A number of years ago I enrolled in an online course that was taught by one of my favorite teachers at the time. Let’s call her Jen. 

I was a member of Jen’s Facebook group and had been asking questions about building my online business when she showed up in my inbox offering her course as a solution. Two questions and $1200 later I was enrolled.

The course was a hot mess. 

The audio was so bad I could barely make sense of what she was saying, the content was so basic that even as a newbie nothing was new, and the 6-week self-study course she advertised only had five weeks of content. 

I probably should’ve been more bothered but (truthfully) I was in complete awe at the bold display of self-confidence at work.

Jen was forthcoming about her imperfect work and was an advocate for doing it scared. I knew that if I hung around her for long enough I would quickly learn how to have more confidence in my work too!

Today Jen has a massively successful multiple seven figure business, she’s grown her small Facebook group from 1000 people to over 30K, and has a global following of hundreds of thousands of people. And her work is still imperfect.

Whenever I talk about career confidence or work confidence, Jen is inevitably a part of the conversation because she’s a perfect example of how confidence will take you places that perfection never will. 

So how can you begin building confidence in your work?

Building confidence at work: Take action especially when you’re scared.

Just like almost every other human on the planet I have a fear of public speaking. That may come as a surprise to you, if you’ve ever heard me speak in public, but it’s true.

A few years ago now I decided that I wanted to be able to reach and teach more people through my work, and that I needed to use public speaking as a platform to do that. 

For months I procrastinated on applying for any speaking opportunities. I would find reason after reason as to why I wasn’t qualified enough or worthy enough to be on stage. The truth was, I was afraid to put myself out there and be rejected or worse—get the job and bomb on stage. Fear was crippling my progress and stifling my dreams.

One day I got tired of my own excuses, so I went out and booked my first speaking opportunity. I was so nervous I spent half the speech avoiding eye contact with the audience by staring at their feet. It was bad. But I was committed to overcoming fear and building self confidence on stage, and so I continued to apply and speak anywhere folks would have me!

These days I still get jitters whenever I have to speak in front of others but the crippling fear that stopped me from taking action has been replaced by confidence in my work, my story and my expertise.

How to be more confident in the workplace: Build a positive support network.

Are you surrounded all day by “negative nancys”? It can be hard to build confidence in your work and yourself when you’re surrounded by people who have a negative view of the world.

That’s why having a network of positive people to support you is particularly important when you’re experiencing a lack of confidence at work or in your business!

The people you spend time with influence your thoughts and attitudes about yourself more than you think, according to Amy Morin, LCSW and so if the relationships you are holding don’t lift you up then it may be time to revisit their place and purpose in your life.

How to become more confident: Honor the commitments you make to yourself.

You know that feeling of setting a goal and then achieving it? That feeling of pride and accomplishment that comes when you do what you say you’re going to do? Don’t you feel a little more self-confident every time you hit a goal or a target?

I’ve always found it fascinating how we honor those commitments we make to others but dismiss the ones we make to ourselves! What’s that all about?!

When I decided that I wanted to get into public speaking I told myself that I would pitch for several new speaking opportunities each week in order to make my dreams a reality. I’ve got to be honest with you—it took over 2 years for me to honor that commitment.

How often have you done something similar? You say that you’re going to start showing up every day on social media to market your business, and then you don’t. You tell yourself you’ll do outreach to 3 prospective clients per day and then it never happens. You tell yourself that today is the day you’ll ask for a raise but you never do. 

When you follow through on the commitments you make to yourself you build trust in yourself and your abilities, and this is essential to developing confidence in your work.

How to gain confidence at work: Commit to mastery of your craft.

Someone once asked me, “how do you stay confident if you don’t know the answer?” Simple—you commit to being a lifelong learner.

I’m under no illusion that I know everything about the coaching and speaking industry, or the area of career confidence and personal branding that I work in. But I am committed to reading, writing, creating, speaking and developing my understanding of the work. And this is one of the reasons I have confidence in my work!

Celebrate your success.

Earlier this year I had one of the most frustrating and disheartening weeks of my entire business life. I felt like nothing was happening the way I wanted it to and it was resulting in a major case of self-doubt around my work and career.

I was so focused on the things that were going wrong in my life and business, that I lost sight of my many successes and accomplishments. 

One day I was having a conversation with a friend about how I felt unequipped to deal with a particular issue I was facing and she looked at me in astonishment. She couldn’t believe that with all my experience I was having any self-doubt around the situation at hand. I was stuck in a crazy cycle of negativity and I hadn’t been able to see myself clearly! It’s true what they say—what you focus on grows.

The minute I took a step back and began to show gratitude for myself, my skills and experiences my self-confidence improved immediately. I was able to celebrate all of the hard work, dedication and accomplishments and be reminded that I am indeed a phenomenal woman!

You too deserve to be celebrated and so I’d love to comment below and let me know, how will you celebrate yourself in the upcoming week?

References:

Morin, A. (2021) 6 Ways to Build Self-Confidence. Very Well Mind. Retrieved September 2021 from https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-boost-your-self-confidence-4163098