Mastering Your Leadership Confidence Today

Do you like to read? The ladies whom I recently finished a six-week Mastering Confidence book club with were a group of leaders who, readers or not, wanted increased confidence. They read the book and worked through additional exercises to build their confidence over the weeks.

At the end of the final session, I asked them to come up with three summary points of what they had learned. Here is what they came up with.

​How to master your confidence in 3 steps:
​
Step # 1 - AWARENESS
Step one is to become aware that you need to build confidence in a particular area of your leadership.

Without awareness, you keep settling, putting up with and feeling uncomfortable. Increased awareness of what area you need to grow confidence in starts you on the journey.


ASK THIS:

1. Where do I doubt myself, hesitate or feel anxious in my leadership capacity? 
2. If I felt increased confidence in that area

• How would I behave differently? 
• How would I feel differently?
• What would be different about how I experience leadership?

​
Answering those questions gives you increased awareness.


Step # 2 - Pause and Ponder
The second step to increasing your confidence is to pause and become self-reflective because confidence is not about what other people think you can do. It's what you believe you are capable of.  

You need to examine your thoughts, beliefs, emotions, values, and perspectives to shift your confidence. Therefore, the second step to building confidence is to change what you're thinking and experiencing inside you so that your behaviours change outside of you.

​One of the reasons the book club members identified pausing as a critical step is that it starts the process of examining your thoughts. It's the first step of the Inner Guidance Cycle, which I teach in the book.


ASK THIS:
What do I believe about my capacity, competence and confidence levels?

• What would I have to learn to feel more competent?
• What would I have to think about myself to feel increased competence?
• What beliefs will help me shift my confidence levels?

​Answering these questions will help you feel more competent, capable and lead with confidence. 


Step # 3 - Build your support team
The ladies in the Mastering Confidence Book Club quickly realized how similar their challenges, stories and solutions were. 

The final point that the Mastering Confidence book club members identified is that you need to create a support network. You are not the only one who has struggled or is struggling with your leadership. Leaning into others on the journey or who are a few steps ahead of where you are can be incredibly helpful in navigating the journey. 

When you connect with others, you can share a human experience with many striking similarities and learn from each other.


DO THIS:

1. Find a place where you can connect with other women in similar places as you. We do this in The Training Library on our monthly Coffee at the Library open Zoom calls.
2. Find a coach, mentor or support person to help you. This person could be an "in person" person (if you want to connect with me, hit reply) or an author or guru you follow online where, for example, you read their book and follow their podcast.

When you create your support team, you will find confidence-building becomes easier.


BONUS Step - Teach what you learn
Watching these leaders grow over six weeks is a powerful experience for me. 

I experienced a lack of confidence in my leadership multiple times in my career. As I learned and grew, I taught others. First, it was my team leads and my program managers. Now my students and coaching clients. As I teach confidence, I learn more about it, become more confident in new areas and expand my comfort zone. 


Mastering Confidence is about the journey to mastery. Masters know they are never really masters. As I said in the book:

Mastering your confidence is a transformational journey. You will realize that, in many ways, there is no endpoint to your trip. You won't "get confidence" one day and be done.

Instead, you will continually strive to find this place. 

Then, just when you think you have, you will find that something happens, and you lose balance, feeling unsure again. As you go along, you'll discover an inner process, the Inner Guidance Cycle, to keep you growing as you move forward and bouncing back each time you get knocked down. 

Inside the book, you get access to a free course. You can join it now!

Join the free Mastering Confidence Course.


What makes a world of difference is when you turn around and teach what you know. Teaching others helps you grow even more, and your confidence builds exponentially.


ASK THIS:

• Whom do I know that needs to build confidence?
• What can I teach them to help them increase their confidence?
• When will I do that?

When you find the answers to those questions, not only will you be helping someone else build their confidence, but you'll also be mastering yours!


Additional Resources

📙 If you want additional help that, grab Mastering Confidence.

👭👫 If you'd like to build confidence in your leadership team and would like to do a six-week book club with your team, message me, and I will make the arrangements. It might be good to do before summer hits, and it might also be a great Summer experience for your team.

✏️ ☕️ If you want to join The Training Library and join us for the monthly Coffee at the Library calls, you can join here and find more details about the Zoom calls here. 


You've got this!
Confidence for you and your team is yours!!! Become aware it's time, and then do work to make it happen!

p.s. When you grab Mastering Confidence: Discover your leadership potential by awakening your inner guidance system, you get access to a free online course!