One reason people do not show confidence is that they lack self-confidence.
According to Gallup’s The Confidence Quotient Survey, 92% of people globally reported having a great deal or fair amount of confidence in themselves and 80% of global adults reported having confidence in others.
If self-confidence is not a requirement for strong leadership, what does this mean for those who already have it, or aspire to have it?
You may assume, as I did until recently, that you must have high confidence to be a good leader.
But is this true?
Before I answer that question, I’ll break down what is confidence, what is self-confidence, and how you can increase the latter.
Confidence can be defined as “the state or feeling of firm belief and certainty.”
It’s about building self-confidence and owning it.
If you lack self-confidence, you probably feel unworthy of achieving your goals. You might feel unsure of yourself, and your decisions.
You will question your gut feeling, leading you to second-guess your decisions.
When you build self-confidence, your self-assurance leads you to believe you can do what you need to do, and make good decisions.
Self-confidence is not something you can reach because you’ve become better at certain things.
You become self-confident when you’re able to say “yes” to certain challenges you’re faced with.
Self-confident people, even when challenged, are not nervous
Yes, some are. This is because they’ve gotten over the psychological barriers to self-confidence, so the answer to this question is a resounding YES!
It’s not that you don’t get anxious, self-doubting, or even confused, but you stop yourself from deciding the first place.
You’re unable to take action and ask yourself a question “How should I feel right now?”
This is because you’re lacking the self-confidence and the confidence of others. You’re not confident enough to act.
When you gain self-confidence, you think clearly, act boldly, and have the confidence to reach your goals.
Having self-confidence leads to self-assurance, which is a higher form of self-confidence.
Self-assurance is, essentially, being able to say “yes” to a difficult task.
Self-assured people act more confidently than those who are lacking confidence.
When you have more confidence, you tend to speak up more, act more boldly, and you might even feel more confident.
Why is this important?
Why does having self-confidence pave the way for greater self-assurance?
Because confidence and self-assurance are both used to increase the effectiveness of our actions and decisions.
The more self-confident we are, the more confidence others will have in us, making it easier for us to influence others.
When you have self-confidence, your confidence in others rises, allowing you to influence others to reach their goals.
As a leader, you must be able to believe in your decisions and confidently lead.
Self-confidence creates more faith and trust in your decisions.
This confidence can be displayed as well as your passion to achieve those goals.
Research shows that having faith and confidence in your leadership abilities can enhance your influence.
You might feel that without confidence, you don’t have enough faith in yourself, but as someone, I can relate to, it’s more than that.
Without the self-confidence and confidence of others, you don’t have enough faith in yourself to take bold action.
As leaders, we can begin to increase our confidence in the decisions we make.
This in turn can increase our self-confidence, which will lead to increased self-assurance.
You need to build self-confidence for a determined leader to win
Imagine you’re a football player. You take the ball, run a few steps, and do a series of tight passes.
After that, you make a run, but the defenders catch you and tackle you.
You’d be devastated and would likely quit.
But your coaches would tell you to brush yourself off, get up and run the ball back. It’s time to finish the game and win it for your team.
Your self-confidence would be devastated, you’d likely end up quitting the team and put in the back-burner until your next game.
You must learn that you must build your self-confidence, and when you do so, your confidence in the decisions you make is increased.
The question now is: What should you do to build self-confidence?
An effective way to build self-confidence is to take action.
A great self-confidence mantra is, “What if I fail? Then I’ll have to start all over again and work harder!”
You must live with the uncertainty of the result of your action.
For example, it might take one day for you to build self-confidence and another day to build self-assurance in a decision. This is why you must take action.
We must be willing to learn from our mistakes and to forgive ourselves for them.
Self-confidence can be achieved when you take action and continue to take action.
It’s always better to start slow than go fast and fail.
Building self-confidence, as difficult as it is, is the key to becoming a determined leader.
