Is 'justifiable confidence' enough?

We established last week that the key to having all the influence you desire is to replace any ersatz forms of confidence (unwarranted overconfidence, cross-your-fingers-and-hope confidence, or ‘fake-it-til-you-make-it’ confidence) with Justifiable Confidence.?

And if you don’t yet have all the influence you want, you’re likely to be in one of two situations.? It may be that you lack justifiable confidence in your own abilities and/or those of your team.? In which case, that’s clearly something you need to work on, and it will unquestionably help.?

But what if you get there?? Or what if you already are there?? What if you already have justifiable confidence in your own abilities and working practices, and those of your team – but still don’t have all the influence you desire??

What the heck is going on??

This is such a common scenario, and it puzzled us for decades.? It was only a few months ago that we finally cracked it.?

How does confidence become justifiable?

Let’s think about how you would go about justifying your confidence.? You might be able to point to the specialist training you’ve received; the IC and other business books you’ve read; perhaps qualifications you’ve attained.? You could point to your track record; your years of experience; the projects you’ve been involved in, the lessons you’ve learned, and the successes you’ve had.?

And you might look at all of that and, quite legitimately, say: “There you are.? That’s how I can justify my confidence.”

Damned right too.? So why doesn’t it work?? Why, in spite of all that, does the glass ceiling still exist?? Is it because your key decision-makers don’t know your track record?? Is it that they don’t rate it?? Or could it be that they’re basing their decisions on an entirely different set of criteria?

Sharing the lurve?

This was our eureka moment a few months back, when we realised that, no matter how justifiable your confidence may be, it will never be enough unless that confidence is ‘shareable’.? Until your key decision-makers share in your confidence, they’re never going to feel OK about letting you call the shots.?

And the more we worked it through, the more obvious it became that, if you and your key decision-makers are going to share in your justifiable confidence, you need to be basing that confidence on the same criteria.? That’s what’s been holding you back all this time.? The moment you and your key decision-makers are basing your justifiable confidence on the same criteria is the moment they can start letting you have all the influence you desire.? Shareable Justifiable Confidence – rooted in a set of valid criteria, which your leaders value as much as you do – is your golden ticket.

So, what could those shareable criteria look like?? That’s what we’ll start exploring in our next article.

About the author

We are Russell+Olivia Brooklands (ROB) - and we've been working in the field of Internal Communication for over 25 years.?We specialise in enabling IC Teams to get everything they want, to do the job exactly the way they want to do it – for good.? If you're an IC Manager we can help you secure all the:

• influence
• time
• confidence
• opportunities, and
• budget...

…you desire (and may not yet have).

Some people don't dare to dream this is doable.? But in fact it's all within your grasp.? And imagine what a difference it could make to your day-to-day working life, and your long-term career, if you had it all. We’ll be delighted to explain how you can make it happen.? Message us if you’d like to have a chat.