Feeling unconfident is an awful, awful feeling to experience. So when it happens at work, a place where you spend an average of 85,000 hours of your lifetime- you definitely should think about tackling it.
Aside from you deserving to feel happy, the other key reason you shouldn’t put up with feeling like you lack confidence at work is that it’s massively holding you back from achieving your full career potential.
I’m Leanne, a career confidence coach for women, and every day I speak to women who are struggling. Some of them are finding it hard to show up in their current role due to self-doubt, whereas others are not going after the promotions or career transitions they know deep down they deserve due to that little voice in their head talking them out of it. Perhaps you can relate?
Now due to the nature of the work I do, I have helped many women at all levels increase their self-confidence. I’ve also experienced my own confidence-building journey (more about that here if you’re interested), so I’m in a strong position to share a tip or two with you about how to get yourself some of that elusive confidence everyone’s after!
Get ready, I’m going to share with you what you actually need to build your confidence, let’s get into it…
Commitment
Change of any kind requires a degree of unwavering commitment from you.
That means making that personal commitment to yourself and your development and keeping it, not just when it’s shiny, new and exciting at the beginning, but when it feels tough and things appear to drag you away from your goal.
You need to be firm and take a stand and insist that you matter, your goals are a priority and stick with what you know is right for you.
Courage
Courage is a prerequisite of confidence.
Your success will come from finding the strength to do something, even though it scares you. Confident people are not fearless, they feel fear but they act regardless. So if you’ve been thinking you need to feel confident before taking that next step, you don’t. The confidence will come AFTER you’ve taken it.
Consistency
This really is the key to facilitating change.
Changing mindsets, habits, beliefs and behaviours takes consistent action. It’s not a once-and-done (would be great if it was, right?!).
This is where most people fall down, don’t be like most people.
Connection
The power of human connection is truly remarkable. Surrounding yourself with positive, inspiring, motivational people who will encourage you and champion you to succeed and celebrate you when you do (or don’t) will work wonders for your confidence levels.
Compassion
The way you treat yourself on this journey will directly affect your results, more than you probably even realise.
You’re far more likely to keep going and ultimately achieve your goal if you meet yourself with kindness when things don’t go to plan along the way, instead of beating yourself with the nearest stick.
So there you have it, the 5 non-negotiables needed for confidence building. How would you rate yourself for each of these things on a scale of 0-5, 0 being terrible and 5 being amazing?
Be honest, because your score will shine a light on where you need to focus your attention and efforts moving forward.
If you found this helpful and would like regular self-development support for free, you can join the hundreds of other women that receive it weekly here.
Leanne x