Learning to Project Confidence to Grow Your Career
Confidence is contagious. Arrogance will clear a room like rotting fish wrapped in newspaper and left to cure sans refrigeration. And lack of confidence is guaranteed to get you stepped on during most days.
The perception by managers and executives of where you fall on the continuum of not self assure at all on one end to arrogant on the other is important. You of course, want to fall right in the sweet spot of appropriately confident.
The people that dole out promotions and project assignments are looking for talent and looking for help from people that they can trust. Your portrayal of your self-confidence will impact this perception and impact your job and career progression.
Will You Pass the Blink Test?
As an early career professional, I recall being subjected to the blink test by our organization’s most powerful and feared executive. He wanted little to do with rookies and he was famous for occasionally singling one out to make his or her life a living hell. Perhaps it was his approach to seeing what people were made of, but it was odd and uncomfortable and as a result, we steered clear of him.
We had uncovered what we thought was a major software bug in our flagship product, and I had been working for several days to confirm the problem and particulars. This was a serious enough of an issue that because of its potential for problems in the installed base my manager encouraged me to bypass channels and share the findings with this feared executive. I screwed up the courage to approach his secretary and request an appointment. A few hours later, I had my chance and I explained the problem, answered questions and then faced his confidence test.
He basically indicated that he didn’t believe me and that my tests must have been conducted incorrectly. I politely but firmly reiterated that the tests were valid and the results clear. He then proceeded to step into my personal space and stare at me. I stared back, recognizing that a flinch or even a blink would show weakness. While time moved to a crawl during this contest of conviction, what seemed like five minutes to me was estimated at about 45 seconds from some interested observers.
I never blinked. He backed down and said, “OK, we’ll see if you are right. You can have my top resources to work with you on this problem.”
The moral to that story: I was armed with facts, confident in my approach and committed to getting this problem recognized and fixed. Any sign of weakness, including blinking, and I would have lost the moment. Any sign of arrogance and he would have been challenged to beat me down.
8 Suggestions for Developing and Projecting Confidence:
- First, for those that suffer from too much self-confidence…tending towards arrogance, you are in for a rough ride. Unless you back your superstar attitude with superstar performances, you are in for some corporate beat-downs. If you sense that few of the managers and executives perceive you as someone with a big “S” on your chest, it’s time to gain some feedback and get help.
- Results count, so let’s make a tacit assumption that you are doing everything in your power to pursue and deliver excellence in your results.
- Confidence is not synonymous with how much noise you make. As an executive, I particularly enjoyed finding the quietly confident professionals that didn’t feel compelled to showboat to gain attention.
- Your nonverbal behavior is critical. Estimates indicate that as much as 90% or more of your message is communicated by your non-verbal behaviors. A simple one is to make certain that you are employing good posture. (Mom was right, stand up and sit up straight!) Another is to ensure that when you talk to or listen to others, you are looking them in the eyes. Looking down or away is perceived as a sign of disinterest or lack of confidence.
- Learn and practice active listening skills. Acknowledge comments and input and ask clarifying questions. Show that you care about what the other person is saying.
- It’s OK to be nervous, just don’t show it. Learn to flip a switch when faced with executive encounters. Even though it may feel unnatural, after some practice and success, you will find that rather than fear the encounters, you welcome the chance to interact with executives.
- “I don’t know, but I will check and get back to you,” shows infinitely more self-confidence than either making something up or simply dropping you head in an admission of weakness.
- Plan your message for scheduled encounters and importantly, learn to communicate at the right level of detail.
The Take-Away
One of my favorite examples of this was from a client who avoided taking the elevators in her building for fear of running into executives. It seemed that every time she had an encounter she managed (in her opinion) to say something dumb. With a bit of coaching and practice and the self-confidence that comes from this practice, I can assure you that this individual is back to riding the elevators again.
Grow and appropriately showcase your self-confidence to grow your career.
Looking for Leadership Lessons in the Wake of Wall Street Crisis
The greatest spectator sport available the past few weekends has been the systematic dismantling and reassembly (of sorts) of many of America’s financial icons and of America's capital markets.
In case the return of college and pro football the last few weekends kept you from paying attention to the financial news, the American financial infrastructure (or at least the world’s confidence in the American financial infrastructure) has teetered on the brink of disaster. Last weekend, the U.S. effectively bailed out the FNMA and Freddie Mac and this weekend, we watched as Lehman Bros. was sent into oblivion, Merrill Lynch was sold (at 66% less than a reported buy-out offer in 2007) and AIG, the venerable insurance giant scrambled for liquidity.
I’ve chatted with a number of my financial friends and I ask my naïve and still unanswered question: “How did this happen? After receiving some elegant explanations backed by all sorts of terms like derivatives and mortgage backed securities etc., etc., I invariably derail the discussion by saying, “Oh, so you’re saying that greed run amuck is at the root of this problem.” I’ve yet to receive anything other than shoulder shrugs and comments like, “Yeah, that’s the bottom line.” And while we should take comfort in the fact that humans are at least predictable and consistent, I’m still left wondering where the true leaders were during the build-up of this mortgage-backed house of cards.
I’m left wondering how some of the world’s supposedly smartest and best educated professionals managing the firms that have created the world’s most effective, efficient and liquid capital markets allowed this mortgage-driven disaster to systematically destroy confidence and credibility in their firms and in large part, in the U.S. financial system. What happened to risk management? Heck, what happened to sanity?
Where were the leaders making the hard calls on their firm’s activities? Whose job was it to take away the punch bowl? How did the activities of quasi-public and private but accountable publicly traded institutions seemingly operate in a black box? Who was writing and approving the compensation plans that said that the laws of finance and risk were suspended and it was everyone’s right to crank up the money machine. Who forgot to highlight that there are no money machines? Where was the accountability?
The Bottom-Line for Now:
While leadership on Wall Street seems to have taken most of the decade off, there are some remarkable opportunities for new leaders to stand up, deal with the crisis and begin restoring confidence by imposing accountability and sanity on their practices. Additionally, the tendency of society and government will be to potentially move too far in the wrong direction towards regulation and governmental intervention. The credibility and ultimately the liquidity afforded by the American capital markets are at stake. The implications for global economic health are significant the implications for health on Main Street profound. While I take comfort in my naïve faith in the long-term survival and success of a free market system, prudent and deliberate leadership is required to keep this system free and effective.
Great Things Happen When Confidence and Capitalism Collide
In this time of bad financial news, high energy costs, record deficits and global turmoil, it’s exciting to meet people that see opportunities in the headlines. I had the great fortune to meet someone recently that has the right attitude about making lemonade out of the bumper crop of lemons we are experiencing this year.
This individual has a self-stated mission of seeing the U.S. energy independent from foreign oil producers, and has the confidence, resources and conviction needed to just possibly pull it off (or at least make a big difference). He’s investing heavily in all-things renewable, and he has no qualms about the fact that he will make a lot of money along the way to helping us become energy independent. Mission, vision and a tidy profit all at the same time. Ayn Rand would be proud.
There are more than a few leadership lessons that I take away from meeting and listening to someone very confidently talking about knocking down regulatory walls at the same time he is helping solve huge engineering and infrastructure challenges. What might appear as insurmountable barriers to many are just problems to be solved and opportunities waiting to be realized. It would be easy to listen to this type of talk and think of the top 100 reasons that come to mind why it will never work. The hard job is to jump over to his side of the fence and see the only logical outcome: success!
Corporate offices are filled with Devil’s Advocates, Naysayers and Professional Critics. These are the people that take someone’s seed of a vision and work hard to ensure that it is crushed into oblivion to serve as more grist for the big corporate mill. Some of the best-educated, smartest people you will ever meet fill these roles. They are so smart, that they easily see everything that can go wrong in pursuit of a vision. My advice: do yourself a favor and fire these people and replace them with individuals that are excited by the vision and singularly focused on helping realize it. You’ll be happy you did.
Leadership and the Winning Environment
I never get tired of hearing stories from leaders about their winning teams in business or in high school athletics. These stories are usually told by the leader or coach with parental pride about the remarkable success of a group of people that have figured out if they work together and in support of each other, great things can happen.
More often than not, the leaders or coaches of these teams are quick to dismiss their own role in the success, quickly pointing to the individuals and their work habits, dedication and coordination. While humility is admirable, the leaders that put together groups that regularly achieve and exceed goals deserve credit for helping create the environment where winning becomes a habit. (See also, The Seven Leadership Levers that Shape the Working Environment.)
From selecting and supporting the right people to caring enough to provide the tools, mentoring and constructive feedback, this leader, whether CEO, Shift Supervisor or High School Tennis Coach, is truly responsible for creating an environment that breeds success. Success as we know, tends to breed more success. It’s a wonderful, vicious cycle.
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