Five hacks to build your confidence at work (part one)

I became really curious about confidence several years ago, at a time when my own confidence at work had been up and down.

One day a new guy arrived to join the team I was working in, and he was, what I can only describe as, insanely confident. He never questioned himself, he put himself forward for all opportunities regardless of his expertise, and he knocked on doors day and night.

Now I’ve met plenty of confident people, but he was next level.

And I couldn’t help compare my own confidence to his. I was genuinely fascinated and it got me wondering where does confidence come from?

Is confidence something you’re born with or is it something you develop along the way?

I’ve done a fair bit of research on this subject since (list below of interesting books) and I now run a workshop for organisations to help people build their confidence game, because the one thing I’ve learnt is that confidence is a skill. 

Our genes, gender and brains play a role in determining confidence, but most importantly, confidence is a skill you can learn, and get better at. 

Confidence is your belief in your ability to achieve something specific, and that belief can grow if you work at it.

Confidence is number one, in what I call, the 4Cs of action – four pivotal steps that enable you to progress a 21stCentury Career.

21st Century Careers are full of possibility, but they are also framed by uncertainty and unpredictability. Confidence is an essential skill for anyone navigating the twists and turns of the new world of work. 

We are all likely to have more jobs, multiple careers, and spend less time in all of them, bringing unique challenges. And more challenges mean you’re inevitably going to face a greater number of setbacks. 

You’re more likely to experience the ups and downs that come with career change or find that your next career move has been upended.

Confidence builds resilience

It increases your ability to recover from one of those setbacks.  When you’re feeling confident, and you get knocked down, you get up again more easily. You’re more capable of not letting a difficult situation or feeling of failure, throw you off course.

There are plenty of hacks you can use to build your confidence, but here are three evidence based ideas to get you started. 

Hack #1  Imagine the outcome and run it through your mind

Whether it’s taking the next step in your career or having a nerve wracking career conversation with the big boss, visualising what you want can help you achieve it.  

This is because neuroscience tells us our brains don’t know the difference between what’s real, and what’s imagined. 

After failing to win at the 1991 world championships, British athlete Sally Gunnell started practicing visualisation every day, imagining sprinting, hurdling, and hanging on in the home straight. 

“Every stride, every hurdle every centimeter of the track. I visualized rain, sun and wind. I visualized a noisy crowd and a quiet one. My aim was to arrive at the venue and be unfazed by whatever I found there.”

Through visualisation, Sally’s brain underwent changes that improved her performance, giving her mind and body the capacity to do what she had imagined and helping her win Gold at the Barcelona Olympics.

Her story is a great reminder that changing our mental habits can create physical changes in our brains.

So before you have that conversation, imagine yourself walking and in feeling calm and confident, Imagine speaking clearly and concisely even if you get interrupted. When you’re thinking about that next step at work, visualise yourself showing leadership and imagine yourself making the impact you know you’re capable of. 

Run it through your mind, and you’re much more likely to present in the way you want.

Hack #2 Focus on the reward of action rather than the risk

Your brain is primed to identify risk, in line with its number one job of keeping you alive. 

What’s more, your brain perceives social risks in the same way it does physical ones, which can get in the way of you doing things that ‘seem risky’, but aren’t really. 

Things like asking for advice from someone new in your network, or speaking up in an important meeting. 

When you’re in the moment, you can do a quick assessment of the risk vs reward associated with taking action. For example, if speaking up in a career conversation feels intimidating for you, ask yourself ‘if I speak up what’s the best thing that can happen and what’s the worst?’ The worst that can happen is usually not very bad, but the best thing is often really good!

Hack # 3, Track your progress and celebrate the wins 

When we make a small mistake, we almost always feel bad about it. But when we accomplish a small goal, we rarely feel good about it.

Research from Harvard Business School shows that tracking small achievements improves your motivation, because it helps you appreciate small wins which in turn boosts your sense of confidence.

I recommend opening a new document on your desktop, giving it a memorable name, and writing down every piece of positive feedback you get from people and every win at work – no matter how small. Just as a business collects testimonials, it’s important for us to collect positive things people say about us, and great things we do, and leave them in the bottom drawer so we can pull them out in a wobbly moment.

In a way, all these hacks are really about taking action. And action is what fuels confidence.

So ask yourself, what’s one thing you can do this week to build your confidence? 

p.s If you’re ready to take action and explore that next step in your career, then connect with me and let’s talk about career mentoring. Today I launch my final placements for this financial year and the round closes next Tuesday. You can find out more at katerichardson.co/career-mentoring

p.p.s If you’re interested in reading more about confidence, check out these books

Katty Kay and Claire Shipman The Confidence Code

Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic Confidence: how much you really need and how to get it 

Michelle Sales The Power of Real Confidence