add to your team. Knowing everyone’s builder profile will show you whether they have the talent make up for that role and whether their talents are missing on your team.

Standout 2.0

Image of Standout 2.0 book by Marcus BuckinghamThe fourth strengths-based tool to add to the toolbelt of your coaching business is Standout 2.0. This assessment by Marcus Buckingham, measures one’s top 2 strengths roles in work. This will help you be more clear on how you Standout in the workplace.

Standout 2.0 says they help you “turn talent into performance”. This research-based approach assesses your client’s strengths and helps identify their edge, going one step deeper than the CliftonStrengths assessment and enabling them to climb the career ladder and become the high-performing executive they know they are.

Closing

When you combine these four powerful, insightful assessments, you’ll have all the tools you need to raise your performance. And, you’ll have a deep understanding of your employees, co-workers, and family. This will allow you to see where you can help them reach their potential, and who you need to introduce them to who can mentor them, shoring up their areas of weakness. Combine these four instruments to navigate your team at work and home. If you’d like to take any of these assessments, contact me to schedule a call to discuss the next step.

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Mindset Creates Balance

Picture of people excited at workHave you ever read Feeling Good by David Burns? If you have the dominant strength of responsibility, you probably find yourself “should-ing” all the time. You know what I mean. You live by this internal list of rules no one else is aware of, and you “should” yourself to death.

Perhaps you fall into the trap of overgeneralization. You base a decision on one piece of evidence and take the conclusion as truth for all scenarios. That’s not using the strength of context, is it?

These are just two of the core irrational beliefs that David Burns speaks of.

I know the struggle is real! I’ve said simultaneously “I can climb the ladder.” and “I can’t climb the ladder.” There’s an inner battle between positive and negative self-talk which stems from these core irrational beliefs.

Here are all 12 to identify the ones you struggle with:

Filtering, black and white thinking, over-generalization, mind-reading, catastrophizing, personalization, control fallacies, blaming, “shoulds”, emotional reasoning, being right, and deserved reward fallacy.

We have to learn to separate thoughts, feelings, actions, and beliefs. Feelings are like the swirling wind, changing direction and coming and going. They may be pleasant or unpleasant. But, like the wind, we can’t stop our feelings; we can only navigate them. Anchor your feelings to your positive thoughts. Which feelings do you struggle to keep in check? Are you more controlled by your thoughts or feelings?

Recently I felt sad and mad. A friend, trying to console me, said, “Don’t fret. It will get better.” I responded, “It’s ok for me to feel this way for a little while. I don’t always have to be positive.” Feelings are normal and we all experience a range of emotions. Paul Ekman discovered there were six basic emotions across all cultures: happiness, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear. His research also showed that each culture had cultural norms as to how a person should regulate their emotions and what was accepted to express.

King Solomon in all of his wisdom said, “There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven, a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to love and a time to hate.” 

The Byrds, a band, must have found wisdom in it too because they put these words to music.

In your home, did you have permission to feel happy but not express anger? Did you have permission to feel sad and cry, or was there pressure to always be strong and optimistic?

Take time to discover who you are, what beliefs were influenced by your upbringing, and what you want to choose to change today. Here are some questions you may want to explore:

  1. What moments are you especially proud of?
  2. List your psychological triumphs. Include seasons of stress that you survived and overcame, small events that were of great importance to you, significant events from your childhood, self-created challenges you faced head-on with vigor, moments when you felt powerful, and any other pivotal moments that come to mind as you journal.
  3. How have your successes shaped your life?
  4. How have they affected your goals?
  5. What role has pride, being praised and praising others, played in your life?

By taking time to discover how you responded to negative and positive feelings, you can explore whether those responses are serving you well or if you need to renew your mind and allow a fresh mindset to guide your future.

Scripture tells us to “renew our mind daily”, and the world phrases it “garbage in, garbage out”. Either way, it’s evident we have “trash” in our minds that is holding us hostage, and only through exploring our mindset and renewing our mind with truth can we achieve all we were created to achieve.

Consider scheduling an Ask Brent Anything call here.

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