Perhaps you do not agree with the statement that there is power in the way we see ourselves, and that is OK, I welcome you to challenge the theory here.

There are countless stories of success where people attributed their ability to train, practice, prepare mentally, emotionally, and physically in order to set the stage for winning and succeeding with a connection to their confidence.

They saw themselves as a winner before they even entered the game or began the project or initiative. Covering the important role of a consistent and healthy self-image last week, let’s build upon the role of confidence and its direct impact on our success.

Over the years I have developed an appreciation for what I believe is the greatest quality for anyone looking to pursue and achieve their goals, grow within their organization, possibly even own their own company one day, be a better person, mom, dad, spouse, or friend, and even become a better and stronger sales person. And regardless of where someone is looking to make improvements or advancements personally or professionally, the answer is found in the four C’s. Confidence, Confidence, Confidence, and Confidence.

Confidence in yourself. Confidence in your product or service, or your project or initiative. Confidence in yourself or your company that you will see things through, or the company will stand behind the product or service you are providing. Confidence in your commitment to continuous learning and improvement.

There is no question that we must practice, and maybe even “fake it until we make it” as we continue to gain our confidence. The goal, however, is to become confident in ourselves, confident in our product or service, confident in our company, and confident in our commitment to continues improvement.

Companies would do well to place more emphasis in this area for new hires. Many organizations struggle with turnover of employees. Employees will share during exit interviews that they just lacked the confidence to become successful. This is happening with increased frequency as companies prioritize onboarding of new team personnel but forget to work on the person and not just company information, product knowledge, and policies and procedures.

And if we take a salesperson who has just been hired, has strong presence, excellent learning skills and habits, and understands how to use and leverage data, and if this salesperson has never sold anything before, it could be a disaster if we place them in an environment where the lack of a healthy self-image or confidence could really hurt them. Possibly even ending in early termination because they weren’t trained in the area that will give them the will and the skill to confidently speak with or meet prospects and customers. And the revolving door starts turning once again as we look to backfill those positions.

Confidence, when the four areas of confidence mentioned above can be mastered, any one of us can go toe-to-toe with any peer, any manager, and prospect or customer, and any competition that may be in our way. Now we do not want to become confused here either. I am not suggesting arrogance or being cocky, what I am suggesting is that individuals, managers, and businesses take the time to invest in making sure that our people are ready to succeed and have the greatest likelihood of success.

To accomplish this we would do well to hire slowly, make sure they have the best chance of succeeding, give them a strong onboarding program that includes training on confidence and a healthy self-image, and then watch as they impact the success of the organization and grow personally and professionally.

So how about you? How important has confidence been to your own success? What happened when you lacked confidence? I would love to hear your story of confidence at gotonorton@gmail.com, and when we can have confidence in ourselves, confidence in our products and services, confidence in our company, and confidence to pursue continuous improvement, it really be a better than good week.

Michael Norton is the grateful CEO of Tramazing.com, a personal and professional coach, and a consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator to businesses of all sizes.