Increasing Your Self-Confidence in the Workplace

Written by Karen E. Mosier

Increasing Your Self-Confidence in the Workplace

Growing your self-confidence in the workplace can be difficult. Most people aspire to have more self-confidence not just in their job but in life. Achieving a level where we feel comfortable and confident at work takes effort and does not happen overnight.       

Here are some great ways to become more self-confident in the workplace:

1. Ignore what others think and stay focused on you

  • Don’t waste your energy worrying about what other people think about you
  • Rather focus that energy into your career goals and successes

2. Find your strengths and acknowledge your weaknesses

  • Recognize your uniqueness and capitalize on your strengths
  • Remember that no one can be good at everything and don’t be afraid to ask questions
  • Address your weaknesses and find ways to improve in these areas
  • Boost your knowledge to be more certain of what you are doing
  • Each time you complete a task ask yourself how you can improve on it the next time

3. Define success in your own way

  • You decide what matters the most to you
  • Does your job afford you the opportunity to travel and plan for a good retirement?
  • Does your job allow you more flexibility to spend quality time with your family?

4. Believe in yourself and push yourself outside your comfort zone

  • Throw away your fear and volunteer for a project that will help you build new skills
  • Focus on weak areas. Giving a presentation will help build up your public speaking skills

5. Find positive role models

  • Find the self-confident people around you and take note of their daily habits
  • Mirror their attitude and work ethic and watch yourself grow in confidence

6. Monitor your achievements

  • Accomplishing something that you didn’t think was possible is rewarding
  • Crossing tasks off your list will make you more aware of your constant achievements
  • Keep a digital “kudos” file to remind yourself of your success

7. Seek encouragement from others

  • Get feedback from colleagues, friends or your boss on how you are doing
  • Ask people that you trust and respect to list your three greatest strengths
  • Sometimes others can more easily identify talent in us than we can see in ourselves

8. Speak with confidence

  • Eliminate filler words and avoid words of self-doubt to project confidence
  • Cut the negative self-talk and avoid saying “I can’t . . .”
  • Don’t berate yourself for making mistakes but rather talk to yourself kindly

9. Share your accomplishments

  • Create your own website or use LinkedIn to let your colleagues know what you are up to
  • Consider other social media options such as Facebook and Twitter to share your awards and accomplishments
  • You earned the credit so be quick to share it!

Taking inventory of your accomplishments, however you choose to do it, is important to help track your achievements throughout the year. Keeping track of the good things happening around you will boost your productivity and increase your morale. The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to reflect on your work performance. You can start by asking yourself the question: How am I doing?

References:

  1. Debra Wheatman. LiveCareer. Increasing Your Confidence in the Workplace. https://www.livecareer.com/resources/jobs/networking/increasing-self-confidence-in-the-workplace
  2. Jacqueline Smith. How To Be More Confident At Work. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/03/06/how-to-be-more-confident-at-work/?sh=58077a1fd9b2
  3. Beth Burgess. Lifehack.org. 10 Tips You Haven’t Tried to Boost Your Confidence at Work

https://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/10-tips-for-boosting-your-confidence-work.html

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