Building self-confidence should be
strategic priority
by Margot Cairnes
"ONLY self-confident people can be simple," according to GE's
chairman and chief executive Jack Welch. "Think about it. You get some engineer who
is nervous and not too sure of himself. He can't explain his design to you in very simple
terms, so he complicates it. If you're not simple you can't be fast, and if you're not
fast you're dead in a global world. So everything we do (at GE) focuses on building
self-confidence in people so that they can be simple."
I find this philosophy not only spot-on but wonderfully refreshing. How much smarter it is
to deal with root causes (ie lack of confidence) than having to cope with the symptoms of
a problem (ie wading through unnecessary, time-consuming and energy sapping red tape,
verbosity and jargon). How much more cost effective it is to run personal development
programs, underwriting people to take risk and investing in mentoring programs, than to
deal with self-protective, responsibility-avoiding bureaucracy!
Jack Welch's simple insight into human nature has a lot to teach us. We often see the
"hard-hitting", jargon-using "professional" as a person of influence
and power. A person to be listened to, noted and, often, feared. People use so many
different defences to hide their lack of self-esteem. So often we find these people
intimidating, annoying and blocking but rarely do we see them as frightened people who
actually need our help and pity. When faced with people who are officious we ourselves
usually fall into defensiveness rather than realising that we are dealing with insecure
individuals who need help to build their confidence. Apart from the personal blocks such
people generate in us, it is one big leap more to realise that people who lack
self-confidence cost organisations a fortune through complicating things, building in red
tape and lengthening (if not avoiding altogether) the decision process. How many
organisations see self-confidence of their people as a number-one training, staffing or
strategic priority?
Self-confidence is like a computer's operating system. The quality of the data you feed
into any computer is irrelevant if the operating system isn't working properly. The amount
of training in information or skills people receive, the quality of the equipment they
use, and the amount and quality of the resources they have at their disposal are all of
little account if they lack the self-confidence to think boldly, communicate frankly and
operate simply.
Self-confidence is built by experience - by taking risks and noticing that, succeed or
fail, we learnt and moved on. But self-confidence is also built by self-awareness. As it
is difficult (even foolhardy) to feel confident captaining a boat you don't know well, how
can you be confident of yourself if you don't know who you are? Self-confidence is also
built from taking responsibility for your own life and more particularly your personal
choices, even if those choices led to unsuccessful outcomes. It is much easier to change
our own beliefs, behaviours and ways of relating, than to change other people and the
world in general. By taking personal responsibility we give ourselves the confidence of
knowing that if we were part of the problem we can therefore be part of the solution.
To many people's surprise, self-confidence can also be built by looking at personal
patterns of thought and action, and seeing how many of these are linked to early childhood
decisions. It's hard to be confident about decisions and actions based on outmoded,
unconscious childhood patterning.
Thus a mixture of action, self-reflection and personal decision making builds
self-confidence. Some of this can be done alone, some fostered by personal development
programs or in-house mentoring and projects, and some requires professional outside help.
But if we aren't working to build our own self-confidence we are undermining our
effectiveness. If we aren't working to build the confidence of our people we are
contributing to the building of bureaucracy and unnecessary complication, structure and
verbosity - the big killers of simplicity, flexibility and speed. In short, if we aren't
focusing on, investing in, and working to build, our own and other people's
self-confidence we're killing our chances of success in a global world.
- Copyright ã Margot
Cairnes
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