How to Build Confidence

When leading our own business, we are always on the edge.?

There is so much at stake.

Business ownership has its own special highs and lows, and one of the chief challenges is inspiring those working in the business, to care as much about its welfare and future as we do.?

Our striving for this may be inspiration for some people yet intimidating for others—those who feel that what is required of them is beyond their capacity to deliver.? This can rapidly lead to a loss of confidence, underperformance and eventual disengagement from their role and from the business.

Their morale and their career will have taken a severe blow and our business will have also suffered loss—short-term turnover is costly and our employer reputation will have been damaged.

As leaders we need to set everyone up for success, to express our confidence in them, such that over time their self-confidence is authentically developed.? ?

So, what may be our leadership steps to build confidence in others?

1. Begin with an appeal to the purpose of the business.? Remain always in touch with the reason you started the business and the benefits that it continues to provide to all stakeholders.? This needs to be an inspirational narrative that everyone can retell with joy.
2. Choose our staff and commit to them.? Have a clear, fair and inclusive selection process that turns up great candidates matched to the values of the organisation and the skills of each role. Even if we have specialist recruiters, we make the final choice.
3. Enable a sense of belonging.? Seek and support everyone’s input and give them a reason to believe in the purpose of the business and to promote it in conversation, especially when away from the business.? Encourage staff attempts to develop connections with each other.
4. Be clear about autonomy.? How much decision-making authority—enough to be challenging but not so much that it intimidates or disconnects.? We may apply the Decision Tree model that classifies decisions into leaves, branches, trunk and roots for ease of identification and processing.
5. Create accountabilities rather than a position.? Articulate what the role is and its contribution to the business (the “Why?”), then the outcomes required (the “What?”).? This also enhances autonomy as people have the room to apply their own judgement and working style about the “How?”.
6. Help people develop the skills and understandings necessary for their role.? This may be a combination of being “on the tools” and external courses.? Everyone should be aiming for mastery level, so that they can teach it and inspire enthusiasm for it in others.
7. Understand time and energy management and how to teach it to others.? This starts from the purpose of the business and how each role connects:? what I do + why I do it + how long I take + when I do it.
8. Make time available and facilitate staff in their understanding each other’s accountabilities.? This is so they may offer coverage during absentees and provide feedback to refine the system of the business.? Provide tools and resources to encourage continuous improvement initiatives arising from staff.
9. Demonstrate a commitment to continuous learning across the strategic and operational activities of the business, encouraging the same from everyone. Sponsor the creation of a store of knowledge about the history, development, techniques and strategies that have created success and refer to it constantly.
10. Interactively draw up a career map for each person, including both personal and professional development.? Identify opportunities and the preparation that will take them into the next role in the business and/or their career.? Encourage staff to extend themselves, while accept their right to plateau.

The credibility, effectiveness and durability of each will be delivered by our leadership.?

Knowing that they too have much at stake, people will see the value and take them on as their own.? This knowing will become internalised.? As US longshoreman and self-educated philosopher, Eric Hoffer, said:

“Nothing so bolsters our self-confidence and reconciles us with ourselves as the continuous ability to create; to see things grow and develop under our hand, day in, day out.”

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Next week: ?Kevin Inkster, Leadership Innovation and BOLA

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About the Author

Jeff Bell?is Principal of executive consultancy ResultsWise in Perth, WA.?To boost your leadership, ask Jeff about Band of Leaders Australia (BOLA) [email protected] and his consulting, coaching and strategy facilitation, or his Advanced Leadership Course [email protected] Mobile 0439 988 662.