Confidence is not a born trait, admittedly, it is shaped by childhood and early adolescent/adult experiences, but it is a belief in yourself which can be built up over time.  Therefore, confidence is a constantly moving and evolving feeling of surety, and equally, we can feel amazingly confident carrying out some tasks and horrendously fearful of others.  Think of the neurosurgeon, no-one can doubt her intelligence, skill or work ethic, yet ask her to present to an audience of her peers and you will see the colour drain from her face (not all of them of course – there are some neurosurgeons who are very confident at presenting, but you get the gist!).

Building up confidence

If you think you are not confident, (regardless of how other’s perceive you), the act of building up your confidence can seem daunting and scary, but the freedom you will feel when you have a deep rooted surety of yourself can be utterly exhilarating.  Having confidence and surety doesn’t mean you will never make a mistake again, but rather, you feeling of confidence will mean that you accept your mistakes and know that you did what you thought was correct at the time with the information you had to hand.

Benefits of Being Confident

Being confident is obviously something everyone wants for themselves personally, but it equally has professional benefits, some obvious, and others not so obvious. Being present, engaged and contributing to meetings is one of the best ways to promote your experience and knowledge.  It is also a perfect opportunity to showcase the passions you have about your role and contribution to your organisation.

By having surety in yourself you will trust your intuition, this will save both time and energy in carrying out your day to day duties.

Being and portraying a level of confidence also means that you will know and believe in the things you want to achieve for yourself and by providing incremental successes for yourself, you will find you create a supporting feedback loop which creates a more confident you, taking on bigger and more fulfilling challenges.

When’s the last time you reviewed where you feel confident and underconfident? It’s never too late to start to address areas of underconfidence and work towards how you address daunting scenarios.

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