How to Find Confidence at Work and in Life

~Confidence~ Welcome to my "Leadership Words" series!

I thought it would be a fun exercise to take words we hear about in leadership & have open dialogue about their meaning. These words can help us talk through topics in leadership that we want to further explore.

I hear from many leaders that they want to "have more confidence."

More confidence in:

*Decision making

*Pitching

*Communicating with their teams

*Setting boundaries

*Showing up as their true selves

Have you ever felt this way?

I think we all have.

Let's peel back the layers of meaning behind the word "confidence."

If you look up the meaning, you'll find something like "to trust in something, to proceed with trust into the unknown."

To trust in something is to have "faith."

I'm not talking about being religious here -- I'm talking about "faith" in terms of trust. Having belief in something despite not knowing the exact outcome. When we have faith, we carrying a "knowing" with us that things are going to work out.

We "trust the process."

So what is the opposite of "faith?"

"Fear."

Whoa, fear. That feels scary.

When we say we lack confidence or we wish we had more confidence, I have found that we (including myself) are operating through "fear" instead of "faith."

When we operate through "fear," we don't assume the best...We're waiting for things to go wrong. We're lowering our expectations of a good outcome.

*We don't project belief in our decision making.

*We don't project belief in our pitches.

*We don't project belief that our communications will be well received.

*We don't project belief in our intention to set boundaries.

*We don't project belief in our true and fullest self expression.

So how can we be more confident leaders?

--> Operate through "faith" by trusting the process and yourself.

Whenever you feel yourself slipping into self doubt and leaning into fear -- pause and flip your mindset with the following phrases:

"I operate through faith. I trust and believe. I have confidence."

When we can recognize the energy we are giving to situations, we can control it and create a positive, more confident inner being and projection.

Faith over fear!