Building Confidence and Self-Belief to Thrive in Your Career

Confidence affects all areas of our lives, such as work, relationships, and health. When we're experiencing confidence, we know that we have the potential to set and achieve goals and that we can adapt to setbacks, learn from mistakes, and move forward when things don't turn out as planned.

It's important to understand that self-esteem and self-confidence are different - we can have high self-confidence in a specific area or field (such as completing a specific work-related task because we've done the same thing a thousand times), while still lacking a favourable attitude towards ourselves (which relates to self-esteem). However, working on our confidence across different areas can help to slowly build self-esteem over the long-term.?

It's often assumed that some people are naturally more confident than others, which may be the case, but we all have the ability to learn how to be more confident over time. As I explain in my latest coaching video on Instagram, there are simple and effective ways you can boost your self-confidence.

Why building confidence is a priority at work

When it comes to career growth and overall job satisfaction, confidence can have a considerable impact. People with low self-confidence are more likely to doubt their decisions, avoid risks, and take criticism to heart. Lacking self-belief in the workplace can affect your behaviour and the projects you go after, potentially stunting success and slowing your career trajectory.

Conversely, confident people often display characteristics that are crucial for career success.?

• Better communication - Confident people have an easier time asking questions, sharing ideas, and addressing issues with their teams, managers, or clients.
• Higher productivity - If you're experiencing confidence, you're less likely to second-guess your decision-making skills, encouraging you to take on challenging tasks and move forward in your career.
• Solutions-oriented - If you have self-confidence, you're more likely to believe in your ability to find solutions and figure things out when the going gets tough, which also helps to build trust amongst team members.
• Open to feedback - For confident people, it's easier (although not necessarily easy) to process and respond to criticism without taking it personally - learning from mistakes, as opposed to internalising the difficult feedback as a comment on self-worth.?
• More creative and innovative - If you're confident, you're more likely to be interested in new ideas, open to other people's perspectives and ideas, and comfortable taking risks to create something new.
• Greater resilience - Confidence is a predictor of resilience. Those that are confident play to their strengths and take control to overcome obstacles where they can, whilst accepting when they're in a situation they cannot control, which can result in feeling more equipped to deal with stressful situations. To help build your resilience, check out my free (and evidence-based) resilience coaching programme .

Simple strategies for improving confidence

Many factors affect our self-esteem, such as genetics, life experiences, personality, and social circumstances. The good news is that our level of confidence is not an innate, fixed characteristic but something we can work on improving over time. Below are a few simple and effective ways to promote your self-belief.?

→ Celebrate your achievements

Humans are very good at focusing on the losses instead of the wins, and the inner story you tell yourself can hugely affect your confidence and self-esteem. Therefore, it's crucial you remind yourself of your successes.

At the end of every week, get into a habit of jotting down five activities you did well that week - big or small. Take some time to reflect on your achievements, your choices, what you learned, and the challenges you overcame. Remind yourself that you created the successes you achieved (no matter how small the wins were).

→ Identify your strengths and use them

One of the most effective ways to build confidence is to get clear on the things you're really good at and integrate those things into your day-to-day life. Capitalising on your strengths helps you feel more energised and valued; you're more naturally self-assured when you're doing something you know you're good at.?

Start by taking inventory of the things you believe to be your strengths. Once you've written down your perspective, get feedback from people you trust - colleagues, friends, family members or your manager - on where they think you excel. Other people can sometimes see strengths in us that we don't recognise in ourselves, so you might gain interesting insight.?

Next, think of ways you can incorporate these things into your job. You may ask to get involved in new projects, or take on activities outside your current role. If you can't think of any opportunities to maximise your strengths at work, you might want to work towards a future position where you'd have the chance to regularly play to your strengths.

→ Learn a new skill

Prioritising learning new things will make you better at your job whilst also boosting confidence. There's always room for improvement, especially in today's fast-moving world, so attend seminars relevant to your industry, take courses to hone skills, and seek guidance and knowledge from mentors and peers. You can also extend this to learning new skills and enhancing knowledge outside your role.?

As you build your knowledge in different areas, you can also remind yourself that skills and expertise can be acquired and developed at any time. You don't need to be an expert in every area of life; all you need is the desire to learn more to find answers when you come up against new and novel challenges. You can learn as you go, and everyone has the potential to do that. Over time, this attitude can increase your confidence and reduce the pressure to know everything about every new situation you find yourself in (which isn't possible).

Confidence is not something we achieve once and then have forever, but you can learn ways to boost your confidence, no matter what situation you find yourself in. Being confident doesn't mean you will never feel unsure about something, have difficulty knowing what to do next, or experience moments of anxiety. It means that you won't let it discourage you or cause you to doubt your worth and abilities when you feel this way.?

We often assume confidence is knowing the best way to deal with all challenges and respond to every new situation we encounter, but this is impossible. If you want to boost your confidence and self-esteem over the long term, your aim should be to test new strategies, approaches and behaviours in new situations, learning what works (and doesn't work) as you go. This way, you will build confidence in your ability to find answers and solutions rather than feeling like you have to have all the answers waiting in your knowledge bank.

Thank you for reading this edition of the Mindset Matters newsletter, I hope you enjoyed the topic. Here are some ways to access further mindset tools, advice and tips:

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