Most people think of confidence in terms of an individual. I think of it in terms of a business.

There are always intangibles when a company (or an individual) is making a decision on which firm to do business with. One of those intangibles is whether the company’s leaders have confidence in your ability to deliver on the promises you’re making. If your entire business is confident, it will give your prospects a sense of assurance or faith that you will deliver.

What characteristics do you think of when you think of a confident person? Perhaps it’s a sense of being grounded. A demonstration of clarity, both in purpose and direction. Likely they are poised, passionate and certain. 

I often find confident people to be gracious, calm and focused. Generally, they’re fun and have a great sense of humor.

Confident people establish a presence. You can feel that they are positive, even when the future is unclear or they are in doubt.

These are some of the characteristics we work to instill in our team. We’ve found that as you build up a person, you build up their self-confidence. When their self-confidence is built, they begin to demonstrate the characteristics you want to embody in your entire company: loyalty, trust, conviction, assurance.

Take a good look at your business. Ask around, perhaps among your advisers, your regular customers, and your vendors. Or perhaps just take a good and honest look at how your team behaves. 

Jacqueline Smith, a writer for Forbes magazine, once wrote an article on confidence in the workplace. She interviewed Lynn Taylor, a workplace expert and author of "Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant," who said “Overall, the most common reason that employees lose confidence is very simply because of a bad relationship with their boss. That insecurity will last as long as the relationship is strained.”

If your company is lacking in confidence, could it be because of the relationship or tone you’ve established with your employees? 

Overhauling your entire image, internally and externally, takes time – just like rebranding takes time. But you have to start somewhere.

Select a few words that embody a confident person, and apply them to your business. Do you demonstrate clarity? Passion? Calm? A sense of humor? 

You know the old saying “People don’t do business with businesses, they do business with people.” So take a good look at the faith that every aspect of your team builds in the people you do business with. Circle some of the words we listed – those that are important to you, that make sense to you.

And go build a confident business. It will make all the difference.

Shaun Olsen is the CEO and President of CloudWyze. CloudWyze was created to help businesses focus and perform at their optimal level by crafting and executing custom technology plans for businesses of every type and size. To learn more about CloudWyze, visit www.CloudWyze.com. Shaun can be reached at [email protected] or 910-795-1000.