Are your leaders overconfident?

If you ask anyone if they want to feel confident in their work, they’re almost sure to say “Yes” are they not?? Who in their right mind is going to say “Nah.? I like feeling inadequate.”? That’s not going to happen is it.? But is it true they merely want to feel confident?

Think about your own life – not just your working life, but life in general.? What would happen if (at least in relation to things that matter to you) your confidence completely deserted you?? Wowzer; you’d almost certainly be like a bunny in headlights, would you not?? Your body almost certainly being flooded with the Fight/Flight/Freeze response.? So is confidence really something you merely want?? Or would it be truer to say that – when your very livelihood depends on it – it’s something you need?? Do you think anyone else is any different?? Your boss?? Your clients?? Your business leaders?

OK, but so what??

A ‘confidence’ false flag

The ‘so what’ kicks in when there’s no empirical way for people to know whether or not they’re as good at doing something as they need to be.? How might they respond?? They need to feel confident, but can’t really tell for sure if they have any right to be confident enough.? So how might they respond to that need?

Some people might resort to bluster and belligerence: insisting they’re good enough, even without any way of knowing it for sure.? We might call this unjustified confidence – or possibly overconfidence.? It’s what gives rise to the now famous ‘Dunning Kruger effect’.? And when such people are your clients, or other key decision-makers in your life, they can be a nightmare, can they not?

Needless to say, this ersatz form of confidence isn’t healthy – for either the psychological well-being of the individuals resorting to it, nor the organisations for which they work.? Why, then, does it exist, and why is it uniquely problematic when it comes to Internal Communication?

The truth gap

Not everyone in your organisation manages people.? Not everyone manages budgets, or IT systems, or deals with external suppliers etc.? But everyone communicates with their boss, and probably with their team and/or other peers.? So, internal communicating is the only business activity that everyone in your organisation does.?

And this means it’s also the only activity which is subject to a ‘truth gap’ which can eat away at people’s effectiveness as communicators.? It’s enshrined in the phrase “Anyone can do it.”? Is that statement true when it comes to IC?? This where things start to get messy, because the answer is both yes and no.

Uniquely, that phrase has to be literally true when it comes to internal communicating, because everyone does do it.? However – and it’s a huge however – “Anyone can do it” also has a colloquial meaning, does it not?

When someone says “Ah, c’mon, anyone can do that” they’re suggesting it takes no specialist skills or insights to do it well, and that everyone can do it as well as anyone else.? But as anyone who’s ever been on the receiving end of email overload, or Death by PowerPoint can attest, that colloquial meaning is far from true.?

So there’s an insidious gap between the literal truth of the phrase “Anyone can do it” and its colloquial falsehood. ?This is why many people may suffer from that Dunning Kruger overconfidence, and erroneously believe they could do your job every bit as well as you (and the only reason they’re asking for your help is because they have way more important things to do).?

It’s why many IC teams can still be viewed as little more than content production houses.? And, sadly, this is an unhealthy perception which can be exacerbated when the IC Function sits within Marketing or Corporate Comms – whose focus is largely on producing content.? And it’s one of the reasons why your mandate may not be all you desire.?

But that’s only part of the story, because there’s a second truth gap that compounds the problems of the first – and which can compromise your mandate even further.? So, if you’re going to get the mandate you want, we also need to acknowledge and tackle that second truth gap.? And that’s what we’ll explore in the 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.