6 Ways To Build Confidence (You Have Never Heard Before)
Last week I was a guest speaker for Joya Dass’ Masterclass speaking about cultivating more confidence.
Joya asked me to provide 6 tips to her students about how to build more confidence in their executive workplaces.
Sounds simple, right?
But confidence is SUCH a huge topic and there has been loads written about it already, how was I going to add value to this conversation?
I set to work on looking at confidence from a slightly different perspective (which is what I LOVE to do most) and came up with following 6 ideas. Joya and her students loved what I shared, and so I am sharing it with you too!
6 Ways to Build Confidence
(That You Haven’t Heard Before)
Confidence Builder 1 – KNOW YOUR WHY
I know, I know – it’s a term that is thrown around a lot these days. Want to be successful? Know your why! Want to make an impact? Know your why! Want to make sales? Know your why! It goes on and on. And for very good reason!
Knowing your reason for wanting something is vitally important, because it makes it bigger than you.
Think about these questions…
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What will more confidence do for you?
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What will it do for your team?
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What will it do for your end user?
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What will it do for the world?
When you can answer these questions, you begin to see the ripple effect that having more confidence will give you, and it becomes more and more appealing to put yourself in the uncomfortable situations that will bring that confidence to you.
Confidence Builder 2 – KNOW YOUR VALUES
Similar to Confidence Builder 1, knowing your values is a really useful tool in building confidence. Your values are yours, no-one else’s.
Knowing your values means that you know what you stand for and you can be confident in your decision making and what you stand up for if it is values-aligned. It also helps you to see if the culture of your organisation is aligned with your values. If it is not, then it is going to be difficult to feel confident there because you will be asked to stand up for things that are not important to you which can leave you feeling conflicted.
Confidence Builder 3 – GET CLEAR ON WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
What does confidence look like?
Think about someone who you respect and you believe exudes confidence.
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How do they hold themselves?
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How do they speak?
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How do they engage with others?
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Who do they hang out with?
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Are these things aligned with your values?
Then great, let’s use that to model ourselves on…
Confidence Builder 4 – DON’T JUST DO, BE
Now that we know what you need to DO in order to exude confidence, let’s look at how to make that easier.
Think about how you need to BE in order for that to be easier?
Unpack confidence. What would be helpful for you to be able to do those things?
For example, being more organised, calmer, curious, open, strong, cooperative, direct etc
Now focus on BEING those things, rather than being confident and see what happens🙂
Confidence becomes a by-product of things that you actually find easier and supportive.
Confidence Builder 5 – WHAT YOU FOCUS ON EXPANDS
Focus on what you want MORE of.
We have a tendency to focus on what we want to avoid but that keeps us from where we want to be.
For example if we are trying to be more confident, we might avoid feeling small or fearful. But by focusing on being small and fearful we actually keep ourselves stuck there.
Focusing on being more curious, or being calmer is a way to bring more of that into your life.
Confidence Builder 6 – TAKE A COACHING APPROACH
Take a coaching approach. Ask questions.
When you focus on asking questions rather than feeling like you have to have the answers you empower people around you, you have less stress and you appear much more in control and knowledgeable.
When you ask questions instead of being on the receiving end of them, you hold control of the conversation.