3 steps to unsinkable confidence!
Your Bold Women Leaders News Letter Edition
I have seen men with 70% competence and 120% confidence shooting the top and perceived as great candidates being marked on the leadership lists, whereas women with 120% competence and 70% confidence barely hit the lists of leadership positions.
Why does this matter ?
It matters because one of the reasons we are still talking about representation , the need for diversity and equity is also to an extent due to perception and bias linked to confidence - unfortunately.
Given confidence is a learned fluid mental state/attitude, and it can be boosted or broken by representation. The more businesses speak of diversity and inclusion – the more this matters.
The more young women see themselves honoured and respected in places of power, the more young people will be confident that their voice will matter at these tables.
If these places in crucial work places don’t exist – best assured women and other minorities are creating these spaces for themselves where #representationmatters for #diversityandinclusion and also where #itsnotjustforquotas
Now let us talk about these two in detail. How can you boost that confidence and ensure representation?
Here are 3 strategic ways to boost unsinkable confidence:
Dig within.
When those around don’t see you the way you want them to or deserve to be seen – it might help to re-adjust that mirror to face you and your inner core. Reaffirm your presence to yourself every single day. If you are in tune with yourself that glow will force others to see you too.
Start with things you are winning at!
There is this echoed view on focusing on strengths- what this view misses is it´s not just focusing on any strength that might get you pumped and more confident. It´s really focusing on outcomes where your strengths were relevant and meaningful to your mission, your company, your team etc… when you are winning at something know why and how your specific strength contributed to that. That allows you to keep that mindset that you are a valuable asset because of that and that it wasn’t luck. you did it! – Isn`t that an amazing boost to know that. It also allows you to be intentional and strategically position yourself in the spaces you navigate in - more so in order to keep improving and always acknowledging that you contributed to the success story or win.
Call upon the hive of sisters – press representation replay
Representation matters! Watching another sister in her element keeps that momentum and inspiration that we are doers and we are able. If you are low on spirits -particularly with a world dominated by so many men or people who don’t look like us or just understand where you come from and the various diverse experiences – its easy to lose hope because of the systems or structures in which we operate that fail to represent diversity in an authentic and powerful way. Given that if you really can’t find representation you are looking for – it always help to talk to your tribe who see you for who you really are in the moments you can’t see that in yourself. And if you are struggling on finding your tribe revert back to 1. because it all starts with from the inner self.