Education & Career Trends: 6 Steps to Build Unshakable Confidence

Edition: March 6, 2022
Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS

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• Excerpts from article by Tugba Yanaz, published on Entrepreneur.com

We all struggle at times with self-confidence, yet it is such a critical skill to achieve success in any aspect of life. We all deserves to be confident, grow to be the best version of ourselves, and build the life and legacy that we are meant to live.

In a workplace, self-confident employees are more likely to: 

• Collaborate as a team 
• Resolve conflicts constructively 
• Accept feedback positively
• Have great communication skills 
• Display increased productivity 
• Be happier and more loyal 
• Adapt to change and innovation 
• Lead others 
• Be exceptional leaders 
• Deal more assertively with customers, suppliers and business partners

Here are 6 steps you can take to develop unshakeable confidence:

1. Adopt a growth mindset.

• There are two main mindsets we have when approaching new challenges and life in general: Fixed and Growth mindsets.
• In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success — without effort.
• On the other hand, in a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work — brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and resilience essential for great accomplishment.
• You will reflect and focus on what you can learn from your experience in a growth mindset.
• Of course, a failure is bad — however, you will not get fixated on the result because you enjoy the process of personal growth.
• You see this failure as a temporary setback and an opportunity to learn from your experience.

2. Practise gratitude.

• According to positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly associated with greater happiness.
• Gratitude helps you feel more positive emotions, enjoy good experiences, improve your health, build resilience to deal with adversity and cultivate strong relationships. 
• Every morning when you wake up, before you even jump out of bed, take a peaceful five-minute break and reflect on three things you are grateful for.
• This will put you on the road to cultivating greater confidence in your life and self.

3. Increase your say-do ratio. 

• Your say-do ratio is the ratio of how often you keep your promises to yourself.
• Take a few minutes to reflect on how often you keep your promises to yourself or others. Make an honest assessment of yourself. 
• Going forward, make sure that when you promise anything your promises are meaningful to you, which will help you increase your say-do ratio.
• Set yourself a target of a minimum of 80 percent as your say-do ratio.
• That’s a good start. You can always bump it up from there.

4. Confront your fears.

• As a leader, you are exposed to many anxiety-inducing challenges.
• Fearing ambiguity, at times, is natural and human.
• However, giving in to your fears will only make them more impactful and hold you back from stepping into your full potential.
• Whatever you fear, make it a priority to face it head-on. 
• Once you confront your fear, reinforce your success by treating yourself.
• Do something that brings you joy. 

5. Lean into your strengths. 

• People who use their strengths at work are more likely to be engaged and perform at higher levels.
• In life, leaning into your strengths can save you frustration and increase your happiness.
• Learning how to lead with your strengths will help you set an example for others.
• It will empower you to achieve your highest potential as a leader in your department and your organisation as a whole.
• Create a list with your strengths on a postcard and place it on your desk in a visible corner.
• Whenever you find yourself in doubt or facing an overwhelming challenge, look at your list of strengths and trust your unique gifts.
• Most importantly, don’t take your strengths and experience for granted. Appreciate them, because you worked hard to acquire them.

6. Grow your competence. 

• Competency is the attitude to perform a certain work effectively and sufficiently.
• You can be an incredibly caring leader. But if you don’t build the right competence to lead effectively, you will only have a detrimental impact on your team’s performance.
• If you lack competence in a specific field, it is important that you take an honest inventory of critical skills you need to develop.
• Make a list of the skills and competencies you want to build upon.
• Look for strong role models excelling at these skills within your organisation and reach out and ask for mentorship.
• Remember that you are never too old to start to learn. Most leaders enjoy the opportunity to mentor and positively impact someone else. 
• Alternatively, you can find external resources.
• Expose yourself to challenges to apply your learnings and grow your competence.
• Take a playful, child-like approach and stay curious to test and learn.

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Have you checked out yesterday’s blog yet?

Education Trends: The Genius Fallacy — Hidden Habits of Extraordinary Thinkers

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(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)

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