How To Be More Confident At Work
Ever since I wrote about courage, I continue to see examples of how confidence determines your willingness to do difficult things. Confidence allows you to say “yes” to a good but hard thing or “no” to something bad yet alluring. It’s trust in yourself — your values, self-image, and capacity. I’ve especially been noticing it in my teammates.
Here’s what I mean:
I recently met with my colleague Megan to prepare for a high stakes client presentation. Because I have more experience in these types of meetings, I assumed I would be the one to create the materials and run the meeting. Not this time.
“I can do this,” said Megan with a self-assured smile.
She was right. Her presentation was excellent.
Another colleague, Pat, offered to handle a complex client communication that is still fairly new to her since her role changed a year ago.
“I got it,” she asserted.
How did she do with that communication? The email was beautifully written, and the client was happy.
And then Anna worked with me on subject matter that was more comfortable to me than to her. I abstractly explained my thoughts on how to organize and present the concepts in a client workshop. Despite having been intimidated by this kind of assignment in the past, Anna now embraced it.
“On it, Matt.”
How Can Building Confidence Benefit You?
The benefits of Megan, Pat, and Anna’s confidence are enormous. First, it leads to higher performance. As Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter has shown, confidence begets wins.
Second, confidence leads to personal growth. The more you trust your capacity, the more you can leverage your capacity, which further builds your capacity. My colleagues have advanced their careers and grown their abilities.
Third, confidence builds organizational capacity. Do you know what I did with the extra time and energy I had because we divided these responsibilities? Did I kick back at my desk and surf the internet? No! I did something that I’d previously found personally difficult. I found the time, and inspiration, to expand my own capacity.
How Do You Build Confidence?
Consider these five ideas to develop your own confidence:
- Decide what you want. Megan, Pat, and Anna would tell you that they decided to build their capacity. They chose excellence over mediocrity. That decision was the first choice. The willingness to step into fear followed.
- Manage the fear. Nelson Mandela once said, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” Fear is part of being human. Everyone experiences what Daniel Goleman calls an “amygdala hijack,” where you have an immediate and overwhelming emotional response to a perceived threat. When that hijack comes, recognize it, name it, and decide not to focus on it. Instead…
- Focus on the process. In this post, I give examples of how process drives results. Top performers reduce their anxiety by worrying less about the results and instead doing the action that will likely lead to those results. If you lack confidence, perform the actions that will get you the results you desire.
- Do it afraid. I loved interviewing Carolyn Smallwood earlier this year in my Humble Leadership series. What does Carolyn do when nagging fears get in her way? She does it afraid. Do it afraid. Do it anyway.
- Surround yourself with people who demonstrate confidence. In addition to the motivation I get from Megan, Pat, and Anna to push myself to keep growing, I love to read books and listen to podcasts like How I Built This. The confidence to do hard things is contagious. If they can do it, why can’t I?
What difficult thing could you do if you just had more confidence? Would you write a book, take on a new project, or have a hard conversation? Consider how these five keys to confidence might help you get there.
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