Confidence is valuable in our everyday life. In our personal life, of course, but it's also very important at work, especially with the times that we are living through right now. Change is not going anywhere, things are going fast, decisions are made in fractions of seconds, and they are worth thousands of dollars. The decisions that leaders, team members, managers and directors make in corporations should be based on their experience, on their knowledge, and not on their limiting beliefs and their negative self-talk. If not, their decision is being blurred by a lack of judgment or a powerful emotion, because they're upset about something else that's happening in their life. Keep reading or watch the following video for more...

A lot of different areas can influence our work, and if someone has a lack of self-confidence, even in another area of their life, it does affect the company's bottom line. If someone's not in a good mood, it affects the company's bottom line. If an employee is going through a divorce, it affects the company's bottom line. If they have a hard time dealing with their teenage daughter, it affects the company's bottom line. Confidence at work is very important, and every time I work with corporations, I don’t only give a conference to the team, I also do one-on-one work, especially with leaders, with managers, with VPs, with directors, and sometimes with team members, and I help them have access to their best self so that they can make decisions based on their experience and their wisdom and not based on all the other less desirable things that are in the way.

I use an audit every time I start working with a corporation, and the first section of the audit is all about confidence. In this first part of the Confidence at Work series, we're going to cover the first four questions on my audit.

It starts with: "My team members sometimes need more confidence in their role with their projects or with the systems that they are using, versus doubting, giving up, sending the ball to somebody else." Or: "Sometimes, my team members are sometimes too confident, they're arrogant." Right? Because that's a problem too. Today, let's talk about the first part: increasing confidence. Sometimes, even though they are generally confident, people have trouble with a new specific role, with a new computer system, with a new boss, with that person that they're interacting with, or with a big client. So when I say "increasing confidence", I'm not necessarily talking about their general confidence. It's for something more specific. 85% of people suffer from a lack of self-confidence in at least one area of their life.

I've got four tools for you.

To increase your confidence, you want to use visualization techniques and imagine yourself having successfully completed the task that you are insecure about. Visualize yourself as a positive outcome, talking to that person or selling this product to this client, signing this contract, getting the raise that you've been applying for. Once you have decided what it looks like to succeed, then you can move on to number two.

Sometimes, between the visualized endgame of what you want to achieve and the present, there's a little bit of a disconnect, right? You need to connect the dots. In order to do that, you need to elaborate or envision what the challenges are going to be. What's going to feel uncomfortable? Tackle them one by one. Break them down into small sets of specific goals, and do one thing at a time. By breaking down a big task, it's going to make it more achievable and will improve your sense of confidence.

For each of these challenges you tackles, you will learn something. Every time you get better, celebrate your achievements. You will learn from your failures and you will celebrate your successes. If it worked, give yourself a pat in the back and some take time to do so. And if it didn't work, look into it and ask yourself: "What did I learn from this? Why didn't it work?" Recognize your success. That reinforces your positive self-image. So then it builds your confidence. Learning from your failures will give you confidence for the next time. Analyze what went wrong, extract the lessons, and then apply them in the future.

A supportive network is the key to being confident at work. Make sure you surround yourself. That's the role that I play in many organizations. I'm the coach that people can go to in order to fast track their way to confidence. Request feedback from people around you. Ask your supervisor, ask the friends around you. Ask your mentors. Ask for constructive feedback: What are the areas that you could improve and what are the areas that you're really good at? That's going to validate your strengths and give you confidence.

Having people who believe in you around you, that provide you encouragement and that will give you some sort of significance as well enhances your confidence.

Next week, we'll be going over how we can decrease negative self-talk, self-doubt, and imposter syndrome. Part number three is going to be about improving initiative versus waiting for somebody else to do the job or sending the ball to somebody else. Finally, part four is going to be about decreasing arrogance: What to do when people are too confident and they want to get promoted without even doing the work.

 See you there!

DO YOU DOUBT YOURSELF SOMETIMES?

Tired of hearing this nagging voice inside your head?

Download your copy of the Confidence Guide to discover 15 keys to find confidence and unlock your full potential... At work or at home!

The Guide includes:

• The List of the 15 Keys to Confidence.
• Questions  for You to Assess Your Current Situation.
• Questions for You to Take Action.

Check out some of my previous blog posts...