Personal Self-Esteem and Career Esteem

Esteem includes not only your personal self-esteem but your career esteem as well. Career esteem is how you feel about your job, your company, your boss, your product, or your service. Are you committed to the career aspects of esteem? If not, you will probably want to take your job and shove it. Your career attitude will come through loud and clear to your internal and external customers.

If you are not happy with the career aspects of your life, consider finding another job. Get paid for what you love to do. When you enjoy your job everyone benefits, at work and at home.

Success is often jeopardized by the self-imposed limitations of low self-esteem. Many of us are our own worst enemies. Perhaps the greatest liability sales representatives have is low self-esteem. They often pursue sales careers handicapped by low self-images. Low self-image and low self-esteem are further fuelled by the fact that sales professionals live in a world of constant rejection. We are too hard on ourselves even before things go wrong. Often negative self-talk—the conversation within our mind—supports a predetermined outcome: "I can't do that ... I'll probably screw up ... I won't be successful." And so it goes. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. I once heard personal and professional development expert Brian Tracy say, "We shoot ourselves in the foot and then admire our marksmanship." You must learn to appreciate your own worth and importance. (We'll get to how you can do that in a minute.) "Healthy self-esteem corresponds to rationality, flexibility, admitting mistakes, creativity, and a receptiveness to change. Poor self-esteem corresponds to rigidity, blindness to reality, resistance to change, and limited productivity." Where do you fit in?

Top-achieving sales professionals have a high regard for self. They believe in themselves and understand that you only sell as well as you feel. When we feel good about ourselves, our ability to be effective with our customers is enhanced. However, feelings are not facts. Just because you may feel incompetent doesn't mean that you are incompetent. Sometimes you may feel that you are not performing up to your usual standard but in fact you may well be. By trusting your decisions and your judgment, you enhance your sensitivity to your customers' needs. Your own insecurities may prevent you from focusing on your customer. Without high self-esteem we live in a house of cards, built on a weak foundation.