No matter how good you are at your job, knowing how to be confident at work can be the difference between getting by and excelling in what you do. If you have confidence in yourself and your abilities, it will reflect in how you’re perceived by those in your team and can have a positive effect on your own self-esteem.
You might look at people you perceive as confident and think it’s impossible for you to be like them, but confidence is something that can be learned and mastered. There are ways to adapt your physical actions, mental attitude and your approach to tasks that will make you a more confident person.
Once you’ve instilled confidence in yourself, you’re more likely to be successful, according to studies that have been done on the matter.
In this article we’ll look at ways you can adapt your working in all three of these aspects to improve your confidence.
Get the Look
Don’t be afraid to take up space; sitting small and quiet in the corner doesn’t make you look like you believe in yourself. The way you present yourself to your colleagues will not only change how they perceive you, but will go a long way in changing your mindset to a more confident one.
Evy Poumpouras is a former Secret Service agent, and counsels that “Confident people don’t shy away from eye contact. Look at people when you speak and more importantly, look at them when they speak.”
Some of the key features of looking confident include:
- Standing up straight with your shoulders back
- Having a smile on your face
- Dressing confidently and appropriately
- Looking people in the eye
If you can make these changes to how you show yourself in the office, you will feel and behave more confidently.
Talk the Talk
There’s no point overhauling your look if the way you speak lacks confidence. This doesn’t mean that you must shout at people, and you definitely don’t want to be brusque, rude and least of all aggressive. Your tone is important as well - you don’t want your voice to convey as indecisive.
The words you use are very important to how confident you look and feel. You should make sure you:
- Use direct phrases such as “I know…” and “definitely”
- Avoid vocal fillers like “ummmm” and “errrrr”
- Talk at a measured pace, it shows you know what you’re talking about and helps you stay on track to get your idea across
- Choose positive words, say “sure, I can do that” rather than “no problems”
Once you’ve practiced choosing your words more carefully to make them positive and purposeful it will become a habit. The people you speak with, email, and message will pick up on your positive attitude and it will reflect in how you feel about your work too.
Get the Feeling
It’s a well-used phrase; fake it until you make it. It wouldn’t be so common an idea if it didn’t work and many confident people espouse the idea of convincing yourself you’re capable in order to convince others.
“… Act like you know it all! Adopting that mindset will help you take more risks and overcome any fear of failure,” says Senior Vice President of SAP, Anka Wittenberg.
When you’re asked to complete a task, even if you’re not completely certain what it entails, you should say “yes” and know that you’re capable of figuring out how to do it. When you’re looking for a career change, apply for jobs that may feel above your skillset but that you’re interested in and see if you can get an interview or even land the job, advises Anka. Believing in your own competences and your ability to learn new skills is a sure-fire way to sustain personal and professional growth.
Measuring Up
When learning how to be confident at work, you need to know that you are not in competition with anyone. It’s not healthy to constantly compare yourself to others.
When you have a performance review with your leader, they are looking at how you have developed as a person, not how you compare with your colleagues. If you spend your time looking at what other people are doing, you’re either going to be negative about yourself or have negative thoughts about other people and run the risk of undermining all the work you’ve done to that point.
Neither of these outlooks are good for your confidence. Remember, it’s important to use positive language and positive thoughts to be a confident person.
Challenge Yourself
The only person you should be comparing yourself to is the person you were yesterday. You can give yourself challenges that will help develop yourself and your career.
This is also the next step after faking it; making it.
You can look to:
- Take training courses relevant to your work
- Broaden your skills into new areas
- Develop your soft skills
- Take up a new hobby for your own goals
Choosing to do any of these will boost your confidence and help you to keep developing. Taking constructive action that makes you better in your role will give you the confidence to speak up because you have more authority and practical knowledge. Going for an option that’s more personal will still help you be confident because you know you’re capable of betterment.
Small Victories
Taking classes to develop yourself is a solid step to becoming more confident. You can build this type of positive step into your everyday routine, too.
Setting yourself a goal of getting a promotion is a positive step, but this could take a long time and you may get disheartened if you don’t realise it quickly. To build your confidence, break your goal down into smaller steps that you can achieve over time. TalentSmart’s president Travis Bradberry says that when you give yourself quick wins you will boost your confidence in the long-term.
The Take Home
Confidence is a state of mind and something that you can improve if you’re willing to put the work in. By being open to change the way you approach situations, thinking about the words you choose carefully, and giving yourself big and small goals to achieve, you will become more confident at work.
The first step in becoming more confident is knowing that you can make the changes in the first place. Start small and you can build yourself into a confident person who is successful in any aspect of their life and career.