Building confidence
Recently, Marshall Goldsmith, a world authority in helping successful leaders achieve lasting change in behavior wrote an article on blogs.harvardbusiness.org about building confidence. Dr. Goldsmith wrote the bestselling book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There and 23 other business books. Here is some of what he said:
What can I do to build my confidence in my capabilities as a leader?
You won’t get to the top without self-confidence; to build it, you have to believe in yourself. Don’t worry about being perfect — put up a brave front and do the best you can. That’s it in a nutshell. Here’s a little more background for you.
Last year, as I often do, I taught a seminar for MBA students at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. A second-year student approached me and told me he’d read my book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. “In the book you talk about classic challenges faced by your clients,” he said. “I noticed that you never discuss self-confidence problems. How do you deal with your client’s self-confidence problems?”
This question really made me think. I rarely encounter self-confidence problems in my work with CEOs and potential CEOs. It is almost impossible to make it to the top level in a multibillion-dollar corporation if you do not believe in yourself. On the other hand, I am frequently asked to speak at business schools, and I have noticed that students in my seminars often want to talk about it.
This is such an important topic. I thought I would share a few suggestions about how you can build your self-confidence. I also hope you, my readers, will offer your own suggestions.
