Your instincts and decision-making abilities are crucial for success in both business and your personal life. These skills are based on your self-confidence. At its core, self-confidence means believing in yourself, believing in your plans, and believing you are a good leader. Self-confidence has a massive impact on your entrepreneurial intention, according to a study conducted a few years back. Entrepreneurial intention is more than an interest in starting a business. It is the next step, when you start taking actions to establish your new business. This is the moment when self-confidence becomes truly necessary: if you want others to believe in your idea you have to be the #1 fan of yourself and your business idea.
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t — you’re right.”
Henry Ford.
If you believe in yourself and believe that you are going to succeed, sooner or later you will. If you have doubts about yourself, operate from a pessimistic outlook, or lack resilience, negativity can spread like a virus and affect everyone you interact with, including those whose support you need.
Self-confidence and Related Qualities
Self-confidence is closely related to confidence, self-efficacy, self-esteem and self-compassion. Each of these terms refers to different qualities, and they are all important to your success.
Self-confidence versus Confidence. Self-confidence is believing in what you can do, regardless of whether you have done those things before. It is different from confidence, which is based on accomplishments you have already achieved. Confidence is a good thing, but without self-confidence you will not branch out into new things.
Self-confidence versus Self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the person’s belief in his or her ability to perform a specific task. For example, a basketball player exhibits self-efficacy when she steps up to the free throw line and believes that she will make the shot. A person with higher self-efficacy shows greater intellectual ability, strategic flexibility, and effectiveness in managing the working environment around.
Self-confidence versus Self-esteem. Self-esteem is the soulmate of self-confidence. Self-esteem is how you value and appreciate yourself. It is not specifically about your abilities and accomplishments but takes a broader look at your self-worth as a person. The combination of self-confidence and self-esteem has been shown to contribute to a more productive life.
Self-confidence versus Self-compassion. If you have self-confidence but are unable to practice self-compassion, you will not be resilient and setbacks will be fatal to your goals. Statistics show that you will likely not succeed at your first attempt to start a business. Self-compassion is critical to learning from failure and trying again. Research shows that people who are compassionate with themselves, instead of being self-critical, have more resilience, and are better able to to achieve their goals.
Why it is Important to become a Self-confident Leader at Work
Self-confidence will increase your chances of success in several ways. It positively affects your relationship with your team and also makes you more effective in interactions with those outside your organization.
“It is not what you say that matters, but the manner in which you say it; there lies the secret of the ages.”
William Carlos Williams, American poet
When you are self-confident, people will follow you. Self-confidence becomes contagious when working in a team, which means if one person is self-confident, others on the team will also believe in themselves. As a leader, you can create an atmosphere where all members combine hard work with self-confidence. This combination gives you authority to speak about any topic. If your team trusts that you know what you’re talking about, they will trust your ideas and model. Before you know it they will be repeating your motivational quotes for employees!
Self-confident people are more persuasive. A study by the American Psychology Association states that listeners believe that “a more confident advisor makes more categorically correct judgments and is more knowledgeable”. So whether you are making motivational quotes for work in front of a large audience or pitching your business concept to potential investors or new clients, a healthy dose of self-confidence will make people more likely to believe in you and your mission.
Although self-confidence is a superpower, it is not a magical solution to all problems. You are the solution. At the moment you start believing in your authentic self and in everything you can do, amazing things will happen to you and the people around you who’ve been influenced by your wonderful energy.
