Managing and Leading at Work and at Home: What is confidence?

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

What is confidence?

Has anyone ever told you to be more confident? Has anyone said you are overly confident? What did they mean? How do you define confidence?

Confidence is:

Promoting oneself without putting others down
Saying "no" without falling over oneself to explain and apologize yet still demonstrating empathy
Maintaining composure when others criticize
Taking credit or blame when due.

Do you agree with this description? If not, how do you define confidence? What might you add or change in this description?

Would you say you are confident?

2 comments:

Ayman NassarSeptember 23, 2009 at 12:54 PM
I agree with these points above and would add confidence is:

Taking and accepting calculated risk believing in one's idea to achieve a goal; and standing up for one's ideas regardless of what others think. I think confidence and courage have some overlapping.

Are we confident? I don't think we can make an absolute statement. There are times when one is skeptical about outcomes, I guess confidence is variable and relative.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Illysa IzenbergSeptember 24, 2009 at 11:26 AM
For me confidence seems to be situation-dependent. I would like to be able to have confidence -- and take calculated risks -- in all areas of my life but time and again I see myself holding back in certain areas.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Purpose statement and terminology

Purpose statement:
Welcome. This blog is for my students, past and present, and for all others who wish to learn with us.

I'll post quotes, relevant anecdotes, links, and my own recent learnings here about once a week.

Terminology:
Direct report: someone who reports to you directly on an organizational chart. At home, your child(ren).

Managing: ensuring that all people, materials, money, supplies, and other resources are in place to accomplish tasks and projects. Ensuring that all people are informed and on track to meet project goals. Daily work involves planning, coaching, supervising, persuading, and reporting.

Leading: Developing a vision, inspiring others to make vision reality, creating urgency around needed change, and foreseeing future risks and opportunities. Daily work involves strategizing, persuading, inspiring, analyzing, and coaching.

Managing upward: One manages upward when one understands one's boss (and his/her boss and so on) and ensures that boss knows what is happening in the way he needs to know.

Leading upward: One leads upward when one understands the strategic nature of one's organization -- its financial levers, its competitive advantage, and its strengths and weaknesses -- and communicates to those above oneself on the org chart to ensure decisions are made that reflect the best interest of the organization.