Building Confidence in Team Members

Business performance is quantified in terms of revenue, while individual performance is more complex to measure but is just as important. To perform well, we must be confident in our ability to do deliver on our capabilities, otherwise, there is no action and little influence. This is most important when you ask of your team to operate outside of their comfort zone; this is where their confidence is really tested. Here are my suggestions for encouraging your team members to lead and act with influence and confidence.

Confidence issues arise from time to time, especially when a team member must work outside their comfort zone. This could be making a difficult decision, filling in for a manager, taking on more responsibilities or similar work situations which are not exactly expected of your team members. When your team is lacking in confidence, I suggest you encourage them to borrow strategies from other experiences or areas of their lives. Think back to a time when your team felt confident in their abilities and help them to tap into that confidence by using related experiences, past achievements, and demonstrating faith in their potential and capabilities. If your team members have trust in you, then you can offer them your own belief through your use of positive language and humility. Let your team know that they can do it; this belief can transfer to them and push them to achieve what they didn’t think was possible.

If you know that a high-pressure moment is approaching, that necessitates peak performance, I suggest you ask your team members to mentally train for it – funnily enough, I call this process mind-conditioning. They can do this by visualizing themselves working through the task with great confidence, successfully taking on every obstacle that arises.  When the actual event comes along, your team can materialize what they have already visualized. Your team’s confidence is often tested during activities such as presentations and making a pitch, presenting a new idea, and it is at these times that external confidence is vital. Your team must know how to project confidence to others, and luckily for them, this can be learned through practicing an ongoing culture of positive strokes.

Help your team members to understand what their values are and to maintain a sense of purpose. This helps to nurture deep confidence, which is the key to their motivation. You can begin doing this by helping them identify what is important to them and aligning it with what is important to your business overall. One of the best ways to bring out your team’s confidence is by creating a business vision that emotionally connects with each of your team members.

It is all about being confident in the face of external feedback and unforeseen situations. Confidence comes when you encourage your team to listen carefully to others, understand different perspectives and find win-win opportunities within every idea. The more your team members focus on applying themselves and achieving learning outcomes, the less they worry about how they are perceived. When it comes to building confidence, it’s important you teach your team members to trust themselves and create a kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life.