Mind-Blowing Ways to Boost Confidence in Your Leadership Abilities
If you’ve ever experienced imposter syndrome, you’re probably like most people — you think everyone else has their sh** together. People probably think the same about you.
The dead giveaway? Your level of confidence.
Whether it comes through in leading yourself or others, self-confidence in leadership is crucial.
Why is confidence important in leadership?
Confidence gives you credibility, reduces fear, boosts motivation, and grants you the ability to better influence others as well as be successful overall.
Meanwhile, a lack of confidence in leadership decreases your peace of mind and makes you less willing to try new things. We don’t want that.
We’re living life to the fullest around here, people.
So here are some mind-blowing ways to boost confidence in yourself and your leadership abilities.
A Willingness to Seek Input from Others
As human beings, the phrase “there’s always room for improvement” is perhaps best applied to us. And that’s a GREAT thing!
There’s no perfect way to be, and we can always put a twist on or enhance a trait or flaw.
To find out what unique challenges you face as a leader, your second-best option is to periodically seek feedback from others. (We’ll talk about the first in a second).
Talk to your colleagues, team members, peers, virtual or in-person assistants, contract workers, etc., and get in on the thoughts floating in their heads about your leadership skills.
What they say may surprise you, or it might validate any ideas you already had on ways to improve.
Anxious to ask?
Learn to eat the frog.
Meaning? Just get it over with. Don’t worry, you’ll learn more about this motto in my next post about how to handle the difficult parts of leading a team.
Just know if you eat the frog, you’ll be glad it’s over with and more confident in the end.
A Regular Self-Reflection Practice
The first best option to boost self-confidence in leadership is to practice self-reflection. Because at day’s end, YOU need to feel good about your own self before you can truly live up to your leadership potential.
A couple of useful questions to ask yourself are:
● What could I improve on?
● How did I feel overall today, this week, after that meeting, etc.?
Alongside seeking feedback from others, self-reflection helps to elevate your self-awareness and develop a more comprehensive and realistic view of yourself.
This bird’s eye view of who you are as a leader is a surefire confidence booster.
A Routine for Leadership Improvement
You don’t have to wait until you have a traditional leadership title to start developing your leadership skills. From today, you can (and should) begin a regular routine to improve as a leader.
It’s a better version of fake it till you make it because you really are a leader!
Have a team? Maybe share your routine with them so that everybody can win and become better leaders.
Your routine might include:
● Celebrating the wins of yourself and others.
● Networking with people you would otherwise hesitate to.
● Taking leadership courses and reading books by and for leaders.
This simple but mind-blowing tip is an easy way to boost leadership confidence with consistency and practice.
A Mentor Who Understands the Unique You
Networking is essential, but let’s take it up a notch. A good leadership mentor will help you improve your leadership skills and challenge you to work on the core values you avoid.
One of my mentors helps me to be more courageous by encouraging me to engage in challenging conversations. She also pushes me to take on projects I otherwise wouldn’t, because she knows I can excel at them.
The result? I broke personal barriers and enhanced my confidence!
A Lifelong Leader Is a Lifelong Learner
We should never underestimate the importance of confidence in leadership. But there’s a method to the magic.
With each ripple of confidence, you will improve your leadership abilities. Time and practice are key. Just like meditation, mindfulness, and building tiny habits, it doesn’t work unless you make it happen. When it does happen, your confidence will skyrocket from where you started.
And leadership never ends. Develop an attitude of lifelong learning and your confidence will continue to grow, bringing you joy, happiness, and a more peaceful life.
So be a lifelong learner, take more risks, and make some big decisions.
Here’s an easy one to start. Develop your leadership capacity — and thus your confidence — with a free leadership training session.
Go on and gain that leadership edge by signing up here.
