Confident leadership: an essential part of any workplace

Building your confidence at work and the confidence of those around you will make you a stronger and happier leader. Here’s some ways to go about it.

Confidence at work is one of my favourite topics. Whether it’s building your own or helping others around you boost theirs, it’s essential for a happy and productive workplace.

As a woman, I am particularly aware of always  trying to foster confidence in myself and others around me, particularly as there’s lots of data to show that we’re more likely to under estimate our abilities. I saw these wonderful imagesrecently, which repurpose words that are often used about women to showcase their achievements; a wonderful example of how we can build other’s confidence and our own.

Having said that, I have seen through my work that a lack of confidence is an attribute that plagues both men and women and can really impact our leadership. Without it, we can hold ourselves and our teams back. With confidence, we are able to:

• Follow our vision, even if there’s some risk
• Stay motivated and optimistic
• Focus and not get distracted by unimportant developments
• Stop comparing ourselves to other people
• Nurture others in a team to achieve their full potential
• Learn from mistakes

Ways to build confidence at work

If you’ve found that you’ve lost confidence at work, or perhaps there are members in your team that have, here are few tips.

• Keep a daily diary of achievements to help you remember everything that you do well where you have succeeded in the past – these can be either big or small. Researchers  studied diary entries from a number of employees to discover that celebrating small wins leads to happier and more engaged peopl

• Set some goals to help yourself feel more in control and boost your confidence. Make sure these goals are achievable – try the SMART goals method if in doubt.

• Follow your passion both at work and outside. I’m believe wholeheartedly in following your passion, which will give you a greater sense of satisfaction and purpose and in turn bolster your confidence.

• Get a hobby. Research has shown that pursuing hobbies can in fact boost your confidence at work. My hobby is – you guessed it – horse riding, specifically show jumping. I love that it gives me self-confidence outside the competition arena. Like many sports and hobbies, it takes dedication and discipline, and importantly resilience when things don’t go according to plan.

• Learn techniques for calm, relaxation and rest. What’s your happy place? Mine is spending time in nature. I love walking – walking on the beach feeling the sand between my toes and the ocean washing over my feet, or taking advantage of our nearby bush walking tracks. It’s a great way to clear your mind, I find. It can be difficult to feel confident if we’re over-tired, stressed or unhappy, so finding ways to calm down can help.

• Try to learn from setbacks, rather than letting them destroy your confidence. As I’ve written before, sometimes bad things happen – but the question is how you deal with them!

• Seek outside help. If you or your team members are still not as confident as you could be, try taking a course, a new activity or even help from a professional like a coach or a counsellor.

How have you addressed confidence issues in the past?  Let me know in the comments.

For more information or to register for our free upcoming Wholistic Leadership webinar, shoot us an email info@lepd.com.au