Developing Confident Leaders

A great waste of human resource is people who have the knowledge and skill to lead well but do not, due to their lack of self-confidence. Yet companies continue to try develop them by equipping them with more knowledge and skills with the hope that they will improve. But people cannot improve if they lack confidence in themselves. How can we help people develop their self-confidence to bring out the best in them?

OVERCOME THE FEAR

The first step towards building confidence is overcoming fear. Many people have fears that prevent them from achieving great things. Many of these fears are more psychological than real. As they say “FEAR” stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. In our public speaking course, we observed that many participants have an obsessive fear of speaking in front of a crowd. They fear what others would think of them. They fear saying stupid things. They fear their mind will “freeze” and they would have nothing to say. And most of all, they fear making a fool of themselves in front of others. In the programme, we first “flush out” all their fears before we teach them the techniques of effective speaking. We provide them a safe and friendly audience to practice their speeches to overcome these fears.

BUILD CONFIDENCE THROUGH PRACTICE

Building self-confidence comes from doing and practicing those things we are not comfortable with over and over again until we become good at. For example, a project leader I know is technically competent, however, he messed up in meetings as he lacked confidence in leading others. During the duration of the project, I gradually exposed him to more meetings with close supervision and guided help. Eventually, he became not only good at leading project meetings, but also mastered the art of handling people and issues well. With each successful meeting his self-confidence soared and it reinforced itself and spurred him to do better each time around. By using a hands-on guided approach, I taught him the art of facilitation and interacting with his team until he achieves mastery in this area.

ENABLE ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH ACTIVITIES

It is not possible to become confident overnight. While self-talk and self-affirmation are useful techniques to set the mind to be mentally positive, concrete actions followed by positive results is the key to building selfconfidence.

A good way to develop confident leaders is to start them at a young age. There are good programmes, which develop youth to build self-confidence through fun activities. A good example is Inta Bina Group Bhd, which after having its top leaders undergo a leadership development, is doing the same for its second-liners. The aim of the leadership programme is to enable its staff to take charge through activities and being responsible for their outcomes. By enabling these leaders to practice good leadership behaviour in real life scenarios in the workplace, they will begin to develop self-confidence, which eventually lead to positive and productive results.

BELIEF IN YOURSELF

The ultimate confidence comes from self-belief. I once listened to famous motivational speaker Leslie Brown, who told his story about how was mistakenly labelled “educably mentally retarded” when he was a young boy. His selfesteem was low during his childhood days until one day a teacher noticed his “talent” and told him that he was a smart kid and that he could do things like the normal kids do. And from that day on, his self-confidence was boosted. He finally believed in himself. Brown grew up to become one of the most powerful motivational speakers of all times. He authored many books and hosted his own TV shows. He won over 80 awards for his outstanding work in helping people realise their potential for achievement. That is the power of self-belief.

RECOGNITION AND REINFORCEMENT

To understand how confidence is developed, observe how a toddler learns to walk. The eager parents provide constant encouragement for the toddler to first stand on his own. The parents patiently coach him to stand and pursue on despite his many falls. This process takes time and patience. When the toddler succeeds, there is great applause not only from the parents, but also from his grandparents. And when he takes the first step, there is even louder claps and cheering. They do not reprimand him for falling down no matter how many times, but they never fail to applaud to reinforce the behaviour each time he does the right thing, either standing up or walking a step forward. Such is the power of recognition and reinforcement that instill the self-confidence and selfbelief in toddlers to empower them to learn to walk.

In conclusion, self-confidence can be developed by surpassing your self-limitations through overcoming unwarranted fears, repetitive practice of a skill, achievement of impressive results, a belief in yourself and recognition and reinforcement.

Dr Victor S.L. Tan is the chief executive officer of KL Strategic Change Consulting Group. He is an international authority on change management and has written 10 management books on change. His latest programme is on “Implementing Successful Change In Organisations”. For feedback on this article, please contact him at victorsltan@klscc.com or at 012-390 3168.