How can you help someone overcome self-doubt and build confidence in their career?

The first stage is identifying that self-doubt exists. My clients often know that they're finding it difficult to achieve something, but they don't know why. I often experience situations where clients are unable to set goals because of self-doubt - or unable to set bigger goals - the starting point is identifying that self-doubt exists. Then we can begin to challenge it.

Self-doubt is rooted in negative beliefs that person has about themselves based on their perceptions of past experiences. Almost all of the time self-doubt exists because we accepted negative suggestions in our early years that have gone on to color the way we look at ourselves and the world around us. Asking simple questions is a way to challenge self-doubt. Often just asking "Is the way I feel the truth about me?" will uncover that the answer is no. This opens the way to begin working on creating new self-empowering beliefs.

Self-doubt is a challenge to all of us at sometime. I help clients to remember times they were successful at what they were doing to come from a place of strength rather than negativity. My role as a coach is to see my clients' strengths and point them out to them so they can see and feel them too. We can be our own worse critics. An outsider's perspective helps us to gain perspective on ourself and our interpretation of a situation. I wrote a book to support clients in their self talk and perceptions. It's The Affirming Way of Life: See the Good, Speak the Good, Spread the Good.

It is really crucial to understand the reason behind Self-doubt and negative thoughts behind it, in some cases, it might be from Past experiences. Also working on replacing negative thoughts with positive ones and proving it from previous achievements and current qualifications or capabilities helps a lot in changing the mindset.

Set Small- Small Targets to achieve first and after every win don't forget to celebrate, It will help them to increase their confidence level and do better.

Looking at past success, achievements, and results, is a great way to build confidence and overcome self-doubt. Most people are in their heads about what they didn't do rather than celebrating and reinforcing what they did. Shifting focus is a powerful way to build a new and positive self-image. When you start to look for all the good things you've achieved you will realize that you have a lot more ability than you've been giving yourself credit for.

There's a lot of focus in the world of improving ourselves. The Wheel of Life for example can highlight areas for improvement. The challenge with trying to improve, say from a 5 to an 8 in areas of your life that aren't as strong is that we stay mediocre. This doesn't build confidence in the way that focusing our energy on the areas we are already very strong at can. I urge my clients to focus on what they're already good at. A good resource on this topic is StrengthsFinder 2.0.

The reason why focusing on your achievements and successes builds your confidence is because it strengthens your self-trust. Your self-trust is a muscle that needs strengthened, and the weights are your achievements. The more you build the trust in yourself and trust in your abilities, the stronger your self-confidence is. When you're faced with a new challenge, take a minute and think about what you've already achieved. Break the challenge down into components. If you need to teach a workshop, break it down into the smallest steps. Whatever the steps are, ask yourself with each if you have done it before or can do it. The answer is usually yes. It's a simple way of telling your brain that you CAN do this because you've done it before.

Self esteem issues can be so debilitating. Often a good exercise I ask clients to do is to write down every little positive step in a journal. Then , every Sunday list them all and how they made them feel. This reminds clients of their progress and that they are actually doing better than they think . Boosting self esteem and confidence.

I highly recommend the Gallup Clifton Strengths assessment for developing a stronger understanding of your strengths. What is key in understanding strengths is how you currently use the strengths you have to compensate for the things you aren't as great at naturally. While many think they need to improve their weaknesses, utilising and building on your strengths has been shown to produce greater results in many cases. Particularly the higher up the career ladder you go. For example, discipline is not one of my strong points. But rather than trying to force more discipline in myself, I focus on doing activities I'm naturally more interested and strong in. This makes discipline less necessary as I'm more naturally motivated and engaged.

Seeking feedback also helps with two additional aspects: 1. Calibrate your actions and efforts towards gaining a meaningful skill from the perspective of the organisation you are at, else your efforts might gain you a skill but may not align with the requirements of the organisation 2. Seeking feedback actively also helps you have a faster feedback loop to identify any issues, that might have only been uncovered at the end of a task or project

One of the most important things to get feedback and encouragement on, is simply what makes you uniquely you. What do others see in you that makes you awesome in your own special way. In a way that no one else could replicate. When we have ourselves reflected back to us from others, it's a great way to boost confidence. And understanding your uniqueness is important, because it means you're no longer 'competing' because you're in a class of your own. This is related to your strengths, but hearing it from others is always very illuminating.

One of the reasons for self doubt is because we allow others to "create" that doubt. They will say we are not good enough etc. These negative people must be removed so that there is no more room for self doubt. Believe in yourself and erase all self doubt.

Another way to build and strengthen your self confidence is by realizing your innate worthiness. Everybody matters. You are important of value and bring to this world your way of being, your talents and gifts that you share. You are unique! These talents and gifts come from your heart and are precious and give meaning to everything that you do. It is the encouraging smile to a stranger in the bus. The old lady you help crossing the street full of traffic. It is opening the door for a colleague and saying hi! When you start to notice these small acts of kindness that you do every day, you will know that you are important and that there is no need to doubt your self. You being you is enough and that is your most valuable gift. ??

Get clear on the difference between seeking feedback and seeking validation. When seeking validation for your contribution, you are undermining your internal worth. First build your self-worth and then, with a growth mindset, you can encourage feedback from others.

A growth mindset is essential for any kind of success. This means taking on an active role of continuous learning, being open to new ideas, and being willing to let go of beliefs that are not serving you. A growth mindset will allow you to take action with confidence knowing that all activity provides feedback that acts to guide you towards your goals. With this mindset, you no longer take setbacks as personal, but embrace the opportunity for growth.

It’s all “self-hypnosis”. Whatever you say to yourself is a suggestion that just might be accepted. Retraining the brain to automatically look for positives…or pivot to positives when it lands on negatives…is pretty simple to do. BUT…it requires the doing of it over time for it to become automatic.

It's easy to say "adopt a growth mindset", the challenge is that society and the schooling system trains us to have a fixed mindset. We are either "good" at something or we're not. This is a challenge for any professional who supports others with their personal development and growth. We start by educating clients into how their fixed mindsets have evolved, and identifying that they exist. From there we can work on building a growth mindset.

It's easy to say you need to adopt a growth mindset, but if you don't trust yourself, that can be challenge. Your self-confidence stems from your trust in yourself, and that trust is built upon your successes and ability to learn from your failures. To build your self-trust, take a moment before any challenge, and remind yourself of your successes, lessons learned or the hard things you've already done. This will reinforce your self-trust and confidence in your success, not your failure. It's simple technique to overcome that negative voice in your head. At that point, you start breaking down the problem into small steps that you can confidently achieve. A growth mindset will emerge from flexing your self-trust, self-confidence muscles.

Accountability is a powerful tool that can help individuals adopt a growth mindset and learn to take action. When individuals commit to being accountable for their goals and activities, they are more likely to stay focused and persevere in facing challenges. An accountability partner or a structured system ensures that progress is tracked, setbacks are addressed, and milestones are celebrated. Accountability helps individuals maintain a commitment to personal growth and reinforces that effort and learning are valued more than immediate success. By being accountable to themselves and others, individuals create a supportive environment where adopting a growth mindset becomes a natural part of their personal and professional development.

Self-doubt often stems from misinterpretations of past experiences. To combat this, it's essential to seek guidance from a mentor or coach who can provide a more accurate perspective. I once had a client who faced a significant setback when she failed a math exam in the 9th grade, leading her to believe she was inherently bad at math. This negative belief had a far-reaching impact on her career. Upon closer examination, we discovered that her self-doubt was linked to the humiliation she experienced from her teacher in front of her peers. This incident had deterred her from putting in effort in that subject. Have you ever encountered a similar situation where self-doubt began to cloud your judgment in a specific area?

I used to hate public speaking, and I hated it because I wasn't good at it. I was told: "You'll gain confidence the more you do it." Lies! It wasn't until I finally went to therapy that I was shown a moment from my past, a false memory that I'd held onto so tight it manufactured a personal truth: "I hate public speaking, and it's because I'm not good at it." This was never the case, and I recalled so many other memories that spoke to the contrary. It woke me up. So first, be mindful of the damaging truths you've unknowingly nurtured. You need to uncover the root cause at the core of your doubt before all else. Second, learn to reframe your deficiencies as opportunities for growth, set reasonable goals, and eliminate expectations.

Self doubt and a lack of confidence in my experience are often linked to a lack of clarity. The more clear you become on who you REALLY are and what you're uniquely here to contribute to the world, the more self doubt shrinks. But you have to carve out your own space. The more you try to compete with others and not just run your won race, the easier it is for self doubt to creep in.

Trauma, anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses can cause paralyzing self-doubt. If you cannot find relief from typical methods of challenging self-doubt, please seek help from a therapist, coach, advisor, etc. You deserve to have help navigating your way out of this debilitating and painful condition.

Self-doubt at work often stems from comparing yourself to others, their path, or what they have achieved. It usually comes with thoughts that we aren't as good as others, or we don't measure up to them. When these underlying beliefs exist, making lists of strengths and achievements doesn't work. Because, in the end, we don't believe what we possess measures up. It's important to examine the "I'm not good enough" thoughts, and create strategies to move forward in order to grow your confidence from the inside.