How Self Confidence Impacts Your Leadership

Coaching clients in senior roles is often necessary because they lack self confidence. As a result, they are not seen as leaders. Instead, they all seem to have one quality in common. They all have a fear of making the necessary decision required of their position. Self perception affects everyone in both their personal and professional lives. However, for individuals in positions of authority, it’s important to understand how self confidence impacts your leadership.

Why Self Confidence is Vital in Leadership

People tend to gravitate toward those that possess self confidence. If the supervisor is confident in his/her decisions, the subordinates are more likely to concur. Without this attribute, the internal structure of any business will degrade, as employees start to second-guess the management. It can lead to strife in the workplace and the loss of valuable human assets.

An individual with self confidence does not know all the answers or "lords it over" employees. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Self-confident leaders build up others and find satisfaction in their workers’ personal and professional growth. Their strength is in helping others become successful. A person with self confidence is:

* Able to admit mistakes and learn from them.
* Able to take risks to achieve more.
* Able to do what is right, despite the lack of popular opinion.
* Able to accept compliments graciously.
* Unwilling to seek out personal accolades.

Self confident leaders are a pleasure to work for, because they are more interested in developing a cohesive and well-ordered work environment. The employees work well together, stress is minimized, and employees are encouraged to excel and use their strengths to improve productivity and achieve their career goals.

How to Build Self Confidence

Although there is no magic pill for building self confidence and it doesn’t happen overnight, you can achieve this personal and professional goal, if you make the effort. It will not be easy. You will basically have to change the way you think and develop a new personal perspective.

Begin by acknowledging your achievements. Instead of dwelling on your mistakes, think about all that you have accomplished over the years both personally and professionally. There is nothing wrong with giving yourself a mental pat on the back. Recognize the effort and hard work it took to get you where you are today.

Next, consider your strengths. Where do you excel both personally and professionally? Everyone has areas in which they need to improve. But, you don’t dwell on your weaknesses. You concentrate on when you are at your best.

Think about your goals. What do you want to achieve? Where do you want to go in your personal life or in the workplace? Consider what you need to do, in order to get there.

Now, it’s time for the really hard part. In order to build self confidence, you must learn to manage your mind. Do not dwell on the negative self-talk. It’s time to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. Catch yourself, when you start to dwell on your weaknesses. Stop. Then, go back and think about your accomplishments, your strengths, and how you are going to achieve your personal and professional goals. With practice, you will build the self confidence necessary to excel in leadership within the workplace.

Copyright, Cecile Peterkin. All rights reserved.