Why Confidence?

Confidence is the core capability that enables us to navigate the world and our experience within it. It is not a ‘nice to have’; it is critical for?career success. In the?Core Confidence book, we outline the key behaviours that we have heard women talk about when describing an absence of confidence. When you lack confidence, you tend to over-rely on skills, capability and experience to fill this confidence gap. But the reality is, whilst knowing your stuff is very important, it is not a dependable source of confidence.?

The capability gap.?

"I’m not ready yet".??

We hear this way too often. Many women resort to this phrase to justify their lack of confidence and why they stay too long in roles they’ve outgrown. We know that when you don’t have the confidence to participate and fully contribute you are often miscalculating your own capabilities - typically, overestimating what is required of you and underestimating your value and skill set. So, what started as a confidence gap, over time creates a?capability gap.?

Bridging the gap.

To overcome and bridge this gap, you have to be willing to put yourself out there - even when you aren’t 100% certain - as we often say:?the act of confidence comes before the feeling of confidence.?

Get curious and ask yourself, what is really going on? When you rightsize the stories you tell yourself, you are more prepared to step in and own your value, minimising your capability and confidence gap. The more you can realistically and truthfully look at what you have to offer, the more likely you are to take imperfect action, or as we like to call it, a small?Act of Confidence: taking manageable steps towards your goals, receiving feedback, learning, and trying again!

A confidence mindset.?

This will be one of your most valuable assets going forward; the ability to maintain your self-confidence no matter what is going on around you is something that keeps expanding with practice. It doesn’t mean a complete absence of self-doubt or fear - rather you have excellent strategies for how to deal with them as they arise. The more you practice the easier it gets. What we see regularly is the self-assurance and authentic power that is available once you know how to access and maintain your confidence mindset.

"All the possibilities open up when you stop being so harsh in your judgement and assessment of yourself" - Fiona Pearman?