Confidence
Recent press and TV coverage of the economic climate frequently conveys a sense of lost confidence. One declared objective of interest cuts was to reduce our mortgage repayments and thereby give us more money left over to spend and keep the economy bouyant – instead we are apparently saving this extra money even though the same interest cuts mean that we receive little for doing this.
A lack of confidence in the future explains this unintended consequence of government policy and must be frustrating leaders across the globe as they try to reignite their economies.
Governments appear limited in what they can to do boost personal confidence. However confidence in your own future is an inevitable outcome of excellent coaching. Fundamentals in coaching confidence are:
- Self belief – the client believes that they have the personal resources to achieve their goals. An excellent coach helps the client focus on these resources and how best to use them.
- Responsibility – the client believes that they are responsible for their own outcomes. They may also seek the support of others , and acknowledge the influence of the environment of which they are a part, but ultimately they will look to their own actions and behaviours as the key to moving forward.
- Solutions focus – excellent coaching works with clients to generate solutions to the feedback and issues that naturally arise as we go forward with our personal plans. Self awareness and awareness of the world around us is also a critical and more reflective part of the coaching process but finding solutions , trying them out , and seeing them work is fundamental to growing confidence.
A strong self-confidence is really just a good habit borne from repeatedly doing the things that work for us and noticing when we can make improvements or just need to change something altogether (aka Learning). It is only when we stop noticing the environment around us and no longer learn from the feedback that is always there – it is then that we can be vulnerable to the shock of the unexpected and the loss of confidence that can go with it.
Private and public individuals , at home and at work, may well have lost their confidence now. Ccnfidence can be regained but ultimately this will be by our own actions. Good employers can find good coaches for their managers and leaders who will use their regained confidence to help them take their teams and the enterprise forward. This can be done without a coach but its just easier not to do it without one. If you want to try rebuilding your confidence on your own you can:
- ask friends and colleagues what they think your strongest abilities are
- choose a personal project (work or personal, important to you) that will exploit some of these abilities
- identify the some goals that will be the first steps and easy to achieve
- each day reflect on what you did well, what can you improve. Next day try out the improvement and repeat the step
- when you reach the first set of goals move on to the next probably more challenging goals
- this time start seeking feedback from others. Share with them your progress. Include their feedback in the daily review.
- when the daily review becomes easier, notice how raised your confidence levels are and use the same process in some of the more regular activities in your life.
When this habit has become an unconscious competence ( as in when you no longer remember yourself doing it) you may find yourself pushing the boundary of your life even further and trying out things you didn’t think were “you” at all. And if you want to stop there – thats your choice -just keep up the confidence habit.