4 Ways to Pump up Your Team's Self-Confidence

A while ago, I wrote about “quiet confidence.” In that Wake-Up Call, I stated that quiet confidence means that you consistently believe in yourself – 100% – to the point where you know that success is the only outcome. Individuals who possess quiet confidence know exactly what they have to do to achieve their goals. They don’t talk about what they’re going to do, they let their actions (and results) speak for them. Individuals who practice quiet confidence possess a healthy dose of self-confidence.

Self-confidence is an important element of success. When you have it, you’re bold and are willing to take smart risks. You’re willing to question the “status quo” and try new approaches if that’s what it takes to be successful. You compete with yourself to be better from one day to the next.

Related: 5 Actions to Nurture the Culture of Your Organization

If you’re a leader, you have the responsibility to instill self-confidence in each of the members of your team if you want them to perform at an effective level. Some leaders don’t see instilling self-confidence in their team as a necessary part of their role. That’s too bad because individuals who have doubts about their abilities do not perform at 100%. This could drag down the performance (and results) of the entire team.

Some of the ways a leader can pump up their team’s self-confidence are:

Create a meaningful vision and explain in the clearest possible way where each team member fits into it so they know their “purpose.”

From the vision and their understanding of their purpose, the leader can then set challenging but achievable goals. When people see themselves getting things done, they gain confidence in what they do and position themselves to do greater things.

The leader needs to make it known that mistakes are not necessarily a bad thing and makes certain that when they do take place, everyone learns from it.

The leader also must regularly acknowledge good performance on an individual basis – people like the recognition. When the leader does this, he is encouraging his team to continue to repeat those actions in the future – the right recognition builds self-confidence within each team member.

The key in all of this is that the leader needs to be genuine, honest and sincere in this effort. If they offer meaningless feedback, it will be obvious and will result in loss of trust and respect. This in turn will cause a business to lose its edge and eventually perform at a sub-satisfactory level.