Gaining confidence in yourself in 3 easy steps

All successful managers have ‘presence’: the ability to step into their workplace and inspire confidence in their authority, to shame a gossip-corner with a glance, to make a suggestion and watch it flourish under their team’s care.

‘Presence’ – that slippery, ill-defined quality – comes only with self-confidence. This doesn’t mean over-confidence, boastfulness or arrogance. It means assurance in one’s own capabilities and judgement, recognition and trust in the abilities of others, and the courage to voice unpopular opinions, to make unpopular decisions and to admit failure without admitting discouragement.

It is a common misconception that self-confidence is innate. While it is true that some people are naturally self-assured or have had the luck or the upbringing to trust in their own abilities, self-confidence is a craft, and must be learned like any other.

There are three easy steps to teaching yourself self- confidence.

1) Know yourself

Before you hire a plumber, you want to know that he’s capable of fixing your taps, right? Before delegating a report you need to know that the staff member knows how to spell.

Understanding people’s strengths and weaknesses is key to confidently trusting them with tasks.

Understanding your own strengths and weaknesses is key to having confidence in yourself.

Pinpoint your five central strengths, and then your five main weaknesses. Write down ways that you can overcome your weaknesses and turn them into strengths.

Do you gossip too much in the office? Set yourself periods of ‘quiet time’, when you only talk if strictly necessary. Offer to mentor new members of staff, so that you can incorporate your love of verbal communication into your professional duties.

2) Do your research

It’s much easier to be confident when you know what you’re talking about. If you’ve got a presentation to deliver or you want to make an important point in a meeting, make sure that you thoroughly prepare what you’re going to say.

Dig out the facts that you need, do your sums, ask the advice of experts ... bluffing your way might work when you have already developed your self-confidence, but if speaking in front of a crowd makes you nervy, you can do nothing better than be prepared.

3) Reflect

We rush through life too eager to reach the end. Too few of us actually stop to admire the roses, or even to look at where we’re going or how far we’ve come.

Set aside 10 minutes for yourself at the end of each working day – at the traffic lights, waiting for the bus, over a coffee in a quiet corner – and review the things that you’ve achieved since the day started, the things that you wanted to achieve, what went right and what went wrong.

When you start to realise just how much you do, you will develop a greater awareness of how you spend your time, you will become more effective as a manager, and your confidence in yourself will take firm foundation.