23 Jan

Feeling Good About Your Winning Ways

Posted in Synergy Suggestions on 23.01.13 by John Meloche

In yesterday’s blog, we began taking a look at the differences between winners and losers. To put it a bit more clearly, we explored the concept of what makes a winner a winner through studies conducted by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who is a professor at Harvard Business School. In her Harvard Business Review Blog, she revealed that true winners possess certain traits.

All business owners want to win in their respective marketplaces. And why wouldn’t they? There would be no reason to run a business at all if one didn’t want to be successful. This is why employing the advertising strategy of handing out promotional gifts has been so popular. At Synergy Marketing, we know that even the smallest promo gifts, such as pens or key chains, give entrepreneurs competitive advantages by making personal connections with clients.

But what else is needed in order to win? Kanter writes that infectious good moods and attractive situations are part of what makes people successful over and over again. In today’s blog, we’d like to continue our look at her list of advantages that winners have over losers. We’re hoping that it will help both business owners and Toronto sports teams alike to find more winning ways!

Learning. “Losers get defensive and don’t want to hear about their many failings,” writes Kanter, “so they avoid feedback.” Winners, however, accept negative feedback because they are willing to learn from their mistakes. This, of course, takes a positive attitude to begin with but also requires that an individual is willing to practice new routines that may set them on the right course after a failure.

In fact, to winners there is no such thing as failure. Through trial and error, one learns how to find new ways to win. Naturally, practice makes perfect. This is true for any athlete. But at your company, the staff must feel comfortable knowing that there is always space for learning. Those who only get frustrated instead of learning from their mistakes will not help you in the long run.

Freedom to focus. You’ve got to keep your eye on the ball, reminds Kanter. While athletes can take this piece of advice literally, those of us in the business world must remember to keep focused. What is the end goal? What must be done to get there? Know that figurative bumps in the road is just a part of the process. It’s important not get derailed.

“Losers often punish themselves in their heads,” says Kanter. So try not to forget what your end goal is and be focused on achieving it. It’s easy to get frustrated at work. And it’s also easy to take your frustrations out on others around you – especially if you feel that they were partly or wholly responsible for the problem. Be mindful that a winner will overcome such problems and find success no matter what.

With NHL hockey having finally gotten underway this past weekend, sports fans from all over Canada are excitedly watching with high hopes for each of their respective teams. The teams with the aforementioned traits firmly in place are the ones that are most likely to succeed. And for business owners, the same thing goes. We’ll be sure to cover more of these important traits in tomorrow’s blog.

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