WELL, THE C-WORD GETS BANDIED AROUND A LOT; WOMEN WE WORK WITH MENTION IT OFTEN, WE’VE FELT IT, LOST IT, ADMIRED IT IN OTHERS, EVEN FELT SLIGHTLY QUEASY ABOUT IT.
Since launching Birdsoup, we’ve encountered it in a few different ways. I recently met a very confident young woman who talked passionately and articulately about her career and what she wanted from it, then later told me she was terrified of public speaking, that it made her feel physically sick. We’ve attended lots of events over the years where many successful female entrepreneurs have spoken about feeling like they didn’t know what they were doing when they started out but did it anyway. (The evidence shows that women don’t launch their own businesses due to a lack of confidence). At an IWD event we attended back in 2017 even the irrepressible Dame Joan Collins said that her advice to her younger self would be, “be more confident”.
At a time when we’re all in lockdown (is the new version of the actual C-word Coronavirus?) The things that we normally rely on to make us feel more confident may be missing, so let’s think about confidence – yours, your colleagues, family and friends.
- What makes you feel more confident, and how can you get more of that?
- How can you make someone else feel more confident? Don’t just think about it, do it.
- Share an example of when you didn’t feel confident, perhaps when you faked it (putting the ‘con’ into confident)
- Pick one thing that’s out of your comfort zone this week, something you would do if you felt more confident and do it anyway.
- Talk to the most confident person you know, ask them for their secret sauce.
- Identify your gremlin, that voice of doubt, give it a name, make friends with it, but don’t let it be the boss of you.
ADVICE:-
From the entrepreneurs: “done is better than perfect”. From the management experts: “confidence beats competence, if you have the latter, be the former.” From an unknown source: “self-confidence is the best outfit, rock it, own it”
#findyourconfidence #womenscareers #bemorebird
