One negative impact of our digital world is less social interaction and more comparisons between one another. This and other reasons result in people feeling less confident in their image and abilities. This post will answer the question: why is being confident important in the workplace?

We’ll also look at the general life-changing benefits of feeling confident in yourself, and ways we can improve confidence in ourselves.

What is confidence?

Confidence can be defined as “the quality of being certain of your abilities”. People who are confident feel secure in themselves, rather than insecure. Truly confident people rely on their strengths, skills, and intuition to overcome their challenges.

Confidence should not be mistaken for arrogance. Those who are confident generally have a positive mindset, arrogance is deemed negative and universally unattractive. However, to be truly confident is when you are proud of who you are. You hold your values and boundaries high and see the good in yourself and others.

An ego is defined as a person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance. While having a high sense of self-respect and assertiveness is considered valuable in several areas of life, including careers, relationships, and spirituality, there are times when having an inflated ego can ironically affect your connection with others. This can be destructive.

Why is being confident important in the workplace?

Confidence in the workplace is crucial as it can be a key attribute to a successful career. With a lack of confidence and belief in yourself, you may struggle to break out of your shell and reach your full potential. Here are some key reasons why confidence in the workplace is vital.

Communication skills

Communication skills can be improved greatly by speaking with confidence. A person with confidence speaks with more conviction. People are more likely to trust and believe a person who speaks with a certain level of confidence and assertiveness.

Speaking with appropriate body language and eye contact are vital skills in communicating. This is extremely valuable in a team environment, clear and concise speech is something every colleague and client will value.

Break free of your comfort zone

Confidence will give you the ability to break out of your comfort zone. This will give you the courage to do more things that scare you. Repetitions of this will push your standard of what scares you. Before you know it you’ll look forward to taking on new challenges that would have frightened you last year.

You may be able to go for the promotion you’ve been thinking about or have the strength to ask your boss for a progression path with better pay. With greater confidence, you’ll be able to manage difficult discussions more effectively. Whether it’s with a pushy client or challenging colleagues to resolve unrealistic expectations.

Positive attitude

With newfound confidence comes a positive attitude. This allows you to think in an optimistic frame, rather than attack everything with a negative approach. Positivity is also contagious, spreading positivity in the workplace is an effective way to promote respect and partnership between one another. The same logic applies to negativity, which will only harbour conflict and distrust.

How to improve confidence

Improving confidence in ourselves generally comes from a change in lifestyle. It’s less about changing one single thing and more about changing the way we think and our approach to life.

Here are several ways you can increase your confidence.

Looking after our physical body

Exercise is key to our mental health, it is an effective way to increase our dopamine levels and reduce stress. A strong body is vital for a strong mind, and consistently practicing self-care puts us in a positive environment to thrive.

• Exercise: Aim to exercise daily, whether it’s a walk, gym, or another active hobby you enjoy. Creating discipline and routine will grow your mind into trusting your ability to perform and stay consistent.
• Diet: A healthy diet is vital for our mental health, giving our body the right fuel ensures we can feel our best which translates to our day-to-day actions.
• Rest: Too many people lack the rest they need. Aim to get around 8 hours of sleep a night to give your body the rest it needs to perform its best.

Looking after our mind

Our mental health is arguably more important than our physical health. Prioritise your mind with the following activities to help regulate your sympathetic nervous system.

• Meditation: This is a great way to practice mindfulness and increase our self-awareness. This activity will help slow down your mind and build the ability to not react to every thought that comes to you.
• Positive thinking: Positive affirmations and thinking are also great ways to gain focus, and confidence and reduce anxiety.
• Breathing exercises
• Power poses

Do things that scare you

Continue to push the boundaries of things that scare you. Regularly doing this will improve your confidence through repetition of realising your strengths by overcoming challenges. This is an incredible mindset change and an effective way to promote self-development.

Even experiencing failure will slowly reduce the fear surrounding it. Failure is a natural part of life and should not be feared otherwise you will be too scared to take any risk. Developing our mental resilience will give you the confidence to live your life to the full.