Your confidence in your abilities as a leader or employee is beneficial for your career as well as your personal life. When you are confident, it does not only affect your attitude, it also positively impacts the quality of your work and make you a more desirable leader or employee. Possessing a positive mentality that is not easily wavered is that which maintains your confidence.
In the workplace, being confident can refer to the trust you have in your own abilities to execute your job according to, or beyond expectation. This means that you are clear in your mind about your own expertise, skills set and what you are capable of; a quality that can help you in several aspects all through your professional career. There are so many benefits that come with having confidence in the workplace. Confidence in your abilities increases productivity and help you create a higher quality of work overall.
Indeed talks about the importance of self-confidence and has outlined some benefits of self-confidence as follows:
- Improves your engagement at work: When you have self-confidence, you’re more apt to feel like you can partake in work-related discussions. This can help increase your engagement and potentially allow you to gain recognition for your participation. Your engagement can also help foster or improve relationships in the workplace.
- Happier mindset: When you’re confident at work, it can help you feel proud of your accomplishments knowing that your abilities got you there. This can translate into a joyous state of mind which can increase morale not only for you, but also for everyone you work with.
- Reduces stress: When you’re not focused on your inabilities, you’re more apt to have a carefree and positive attitude. This can help reduce any work-related stress as you’re able to have a positive mindset for your various responsibilities.
- Helps you solve problems: When you are confident about your abilities, it can open your mind to new approaches or solutions to a variety of situations or problems. This is beneficial in various industries and can even help you improve your leadership skills.
- Improves your leadership skills: Displaying confidence at work can help you gain several leadership skills including your ability to make decisions. If your manager recognizes your initiative, it may make them inclined to give you more responsibilities because they see you’ve been able to handle your everyday tasks. Having leadership skills can then help you advance in your career whether you’re supporting your coworkers or getting a managerial role.
One of the negative things about not having confidence in yourself it that, your credibility and qualifications will be questioned by people and this can affect your professional path in the form of denied promotions or raises. Your lack of self-confidence in the workplace will deny you confidence from others at work. People perceive those who are not so competent but have utmost confidence in themselves as being competent and good at their jobs due to that aura of self-confidence they project.
Self-confidence is not the same thing as competence, and this is worth noting. There are many in the workplace who are very competent at their jobs yet lack self-confidence. Self-confidence is therefore key to your career as a leader or an employee.
Confident leaders and employees habitually own everything they do, regardless of the outcome. They take responsibility for their actions and never pass blame onto others. These individuals have broken free from the shackles of self-doubt and have removed fear from their decision-making process. Confident people own every action and willingly accept the consequences, no matter how negative they may be.
A more data-driven approach to thinking about confidence is to view it as a level of certainty when making decisions. Alyssa Dver, Author of “Kickass Confidence”, defines confidence as having certainty in the decision you’ve made, which is based on your personal values. Contrary to popular belief, confidence isn’t something you’re born with, it’s a trait that one can build over time. The first step in building confidence is understanding why you have low confidence in the first place – predictiveindex.
Confidence is important in business because it helps you to deal better with conflict, improves your communication skills, can make you happier at work, enables you to take feedback better, and it can make you a better manager or leader. Furthermore, having confident employees:
- Makes for a more positive workplace and one that is more likely to thrive
- Can lead to a reduction in staff turnover and related costs
The good news is that confidence can be learned. Confidence is something we can learn by working on four key areas: achievement; positivity; social support; body language and physicality. Confident people fail just as much, if not more, than other people. This is because they have more courage to take more actions than non-confident people, thus they have a higher chance of success as well as failure. The key is in how confident people deal with failure. Rather than seeing failure as a dent in their self-esteem, confident people are willing to learn from failure so they can do better the next time.
Confident people experience fear, doubts and insecurities like everyone else. The key though is that they do not let fear hold them back. They take note of their fears, evaluate the situation to find the best way to tackle it and then they take action. If they fail, they do not berate themselves and they don’t compare themselves with others. They know that there are always people who can do better than them, but they do what they can do to the best of their ability. They also have a mindset of continuous improvement, so they learn from failure to do better the next time – symondsresearch.
Here are 4 tips to help you gain confidence in the workplace as you sail to your image leadership.
- START TAKING ACTION
When you look and feel good, you are more confident to achieve success in anything you set your mind to do. So be intentional about how you dress as in the end, what you are wearing will be in perfect alignment with how you are feeling – confidence! Let not fear hold you back from achieving your goals in life. Have the courage to take risks. Go where there are no guarantees. Get out of your comfort zone, even if it means being uncomfortable. The road less travelled is sometimes fraught with barriers, obstacles, and bumps. But it is on that road where your character is truly tested and your personal growth realized. What you do does not need to be perfect because no one is perfect. Just take the action; like Nike’s slogan, “Just Do It!” And as you keep taking those bold steps, you achieve successes that build more confidence that encourages you to achieve even more successes.
- MONITOR YOUR SELF-TALK
We are born with only two fears: fear of falling and fear of loud noises. All other fears are developed during our lifetime. Let’s get rid of those manufactured fears! The great actor John Wayne once said, “Courage is being afraid but saddling up anyway.” Another favorite quote is from Wayne Gretzky, the great Canadian ice hockey player, “You miss every shot you don’t take.” Unfortunately, most of your self-talk 77% is negative. When you hear yourself using negative self-talk, consider saying, “Thanks for your input, but I’m not interested!” another suggestion is to wear a rubber band on your wrist and snap it when your self-talk turns negative – Forbes.
- STAY AWAY FROM “HOOVER PEOPLE”
Hoover people vacuum positivity, confidence and self-esteem out of everyone they contact. Consider all such people at your workplace and stay clear of them. Move out of your group every hoover friend who is among your closest friends; that is a toxic friendship and you do not need that. Do not get buried in self-doubt just because someone else, no matter who they are to you in life, projects their own self-doubt on you. You are enough, so do not question your value or look up to others to validate you. Keep only positive, supportive people in your personal and professional life. When you realize how much your positive, supportive people have done for you or how much you have accomplished, you will feel more confident to do more. Remember that no one has the power to stop you, you are the only person who can stop YOU from succeeding.
- GO AHEAD AND FAKE IT!
Use your body language to increase your confidence and self-esteem. Harvard professor Amy Cuddy’s research shows the power of your body language on others – and on YOU! All it takes is 2 minutes to change your thoughts by moving your body. When you stand or sit confidently, you have an open stance, shoulder back, chin up, and good eye contact with your audience; if you do this for 2 minutes, you will become more confident. Smiling for 2 minutes make you happier, even holding a pen sideways in your teeth can make you happier, more confident. People who feign confidence and self-esteem begin feeling better about themselves with this simple strategy – Forbes.
Building self-confidence is a process which you work out by taking smaller steps with consistency, and the results will gradually manifest as a boost in your self-esteem. For more in-depth and more practical ways to gain your self-confidence, you can pre-order my upcoming book, “The Essentials of Image Leadership.
Are ready to stand out and lead your Image?
Read my book: “The Essentials of Image Leadership”.
Designed with practical exercises for home or office,
This book gives you all the essential tips and
Tools needed to sail with success in your image.
It also touches on dining etiquette,
Ensuring that in every space you find yourself,
You make a personal impact and achieve influence.
