Why does confidence matter? The reason we need confidence in our personal and professional life is that it allows us to have a strong foundation.
If we are insecure or if we lack confidence, then this lack of confidence is difficult to overcome. If we are not confident about ourselves, we will not be able to execute our personal or professional dreams and goals.
Consider if you are a kid and you want to play a sport. When you are a kid, you probably want to do well and make a difference.
What does this mean? If you are not confident about your ability to play a sport, how are you going to prepare to play?
This lack of confidence is going to be difficult to overcome. How will you try to encourage yourself to play? If you want to play, you need to play.
The confidence you develop as a kid will allow you to play effectively and effectively play you will eventually enjoy playing the game.
Belief in yourself
Confidence in a leader is expressed in actions, in what you say and how you say it, in the relationships you have, in the decisions you make, and, most importantly, in the ability to communicate your beliefs.
Every leader has some degree of belief in themselves. However, confidence in leaders is often expressed in actions that are beyond the realm of a reasonable expectation of a leader.
Leaders should have confidence in their ability to make decisions, but it’s rarely expressed in how you make those decisions.
Confidence is often expressed through action and often is seen as bravado.
However, many times, bravado is mistaken for confidence. Having confidence does not mean having a higher level of bravado.
Leading through action is the ultimate expression of confidence.
It’s almost all about the past. You can’t really know what you’re going to do in the future.
All you can do is maximize your experiences, lessons learned and resources available to you today.
There is a tipping point.
Confidence in the present means preparation and action.
When we set high expectations, confidence often follows, but there is a tipping point where it can be misinterpreted and turned into arrogance.
When we act confidently and talk confidentially, confidence seems to follow, but it’s in our actions and our words that we let others know that we have confidence in ourselves.
In sports, this can be brought out by what we say, our relationship with our team, and how we present ourselves in the present moment.
Leading through belief
Belief without action is a waste. When leaders believe that their position or team is ready to perform at a certain level, they need to start taking action to make sure they actually believe it.
Leading through action means focusing on the right action.
We must define the high-level goals of the program, but we must define the details required in each day to execute the team’s game plan.
Our actions must then convey a belief that we are prepared to do it. If we don’t believe that we are ready to execute our game plan, our actions must do it for us.
No one can believe in you as you believe in yourself. It’s a long journey.
Belief without action doesn’t mean you are destined to fail. It means you have not shown the ability to be able to make the right decisions and take the necessary actions.
You need to show the ability to lead through action first. You can’t start believing in yourself until you actually start taking action.
Many athletes need to learn how to take control of the process, as well as the results. One aspect of belief is in preparing yourself to accomplish your goals.
You don’t take over the process. You take control of your preparation. That’s taking action.
As a leader, you can put your confidence in the coaches, and they can build your belief, but it takes more than simply belief to lead through action.
Always be in the present
For leaders who do not act based on their beliefs, there can be no confidence.
A leader without confidence is a leader with absolutely nothing to believe in.
When we talk about belief and confidence, it’s not just a game of semantics.
It’s a matter of behavior, but it also requires action and change in the present moment.
Confidence has to be rooted in action, and when it comes to leadership, many athletes have the belief, but they do not have the action to back it up.
This is the third year that I have been talking to athletes from across the world about leadership, and what I hear over and over is the lack of belief in their own abilities.
Confidence has to be rooted in action, and when it comes to leadership, many athletes have the belief, but they do not have the action to back it up.
How many great athletes do you know?
How many great athletes have you seen fail because of their beliefs?
And yet it happens all the time. People believe in their own abilities, but they lack the action to back them up.
Don’t let yourself believe you can’t get it done. When you show you can get it done, you will get it done.
