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Communicate with Confidence

How do you build confidence in situations where you simply don’t feel that confident? It’s a challenge that many of us can relate to, and in this week’s video, we share some ideas and approaches that can be helpful whether you are in a new role, an ‘only’ (person of color, woman, etc) in a particular group, or in any other situation where you feel not-so-confident.

Communicate with Confidence

 

[Alicia Davis] So Stacie, you know, we work with a lot of newer leaders, right? And we hear often that sometimes when we’re promoted into new roles, new management roles, or just new roles in general, sometimes it can affect our confidence a little bit, right?

[Stacie Watson] Yeah, it definitely can, and there are so many other factors that can come into play. You know, perhaps you’re the only person of color or the only female or male or what have you, right? There can be lots of reasons that we find ourselves in a situation at work where we maybe are a little reluctant to use our voice or to share our thoughts and you know…

[Alicia Davis] Right. Or where we doubt ourselves right?

[Stacie Watson]
Yeah, 100% right. And it comes back to a sense of confidence. And I think sometimes, when people are hardwired to focus on others, they aren’t always sure if it’s okay to feel a lot of confidence, you know? Like we don’t focus on ourselves so much, we tend to focus on other people?

[Alicia Davis] Sure.

[Stacie Watson] And the truth of the matter is, every organization needs each of you who are watching this video to be your very best self as much as possible, and that includes sharing your thoughts and, you know, giving your opinions, or what have you, when it’s appropriate. And so we want to talk a little bit about a couple of ways that, in an upcoming session, we we talk about how we can build on our confidence, right?

[Alicia Davis] That’s right, you know and it really all starts with the mind and the body, like, you know, first and foremost, just putting ourselves in positions of sitting taller, standing stronger, you know, projecting our voice like sometimes it’s like you have to kind of “fake it till you make it” almost…

[Stacie Watson] Right.

[Alicia Davis] Right? But as soon as you do that, you can feel a difference even in your energy, right? And so when you’re doing that’s certainly one thing that we talk about. And another thing is, you know, how do we like in in real world scenarios, right? How do we maybe practice or really consider, what are the kinds of things that we want to say, or how do we want to say them in important situations? Right?

[Stacie Watson] Yeah, definitely. I think it can be really helpful to think about those specific moments when we notice our confidence isn’t as strong as it is in other moments, right? It may be is on a particular committee meeting, or maybe it’s with a particular person in the room, or on a particular topic, you know… Just beginning to notice that, and noticing what kind of internal beliefs do I have that may get in the way of me feeling confident about that. And then I think also really being able to think about, okay, I know I’m going to be going into a situation where I might not feel confident. So what can I do to either practice or maybe talk to a colleague, like, how can I help myself begin to feel a bit more confident? What are some practices that I could try?

[Alicia Davis] That’s right. And if this sounds like something that would be helpful for you to have a little bit of time or space or connection with other folks in the room, we’ve got a session coming up on March 27th in our Learning Academy on how to Communicate with Confidence. So you can always get more information on our website, Academy.TLStransforms.com. And I’m Alicia Davis…

[Stacie Watson] And I’m Stacie Watson…

[Alicia Davis] And thanks so much for listening today.

[Stacie Watson] Yeah, thank you.