confidence
/ˈkɒnfɪd(ə)ns/
noun
the feeling or belief that one can have faith in or rely on someone or something. "We had every confidence in the staff"
More and more every day we hear about businesses discussing confidence and how it brought some incredible change into their lives, if you search “confidence building in business” you will find an unlimited amount of articles giving “tips and tricks” for you to gain your own confidence. But what these all tend to lack is the true meaning of confidence in depth, which should be the first step to learning how to gain it. So what is confidence and why is it important for businesses? Firstly it’s important to understand that confident people still have bad days, get nervous, or feel uncertain. But confidence isn’t about suddenly having the answer to everything and never feeling negative about something ever again. If you google the definition of confidence you will find the following ; “Confidence is a state of being clear-headed either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. Confidence comes from the Latin word 'fidere' which means "to trust"; therefore, having self-confidence is having trust in one's self” This is why confidence shouldn’t be compared to having an ego or becoming arrogant, selfish, or any other negative words you’ve heard paired with confidence because it is so much more than simply thinking you are better than everyone. Confidence not only helps out the individual but it will for sure have some knock-on effect on the people around that person. Interestingly, stats show us that confidence levels peak for the majority around age 60 but then plummet to some of the lowest levels of self-esteem already by 90. Upon learning this I was shocked, why on earth was confidence developing so late and for such a short while too? Self-esteem is a useful tool in all aspects of life and should definitely be taken advantage of at a much earlier age than 60 especially when it is something that can be learnt. Confidence is a belief, beliefs can develop over time so they are almost constantly changing, but this does mean you can take control and change your own beliefs. Personally, I worked with the company Communities For Work who were able to spend a few hours with me discussing confidence and its importance throughout all fields of life. I learnt that self-esteem can come in all types of different ways, but almost all of them provide use within the workplace of most if not all jobs. An example of this is when looking at what self confidence looks like you’ll find things such as, doing what you believe is right despite others opinions or views, being willing to take risks and go the extra mile for better achievement, admitting to mistakes but more importantly learning from them, easier to forgive your own mistakes and in turn others’ mistakes too. Any employer would realise these are key qualities you would likely want in your workers in order for them to fully achieve their potential and even exceed further than what was originally expected. Realising that anyone could make the necessary changes in order to begin their journey of confidence and success is the kickstart any employee would need. This is because of the pygmalion effect, which is the psychological phenomenon that when someone has high expectations of another and truly believes they can reach it, the person will perform outstandingly well. This happens due to our own beliefs affecting how we behave and so has an effect on how we treat others. Rosenthal and Jacobsen’s research on the pygmalion effect can be found here if you’re interested in further learning about this case study. It is a great example of how we should show positivity and trust to others in order to help them succeed and perform their best. Confidence in the workplace can and will provide all kinds of benefits, one of the main points being that confidence helps you deal better with conflict which is something everyone will have to deal with no matter the area of work they are in. Being able to be more comfortable dealing with these situations will lower stress levels which is an issue that plagues the working industry greatly with 75% of workers believing they currently have more on job stress a generation ago, and 40% claiming their job is extremely stressful. Workplace stress has risen by 20% in the past three decades which has a huge impact on mental health, increasing chances of depression, anxiety, burnout and can even lead to unhealthy behaviors. Gaining even a little confidence will also help with better communication, which can assist meetings, customer service, or basic co-worker communication. Being able to clearly and effectively convey subjects to customers or co-workers is a great benefit to have amongst all employees and is crucial for career advancement. Better communication can also help you seem more assertive which tends to lead people to take you more seriously, which makes this a very much needed skill to be able to deal with business meetings and customer service. Overall confidence is the key to many positive aspects in and outside of the workplace. Begin by understanding what confidence means to you and make small changes to your day-to-day such as dressing bolder in clothes you like, keeping good and open posture, and appreciating all the little things in life. fear is a reaction, courage is a decision and confidence is an outcome.
The Modern Mind Group are emotioneering human performance not engineering it.
As people operations and performance consultants, we work with your business to identify and improve performance gaps so that you can be more profitable and professionally develop your people. Over 12 years of expertise in people operations and performance with results to back it all up. Why settle for the average when there is a world of possibility when you know how to achieve it? Untapped potential - Let's go get it!