What Leaders Should Do to Gain Confidence
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One of the most defining traits that leaders must possess is confidence. Everything a leader does, whether it's leading teams, interacting with stakeholders, improving skills, or giving speeches, must be done confidently. If not, it will be more challenging to get employees on board with your ideas, build trust, and even create a healthy work culture.
What should leaders do to gain confidence?
These are five ways to start:
1. Act like you belong
Some call this faking it till you make it, while others refer to it as coping with impostor syndrome. The concept is that you must own and believe that you should be in the role that you are in, and this begins with acting 'as if.'
What exactly does this mean?
If you want to improve your confidence, think of someone you consider to be confident, who oozes charisma and someone you want to be as confident as. The next time you want to come off as being confident, think about that person and act as if you were them.
When you are in a role that you don't think you deserve, you have to act as if you deserve to be there. Once you start embracing it, even if you don't believe it, your actions and body language will help transform how you feel emotionally.
2. Keep on learning
The more we learn, the wiser, more knowledgeable, and resourceful we become, and the better we feel about ourselves. When we come up with new ideas and contribute to the team, we're not just helping ourselves to grow but also others.
There are various ways to accomplish this; the most basic is reading a book or listening to an industry-related podcast. You can also enrol in a course or attend a workshop geared toward skill improvement.
3. Be mindful of your self-talk
We are usually kinder to our coworkers than we are to ourselves. Some of us tend to be too hard on ourselves whenever we make a mistake or are unable to achieve the desired goal. That's when our mind is clouded by negative thoughts, a.k.a negative self-talk.
We cannot rely on others to pat us on the back, celebrate the small victories and cut ourselves some slack for minor mistakes. One of the simplest and most surefire ways to boost self-confidence is by being kind to ourselves. We must speak to ourselves with respect and celebrate when things go well, and go easy when we make mistakes.
4. Grow your emotional intelligence
Today, soft skills and emotional intelligence are just as essential as hard skills. When we improve our emotional intelligence, we are not only connecting with our emotions, but also taking control of them.
What does it mean to have a strong emotional intelligence?
It means that we are able to identify what we are feeling and able to regulate our emotions using positive coping strategies.
It also means that we can empathise with others. A strong emotional intelligence will also help us build confidence and allows us to exude confidence.
5. Have a sense of humour
It is vital to have a sense of humour because it puts everything into perspective. If you can laugh about challenging situations, it will ease tension and help to find solutions in collaborative and creative ways.
A sense of humour can also make you feel more confident when dealing with people. When we can diffuse situations and not take everything too seriously, we'll be able to develop positive relationships, which also affect our confidence levels.
As a leader, what do you do to make yourself feel more confident?
Source: Management 3.0