Do you lack confidence at work? Try the 70% rule.

At a CommsHero event a few years ago, I heard that the brand innocent have a staff mantra that's all about empowering staff to crack on and do interesting things.

It's this:

"If you're 70% sure, go ahead and do it."

Because perfectionism is no friend to doing great things.

If I waited until everything was perfect, you'd never see a single cartoon! And I'd be afraid to show my face on the many webinars and lessons I run.

Perfectionism is toxic.

Perfectionism will hold you back, because it will stop you from acting, and make you over-critical of yourself.

Confidence does not equal arrogance.

Having confidence doesn't mean blundering into any old decision.

And confidence is not about thinking you need to know everything, or arrogantly presenting everything you do as 'the right way'.

It's about recognising that an idea, or some work you or your team have done, is pretty good – but knowing you can't control how people will react to it out once it's in the world.

But you do it anyway because you think it might be valuable, and it's worth the risk.

You can't know that something will work as you want it to.

You can't expect to get it right every time.

You use your experience, learning and instinct then make your best judgement.

You know you will learn from, or make the most of what happens next, good or bad.

Building comms confidence is not about being 100% sure.

It means going for that lovely job, even if you know you haven't had experience in all the things required of you.

It means posting that bold social media content, even though you have comms butterflies of dread in your stomach.

Waiting to be 100% sure means nothing good will ever see the light of day, and you'll never have the career you deserve.

So, when you're lacking confidence - think about how sure you are.

70% means GO!

A version of this article first appeared on the Comms Creatives blog .