If you’ve ever found yourself hesitant to share your viewpoint in a meeting, felt your palms start to sweat as you address a room full of people, or noticed that you tend to avoid the spotlight during virtual meetings, you might be experiencing a lack of self-confidence in the workplace.
It’s a common problem to face, and whether you’re starting a new role or a seasoned professional in your industry, it’s natural to experience nerves now and again. However, over time a lack of self-confidence can wear you down, rob you of opportunities, and stunt your growth both professionally and personally.
In this article, we’ll take a look at five strategies you can use to build self-confidence in the workplace—and beyond!
Self-confidence can be defined as a belief in your abilities, qualities, and judgment. A confident person walks, talks, and acts in such a way that they leverage and amplify their strengths whilst minimizing their weaknesses as much as possible.
This type of person tends to trust themself and have a sense of control over events in their life, personal or professional, and tend to have a positive outlook on themselves. They’re more likely to accept constructive criticism and use that feedback as stepping stones to evolve, progress, and better themselves.
The benefits of self-confidence can manifest themselves in many different ways and can greatly impact an individual's performance and success in the workplace.
For instance, your words and actions tend to have more conviction when you’re self-confident. As a result, your co-workers are more likely to take you seriously and hear your perspective on important topics, which can not only add value to your organization but can also help you advance in your job and career.
What’s more, if you’re confident, you may be more likely to break out of your comfort zone and take on challenging tasks, or even a new role. Pushing the boundaries of your goals may feel more achievable, and you might be surprised at how far you can go with a confident attitude!
With high self-confidence also comes the ability to foster healthy relationships. This allows teams to be creative, which leads to the creation of innovative and collaborative environments. Since many coworkers look for self-confident people for motivation, such personnel are more likely to be promoted into managerial and leadership positions as well.
Many people make the mistake of laser-focusing on their weaknesses instead of recognizing their strengths. Research has demonstrated that—contrary to popular belief—concentrating on your strengths tends to be a better self-improvement strategy than working on developing your weaknesses. Instead of beating yourself up over things you aren’t good at, aim to focus on things you are good at and double down on them.
So hit the brakes, breathe, and take some time to review yourself. Conduct a personal audit and list down all the things you’re good at. An excellent way to start is by conducting a SWOT analysis:
Strengths: List areas that you excel at—especially those that come naturally to you. What do your coworkers often ask you to do?
Weaknesses: What areas about yourself that you honestly feel could be better? Speaking skills? Presentation skills? Write them down.
Opportunities: Take note of ways you could upskill yourself via courses, mentorship, or certifications to maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.
Threats: What external circumstances (financial status, insecurities, physical disabilities) that you can’t control are standing in the way of your self-improvement journey?
Practice, practice, practice! As much as you might like to be, you’re unlikely to transform into a world-class professional speaker in 24 hours. Building skills takes time, and becoming the most confident version of yourself is no different. Put in the work, and slowly but surely, you’ll see your confidence grow.
You can start by incorporating habits that highlight your strengths into your daily routine. These small acts might seem inconsequential, but as days turn to weeks and weeks to months and months to years those tiny repeatable choices compound and can have a significant impact.
Ask yourself: what would a confident person do in this workplace scenario—and do that! For instance, you could start by sharing one thought or perspective at every meeting. Not only can this allow you to slowly break free from your comfort zone, but it also gives you the opportunity to start a conversation with your colleagues all the while adding value to the meeting.
If speaking at a meeting seems too big of a leap, you can start in low-stakes environments that feel safe. This could be as simple as expressing your thoughts in front of a mirror without breaking eye contact or sharing your feedback with a close group of friends.
“Nobody ever values my ideas, maybe I should just keep quiet.”
“I can’t maintain eye contact and present during virtual meetings…it’s better to avoid them entirely than to do a bad job.”
“Live presentation? Just pass—someone more skilled than me can take that on.”
Does the self-talk above sound familiar? Do you tend to put yourself down when considering workplace tasks or opportunities? We’ve likely all experienced that annoying, negative voice at the back of our heads at one time or another, discouraging us from reaching our full potential.
Your self-talk—your inner dialogue or conversations with yourself—can cripple your self-image and have detrimental effects on your mental health if it gets caught up in negative patterns. The first step in tackling negative self-talk is awareness: pay close attention to your self-talk, identify any triggers, and start the process of reprogramming your subconscious mind with more positive self-talk.
This might sound like a big ask, but there are simple ways to get started.
You could start by eliminating unconfident expressions from your vocabulary to induce a more positive shift in your communication. For instance, instead of downplaying your ideas by saying, “I think” or “I feel”, you could say “I strongly believe”, “I’m confident that”, or “In my opinion”.
You can also celebrate small wins. Have you completed a project ahead of schedule? Exceeded your manager’s expectations? Are you the person who lifts up the other members of your team? Take the time to acknowledge it!
The right mentorship relationship can be a powerful tool for personal and professional growth. Identify someone that inspires you or motivates you to go push harder at your job each day and can help you navigate the twists and turns of your career path.
Observe how they carry themselves, how they communicate with the rest of the team and any other qualities that set them apart from the pack. Now, try to emulate that confident behavior on your own and mirror their body language so that you can bolster your self-confidence.
If it works for your setup, you could also consider directly approaching a coworker or friend and asking them if they’d be willing to mentor you. Having a personalized, one-to-one, mentorship will help you progress much faster since the mentor will be able to quickly identify any areas that you’re lacking and give actional recommendations for improvement.
Nothing oozes confidence more than maintaining direct eye contact whilst giving a presentation.
However, this is where even the most experienced professionals often fall short during meetings, which can completely derail their self-confidence. Unfortunately, maintaining eye contact is even more challenging in virtual settings because you’re connecting with your audience via a screen that’s scattered across multiple different locations.
Speakers often find it hard to simultaneously present to an audience and look at their notes. Should I look at the camera directly? When do I switch to my notes? Should I just memorize the whole talk? If this sounds familiar, you might have experienced the confidence hit that comes from stuttering over your words or losing your place in a presentation.
Luckily, you can take advantage of new technologies that address this issue directly. A purpose-built virtual teleprompter like VODIUM takes pre-written and pre-loaded scripts and displays them as an overlay atop a portion of the video window of programs like Zoom or other virtual meeting software.
Using VODIUM’s variable speed scrolling feature, you’ll be able to take control of how fast the notes scroll up. What’s more, using the transparency feature, you can control the visibility of your notes so it reaches a sweet spot such that you can just see your notes so it doesn’t block the video of your audience behind the screen. You no longer have to memorize lengthy scripts or go through the hassle of multitasking between viewing your screen and your notes. These features allow you to deliver your full attention to the meeting so that you can deliver the information with confidence and assertion.
Self-confidence plays a vital role in the workplace. A lack of self-confidence can lead to missed opportunities, ineffective communication, and decreased job satisfaction. However, just like any skill, confidence can be learned and improved over time—if the appropriate steps are taken and the right tools are used of course.
A top-notch solution like VODIUM can help you crush those meetings and boost your self-confidence to new heights. Come by our website to start your free trial of VODIUM today!