Last week I was honoured and privileged to present at an annual women in leadership summit. The topic was to re-examine confidence in the workplace.
While we explored a range of situations where confidence can get a beating…
- dealing with ‘those’ people
- presenting to senior leaders
- public speaking
… to name a few!
I thought I’d share with you the 5 C’s of Confidence I shared with the attendees at the summit.
These 5 C’s come about through a blend of doing confidence coaching certification, self-reflection, self-assessment and working with so many managers and leaders over many years.
1. CLARITY
While this can be understood as knowing what you’re expected to be doing, have a clear goal, it’s also, especially for confidence, important to have clarity about why your confidence is being affected. Confidence is diminished or knocked down due to fear and that is based on only three fears: failure, regret and rejection.
When thinking about a situation that dents your confidence, ask yourself, is this because of a fear of failure, regret or rejection. Knowing this is critical for determining the right strategies to move forward.
2. COMPARISON
Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President, is quoted as saying, “Comparison is thief of joy”. I firmly believe that we need to shift our comparisonitis from comparing yourself to others to comparing yourself today to yourself yesterday. that is, are you better today than your were yesterday?
3. COMPASSION
Empathy and compassion are fundamentally positive viewpoints to start from: be kind to yourself, life is a journey of learning, of ups and downs. You will have failures, and that’s life. Others will also have failures, and that’s life. We never really know what’s going on for others so a little compassion will go a long way.
Give confidence: the more you give others confidence, show your confidence in others, the more confident you will feel. Giving confidence fills your own ‘confidence cup’.
4. COURAGE
“Feel the fear and do it anyway” … as a professional speaker who’s been speaking and facilitating for 20-ish years I still get nervous and I love it! When those nerves show up, I thank them because it is reminding me to serve, that the audience are important, I have an important message to share, so I harness the energy of nervousness to deliver my absolute best.
I often tell myself that if it feels scary it’s either illegal or worth doing 😉 Okay, not quite!
in all seriousness, when I launch new events, speeches, programs it’s scary, I ask myself if it will work (read: fear of failure) and that tells me to slow down, check my work, ask for help, test or pilot … and that way I know it’s all worth it!
5. CONSISTENT
Consistent small steps to build confidence will lead to massive transformation. That does not mean you become an obnoxious over-confident, arrogant, know-it-all, it means you have a healthy level of confidence AND have practiced and proven strategies to re-build your confidence when it gets a little shaken.
Practice a little confidence every day. Give a little confidence every day! Go on, I’m confident you can!
