According to Eleanor Roosevelt, American political figure, diplomat, and activist, “A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader; a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.” But I bet any employee wouldn’t feel good if their leader doesn’t show confidence in making decisions.
The leader’s behaviour affects how the team thinks and decides. If a boss is lazy and doesn’t make decisions confidently, expect chaos in the team. But if the boss knows what he or she is doing, work would be like a walk in the park for the employees (but not all the time!).
A timid and self-doubting leader will result in uncertain situations and confuse members. However, a confident leader will develop a group of independent, creative minds with a clear intention of what they want to achieve as a team.
After all, apart from this, how can confident leaders positively affect the organisation?
Confidence improves your decision-making process
Making decisions should be a collaborative effort and open to any suggestions. But let’s be honest, the boss (yes, that’s you) always has the final say.
A leader will face numerous decision-making situations, and most of these would have a huge impact on the team. Confidence is the person’s ability to create a decision without being stressed and anxious while understanding the possible results or consequences and holding accountability for this decision.
Confidence should not be based on emotions but on factual judgments. Have you done enough research? Were you able to analyse the situation carefully? Are you going to accept the result regardless of the outcome? Do I hear a ‘yes’? Good! These are the primary questions you should ask yourself before creating a critical decision.
Confidence drives effective communication
Effective communication is basically the key to the success of a flourishing team. As a leader, you will need to have the spirit to facilitate meaningful conversations. An aura of confidence is essential to this, as well as when it comes to striking communications with individual team members.
If you are confident in sharing your thoughts with your colleagues and subordinates, it should not be difficult for them to trust you and be more open about their thoughts and opinions. Your confidence and your team’s level of openness is necessary when coming together to brainstorm solutions to pressing problems — they get to speak their mind and help you come up with various solutions without fear of consequence.
Confidence builds trust
If you show confidence in handling your responsibilities as a leader, your team sees that you know what you are doing and trust your decisions as a result. As we all know, trust is essential to all sorts of workplace collaborations, and when you have achieved a healthy level of trust between you and your team, it will not be hard for you to lead them to accomplish objectives that will help your organisation reach set goals.
A leader trusted by the team will have his or her insights valued. The words of a trusted and confident leader carry plenty of weight, and their decisions are ultimately respected, whatever the results may look like.
Confidence improves workplace relationships
If you are confident with your actions and decisions, you practically eliminate any anxiety or stress growing amongst your team. As mentioned earlier, they will get to trust you, which should result in healthier working relationships between you and your team and individual team members.
As your confidence inspires healthy working relationships, expect to create a workplace conducive to productivity. Productive workers are happy employees, and happy employees are satisfied individuals who are more than willing to stay with the team provided they are appropriately compensated for their efforts.
Confidence paves the way towards achieving your goals
Confidence provides a clear path to your goal for the team. When you show your team that you are confident enough to reach the goal, each member will try to contribute as much as possible to follow suit.
Your team members will also be inspired by your confidence, allowing them to believe in themselves and increasing their independence. Plus, it encourages them to take the necessary initiative to accomplish tasks on their own, all while seamlessly collaborating with their colleagues to achieve the objectives that you have set.
Confidence shows your team that you’re the right person for the job
Confidence results from the experience and wisdom you have gained from work. As such, being confident shows that you have sufficient knowledge to make the right decisions, develop the best strategies, and create solutions that can provide a clear resolution to current problems.
In other words, this lets your people see that you know what you are doing, and will follow through with whatever you come up with. It should also tell them that, in case of failure, you have an arsenal of knowledge to go back to and recalibrate to achieve your goals on the next attempt.
Confidence, in a nutshell, is a solid foundation upon which you, as a leader, build your team’s trust. Timidity has no room in leadership, and everyone entrusted with the duty to take the lead needs to be more confident to produce the best results. Also, there’s no shame in seeking support from other experts, if that will help you boost your confidence as a leader.