Self-confidence can be described as the ability to be certain about one's competencies and
skills. It includes a sense of self-esteem and self-assurance and the belief that one can make
a difference.
Self-confidence is essential for leaders to take risks and accomplish their goals; in other
words: without confidence, there is no leadership.
Your talents don’t need to be in charge with a team to benefit from leadership skills and self-
confidence. With developed soft skills; your talents will be able to better cater to your
clients’ needs and expectations.
Ken Blanchard said: “Just having satisfied customers isn’t good enough anymore. If you
really want a booming business, you have to create raving fans.”
Self-confidence and leadership skills benefits
Confident leaders tend to be:
● Good problem solvers
● Solution-oriented
● Happy
● Friendly
● Reliable
● Great mentors
● Effective communicators
● Able to accept constructive feedback and criticism
● Ready to delegate
● ...
For all these reasons, we can say that self-confidence is the vital ingredient of great
leadership.
Gary W Goldstein said: “All you can change is yourself, but sometimes that changes
everything!”.
7 Keys to develop your self-confidence and boost your
leadership :
As for many personal development areas; developing your level of self-confidence is an
achievable challenge; however, there is no quick fix or immediate solution. You will need to
be focused and driven. Allow time, steps, and stick to your plan and objectives.
By implementing easy changes in your life and in your state of mind, you can develop your
self-confidence more easily than you think.
1. Believe in yourself
Believe in yourself and know how amazing you are. If you want other people to trust you,
follow you, hire you, or like you, start by loving yourself. Self-esteem and self-love are
essential ingredients to grow your confidence and boost your leadership. It is a waste of
energy to doubt your abilities when you could use this energy to try and adjust anything
that you like to experimente.
2. Turn off your negative inner voice and self-talk
If you want to develop your self-confidence and leadership, you will need to turn off
your negative inner voice. Don’t let negative thoughts about yourself hold you from
trying new experiences or getting a chance to be successful and proud. Simply turn your
attention to something more positive and develop your power of positive thinking.
3. Be yourself, be your best self and be proud of it
Your actions and behaviours will highly impact your vision of yourself and your level of
self confidence. You will want to focus on positive and kind behaviour towards others
and yourself in order to feel proud and more confident.
4. Focus on solutions rather than issues and problems
If you are too busy noticing everything that is going wrong, you are more likely to miss
what is going well. You want to take of your attention from the worst-case scenarios,
stop thinking about what could go wrong and start thinking of what will go well. Nothing
is easy and you might face obstacles; however, the only problem is your reaction to
problems. Think solutions and options when life is challenging you.
5. Focus on your accomplishments, victories and successes
Stop, pause, and take the time to enjoy your accomplishments and successes. Nobody
will knock at your door to tell you how awesome you are and how great you did today in
such or such situation. As your brain will be more likely to remember the negative
experiences twice more than the positive ones (only to keep you safe; we will address
that in a future article), you will need to make a conscious effort to engrave positive
experiences.
6. Accept and remember compliments
Compliments are precious and should be welcomed as big hugs! Listen to compliments
and believe in them. People are too busy to compliment you if they don’t believe in what
they just told you. No matter what the compliment is about, welcome it and remember it
- write it down if you have to! They will help you get your energy back when doubting
and questioning your abilities.
7. Do not compare yourself to others, you are unique
Avoid the trap of comparing yourself to others, everyone is unique. What you know they
don’t, what they did you haven’t, you are unique and so are they. You have a unique DNA,
unique weapons and your past experiences are also unique to you. All those elements are
making comparisons impossible and irrelevant.
Take the time to meditate and think about your actions and abilities. Write down your
thoughts, put lists together to highlight your qualities, competencies, great actions, the
compliments you receive and anything that can help you grow your self-confidence.
Once you feel that you are already more confident, be sure to never let anyone take this
away from you again - including yourself!
Maud Vanhoutte
Contact us:
+61 (0)2 9569 6906
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