Adebola Alabi
Listen to the Podcast episode instead.
Like it or not, when it comes to your career, you will find yourself in situations where it may seem that you are in over your head. You know you have to rise to the occasion, you have to save the day, but you need the confidence to do it.
This confidence building idea is not about fake it till you make it approach, but rather about learn it till you master it.
People are naturally attracted to confident people. There is always an aura of calmness that confident people tend to radiate whenever they work in a team. (This is good for your career if you ask me: You don’t want to be the “I don’t have an idea guy”).
A confident man does not necessarily know everything there is to know about all tasks, but he is sure in his ability to figure it out or to find someone that can help him to bring resolution to his issues. To him, everything is figureoutable.
To be successful in your career, you need to have such confidence in your ability to figure out and solve problems. You must also have the necessary competence and leadership skills to think ahead and foresee issues even before they occur. You need to be proactive.
I have observed that in many teams, there are always confident people alongside others that watch and listen to the confident ones lead and make decisions on project activities. The onlookers, if care is not taken, may feel less competent and stupid because of their inability to contribute productively to their teams.
I hope that this post will help you to develop the self-confidence that will make you become an authoritative person in your team so that you can make maximum impact and grow in your career. Whether you are just starting in your career or you just join a new team, and you have to learn some new things, it is beneficial to always have and show some confidence in the workplace.
If you are unable to show that confidence, you are going to feel incompetent because you will always find someone around who seems to know more than you do, making you feel less capable at work. In this post, I will share some simple hacks that you can use to help you gain more knowledge in your field and consequently help boost your confidence in the workplace.
I believe if you start practicing these hacks, you can learn and master them.
Here are five ways to boost your confidence:
1. Be Calm
For sure, the last thing that will come to anyone’s mind when confronted with situations that seem to test our knowledge or competence is to stay calm. The default mode for most people is to start panicking, which makes them look less than capable. If you want to boost your confidence, you have to get out of the panic mode to gain back control of your situation.
There are multiple questions that you can use to figure out a way to resolve your issue. You should reassess the case, what is it that you are missing? What don’t you currently know?. What do you need to do to gain knowledge and competence in those areas? If you need help, don’t be afraid to reach out to people around you that can offer guidance on how to move forward. Asking for help when you are in doubt is not a sign of incompetence, but it is a show of strength that indicates you are confident enough to look for help when you get stuck.
2. Take on more challenges
You will find this beneficial if you want to learn these tips have helped in my personal and professional life. I have used it to step into new terrain regularly. I have used it to deal with uncertainties on so many occasions. I have used it when acting as a subject matter expert and person of authority on a wide range of projects in my job. Confidence is infectious, I have used the tips that I shared today also to instill confidence in others (as a life coach), to tell them that they have what it takes to excel in life.
Whether being confident in your natural abilities comes naturally to you, or whether you need people around you to validate your capability, I want you to know that with good practice you can appear more capable and more confident to people around you. So at work, don’t hold back, ask for more challenging tasks that will stretch you beyond your comfort zone. Challenges will make you learn more, get better, and boost your self-confidence.
3. Become an expert at something.
You have some talents. Check out this episode about Finding your zone of genius. You need to be more self-aware for you to develop and unleash those talents. When you think about your place of work, you will know that there are various talents (or resources) that are pulled together to make the business run. It is not possible for just one person to be an expert in all the different areas of expertise needed to make the business successful. So thinking about all the various aspects of your job, you should find a space and focused on it such that you will be better than anyone else in your organization at that thing. It may involve you improving an existing process or developing a new way that will make your team more efficient. You can also find something that your team isn’t great at and learn everything you can about it, then pass on the knowledge to the other members of your team. You may also leverage your past knowledge and experience and see how you can use it in your new role. For example, if you work in an engineering organization, and you know that your team is struggling with a certain regulatory standard. Go and learn that standard; this will make you become an authority whenever any questions come up around the code. Suddenly, everyone will look up to you as the go-to guy to provide a solution around that particular subject. If you do this more often, you will be able to broaden your scope and knowledge and be more impactful in your team, and subsequently boosting your confidence level.
4. Go above and beyond.
Competence and confidence go hand in hand. You must be prepared to improve your competence so that your confidence can go higher. If there is any area you are personally struggling with, never give up, and tell yourself that you can’t change. You must embrace the challenge and rise to the occasion. Talk to people with more experience, take training classes, hit the library, practice as much as you can, be thirsty for knowledge, and you will be able to establish yourself as an authority in the organization. Initially, this may involve spending extra hours so that you can perfect your skills. Do not hesitate; you must be willing to pay the price before you can earn the prize.
5. Ask for feedback.
Self-awareness is critical for a successful career life. Are you self-aware? Do you know what your colleagues think about you? How do they see you? Do they have confidence in you? If you are not sure about all these questions, then it is essential to get feedback from them. It can sometimes be hard to know if you are performing well until you talk to people you work with. You can get a peer to peer review, or talk to your boss to get a feel for how you are doing. You will need to know what you are doing well and what you need to improve upon. Make sure you get specifics about your performance, and that is the only way you can get better. Do not accept vague or incoherent feedback, and you must be open and strive to improve when you become aware of areas of your performance that needs improvements.
Practice these tips, and gradually, you will be able to develop your competence and subsequently, your confidence, thereby making you an authoritative person in the workplace.
