How many times have you’ve been told to “be confident!” Whether it was advice you received from your parents, your friends, or your co-workers…it’s damn good advice and something worth emulating particularly in the business world. In the purest sense, confidence is acknowledging what you are good at, the value you provide, and acting in a way that conveys that to others. But do keep in mind folks, there is a clear difference between confidence and arrogance. For everyone’s sake, lets stay away from the latter.
Following these confidence tips should bring you success at work, in relationships, and in yourself:
1) No negative self-talk allowed: Beating yourself never got anyone anywhere. Be kind and encourage yourself. Having a positive outlook isn’t only healthy, it’ll help you learn happily and boost your confidence levels.
2) Get out of your comfort zone: Never settle for less. Sign up for an unfamiliar project, volunteer effort, public speaking opportunity. It’s always a good idea to push and challenge yourself in unfamiliar territory. The more you put yourself in uncomfortable situations, the better you’ll become at handling them.
3) Assess and emphasize your competencies: Write down all that you bring to the table and make it your competitive advantage. In other words, know who you are and own it!
4) Strive to learn more: Continue to boost your knowledge. The more you know, the more you’ll understand how certain practices and processes work and will only build your ability to do them.
5) Learn from your mistakes: slip-ups are inevitable. But self-doubts are not. Always learn from your mistake and find ways to do it better.
6) Always ask questions: Some people have the misconception that asking questions indicates a lack of confidence. This is never the case. In fact, people that ask question seem confident because they aren’t afraid of telling other what they don’t know.
7) Fake it until you make it: Being assigned a new task or project can be daunting, particularly in the beginning when a lot of the processes are unclear. But putting on a positive frame of mind and acting confidently will not only help others trust in your abilities, but it’ll help you realize just how capable of a person you are.
8) Speak with certainty: Please do eliminate the words, “um,” “I guess,” “uh,” “I’m not sure.” Eliminating those words will help you deliver your ideas with conviction and their full attention.
9) Celebrate others: Stealing the spotlight, feeling jealous, and critical of other’s successes only comes off as insecure. Instead of insecurely focusing inward, focus outward to see what others can bring to the table.
Being confident doesn’t require a complete personality overhaul. In fact, we don’t want you to be anything else but yourself. It shouldn’t change you, it should help you understand your contributions and allow others to see it too.
