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7 Steps for leadership self-confidence
25-Jun-2009
Self confidence is a key factor in leadership success. How can future leaders learn to demonstrate more of this? Here are seven suggestions from Marshall Goldsmith with our additional insights added:
- Decide if you really want to be a leader.
MBA graduates might be great technicians, but many find the uncertainty and ambiguity of being a leader very unsettling. They are looking for the “right answers” - similar to what they learned in business school. Not everyone is cut out to lead people, and that is OK. Some people will find more fulfillment being an expert in a specific area. Do not feel obligated to become a leader.
- Make peace with ambiguity in decision making.
There are usually no clear right answers when making business decisions. Even your best decision has a high probability of being wrong.
- Do what you think is right.
Gather a reasonable amount of data, involve other people to generate a range of options, and encourage robust debate. If everyone agrees at the outset, tell them to go away and come back with some counter viewpoints. Then follow your gut and do what you think is right.
- Demonstrate courage, even when you don’t feel it on the inside.
We are all afraid at times - that is just part of being human. If you are going to lead people in tough times, you will need to show more courage than fear. When direct reports see worry and concern on the face of a leader, they lose confidence in the leader’s ability to lead.
- Accept the fact that you are going to fail on occasion.
Build feedback into your decisions to test how they fare against actual events. Even good decisions have a finite lifespan. All assumptions become obsolete sooner or later. Reality does not stand still for long.
- Once you make a decision, commit and go for it.
Act or do not act. The surgeon does not take out half the tonsils. You either operate or you don’t. Don’t continually second guess yourself. If you really have to change course, then change course. If you never commit, all you will ever do is change course. The hardest part of any decision is not making it, it is executing it.
- Life is short. Have fun!
Why should you expect your people to be positive and enthusiastic, if they don’t see it in you?
RESULTS.com works with open-minded business leaders, who are ambitious learners, and who want to achieve better results.
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