The_Essential_Manager_s_Handbook

204 / BECOMING MORE EFFECTIVE

Being confident

Confidence is precious. It enables you to do what you want to do without

constant fear of failure, or even despite fear on some occasions, and to

maintain your sense of self-worth and not be dependent on what other

people think. If you’re confident, you can take center stage when you

want—you don’t always have to linger in the background.

Thinking positive

The first step in building your confidence

is to pay attention to what you’re thinking.

Concentrate on your positive thoughts.

It’s very easy to focus on the negative.

You probably find that when you have

been given feedback, at your appraisal

perhaps, you concentrate solely on the

one negative comment even though

there were five positive comments.

Creating good thoughts

To help overcome this, build a bank of

achievements and positive comments

that you can contemplate and reflect

on whenever you feel uncertain about

yourself and your abilities. Take some

time to yourself and sit down with a pen

and paper, and answer the following

simple questions:

• What have I achieved in the last year^
  and in the last five years?


• What am I most proud of? What did^
  it feel like when I did it?


• What am I good at? Create a list^
  of your talents and skills.


• What compliments have I received^
  from others?
  Concentrate solely on the positives of
  each situation, don’t let negative “but”
  thoughts creep in. Commit the answers
  to your “achievement bank” and draw
  on them in moments of doubt.

Pay attention to what you’re

thinking. Concentrate on

your positive thoughts

Focusing on others can

create an increase in

confidence of up to

67 %

What have I achieved

in the last year and in

the last five years?

US_204-205_Being_confident.indd 204 30/05/16 3:03 pm