Confidence is a powerful force in the workplace for individuals and for teams.
It’s that extra-added something that allows us to look at the world through eyes that see opportunities to pursue, challenges that exist to be met and new heights within easy reach.
Confidence shows up in the quiet swagger of champions that know before they take the field or set foot on the court that they understand how to win.
While we tend to over rely on the sporting world for leadership examples, it’s easy to see confidence at work for in high def right in front of us every week. Just watch Favre or Brady or Manning (the one named Peyton) walk into the huddle needing to move the ball 80 yards and score to win the game with 2 minutes on the clock. The confidence that these players bring with them lifts everyone around them and helps the team find that extra gear needed to win the game.
Unfortunately, given the beat-down that most of the world has been taking for the past year or two, confidence is in short supply in the workplace.
People and teams and entire organizations have grown fearful and as a result move timidly through the days and quarters, hoping simply to not fail.
Focusing on not failing is dramatically different than focusing on winning.
You’ve got to get yourself and your team focusing on finding ways to win once again. It’s time to bring back confidence.
Fair Warning…Don’t Do This:
One way guaranteed to fail is to heap “win one for the Gipper” speeches on an already cynical workforce that is short on patience. They’ve had enough of nervous managers egging the troops on to greater performance and then announcing workforce reductions. Beware the managerial urge to blather false cheer.
7 Actions for YOU to Start Building Confidence on Your Team:
- It starts with you. Sorry to keep heaping on the sports analogies, but if you are the quarterback walking into the huddle for the two-minute drill and your teammates see fear in your eyes, the game is over and you’ve lost. Dig deep to find that sense of self-assurance that exudes, “we will find a way.”
- Use Trust as a confidence catalyst. Show trust in an individual or team and they will naturally walk through walls to repay your trust. Starting today, look for ways to showcase trust by resisting the urge to second-guess or over manage.
- Build self-confidence in others by teaching them to trust themselves. A talented professional had the habit of always asking me what I thought she should do when she was faced with a vexing problem. As trite as it sounds, my response for about a year was “I’m not sure, what do you think you should do?” Once she responded, I resisted the urge to correct her and instead asked a few clarifying questions and then said, “Great, go do it.” She grew by leaps and bounds in a hurry.
- Clarify the mission and ensure that everyone can connect his or her activities to the issues that count.
- Build energy by celebrating victories…even the small ones. And remember that part of earning the victories includes suffering setbacks. Share the lessons learned and resist the urge to make an example out of those that fail.
- After moving beyond blocking and tackling victories, continue to ratchet up the challenges. You will know if the confidence is growing on your team when they start to ratchet up the challenges on their own.
- Focus on your job of supporting people, finding coaching opportunities and assessing and upgrading the talent. Eliminate the toxic team members and redouble your efforts to coach and provide feedback to those that share the organization’s values and are striving to execute to the best of their abilities.
The Bottom-Line:
There are many other big and small things that you can do to start bringing confidence back, but this short, digestible list of behaviors and actions can make a difference starting today.
Remember, when you walk in the door, the game clock is starting at two-minutes and everyone is looking into your eyes. Don’t let them see anything but confidence.
Great post Art. I think the most critical aspect is that once you have asked the clarifying questions, and feel confident you have alignment, urge them to move. Of course that requires having a clear point-of-view of your own and having the risk tolerance to point and shoot. The lack of confidence rears its ugly head through leaders who need to wait for other factors become more clear before they can be “sure”. They paralyze their teams into doing nothing and stifle further creativity as people wait around for the craziness to settle down. Meanwhile, the clock is still running.
Steve
Steve, thanks for reading and sharing your valued and well-practiced insights. I agree. Overcoming the inertia of standing in place requires extraordinary effort on the part of the leader. The leader that looks for everything to become clear does a tremendous disservice to his/her team and the clock is definitely running! -Art
Love it, Art, but I always bristle at advice to eliminate “toxic team members.” This often becomes the fastest way to actually SINK your team by driving out people that question, dissent, and push the boundaries. A sure ticket to groupthink, in my mind. I actually teach that you should purposefully suround yourself with people you KNOW will disagree with you on issues from time to time. “Those that share the organization’s values” might be nothing but yes men. There are times when an organization’s values no longer serve them well, and unless the organization changes and adapts, it will find itself in peril.
Keep up the good work! Bret
Great post, Art and you hit the high points. I would underline the advice that “It starts with you.”
If you’re the boss and you aren’t confident, there is no way that you will inspire confidence. So take time, away from the team, to build confidence by playing out success scenarios and plans in your head, but looking for positives, and by remembering past successes.
Bret and Wally, thanks for jumping in!
Bret, we will have to have a good-natured debate on my definition of toxicity. I have no qualms about instantly executing those that poison the work environment. Dissenters are not toxic…, so I think we are more in agreement than less. My hire slow, fire fast comes from a lot of years of practice and owning the responsibility for building great teams and driving results.
Wally, as always, you distill my long posts down to the essence with a much more economical use of words.
Thanks to both!
-Art
Great post,
I totally agree with Wally in that everything does start with you. Not just in the workplace but also in life. I always have people coming to me and telling me about all of their problems and 99% of the time, at the end of the conversation, I conclude with how are YOU going to change YOU. I always am telling myself and others that we have no control over what others do but we can only control ourselves and what we do. This ties directly into what you are saying about being confident as a leader and also as a member. If one person is not positive then it brings down the entire group. The moral of the story, change how YOU are and YOU will be surprised how the people around YOU change.
Great post–and some great advice for leaders! I think that people tend to really underestimate the importance of confidence in the workplace. You can have a gifted employee capable of producing great work, but if they do not believe in themselves then they are never going to maximize their potential. It really is a big circle–your employees need to see that you have confidence in yourself and in them, which in turn should feed the employee to become more confidence in his or her own abilities. And, as you pointed out, employees need to see that their teammates have confidence in themselves as well. Nothing poisons a team environment faster then the majority of folks on the team seeing a particular individual as being the weak link.
Art, while I have come to loathe sports analogies, I love this post!
there are three things that I particularly like about it. First, I love the reminder that focusing on not failing is not the same as focusing on winning. In times of stress and uncertainty is it not difficult to get the two confused.
Second, the advice to leaders not to engage in empty “rah rah” talk is so important. People can smell and empty “pep rally” a mile off.
And thirdly, I love the practical and doable things to do that build confidence, not only in the leader but also the rest of the folks too.
A great post. Thanks
Gwyn
This is a good list of points on how leaders can instill confidence in their team members. I agree that confidence is in short supply during this recession. You are right that planning not to fail is different from planning to win. Many companies and teams may be focused on just surviving now. I think the leaders that show confidence and in turn instill confidence in their team members during these times, will make their workplaces much more engaging, boost morale, and be in a better position once this downturn passes.
Congratulations! This post was selected as one of the five best independent business blog posts of the week in my Three Star Leadership Midweek Review of the Business Blogs.
http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2009/11/04/11409-midweek-look-at-the-independent-business-blogs.aspx
Wally Bock
Nick, Patrick, Gwyn and Ajo, thanks as well for your thoughts. Gwyn, I’m sorry to have perpetrated yet another sports analogy as leadership example. Thanks for your thoughtful perspectives! Patrick, Nick and Ajo, some nice value adds! Thanks to all for jumping in!
And Wally, thanks so much for including this post in your “Five Best” listing. I’m always honored to be in such fine company.
Best to all,
Art