Organisational Behaviour

Building self-confidence

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” -- Eleanor Roosevelt

Nur Faisal, a brilliant university graduate, joined a group of companies with much hope and aspiration.  But as the days passed, he became demotivated as he could not perform his jobs confidently. He realized that his confidence level was low as he could not apply his learned knowledge at the university with that of practical job requirements. To increase his self-confidence he took relevant professional courses and gradually applied the learned knowledge to his job. Within a few months he became self-confident enough to perform his job confidently.    
If you want to prepare yourself for success, build confidence in you.  In organizational behavior having self-confidence is extremely important. Success in life will be a far cry without building self-confidence.  From the quietly confident manager whose advice we rely on to the inspiring charismatic leader; all have self- confidence. We all admire the qualities they have. 
In our work places not all leaders and managers are shining, only those that have confidence shine in life. Confident people inspire confidence in others; they influence their audience, their peers, their colleagues, their bosses, their customers, and their friends and family members. Sadly though, lack of confidence can be dangerously negative on career growth. The good news is that self-confidence can be learned and built-on. 
Attributes of a confident man:
If you are a confident man your self-confidence can show in many ways i.e. through your behavior, your body language, your gesture and posture, the way you speak, what you say, how you say, the substance in your speech. A confident man will do what he believes to be right. One of the most remarkable attributes of a self- confident man is that he is willing to take risks and walk the extra mile to achieve his targets.  He admits mistakes and learns from them. On the other hand, the man who lacks confidence will always remain in his comfort zone. He will not take risks for fear of failure. He has no willpower to accept difficult challenges. 
Building Self-Confidence: 
It is no denying the fact that self-confidence, like many other techniques, can be learned.  But there is no quick fix or a five minute solution. It is a journey to attain this quality. There are many steps of building self-confidence but we will discuss only a few pertinent steps here: 
Step 1:  Getting yourself ready. You need to take stock off where you are, think about where you want to go, get your mindset ready, and have serious commitment to starting and staying with it until you have developed self-confidence in you. Open a Log Book and write your strengths and weaknesses. 
Step 2:  Setting and achieving goals is the most important part of this journey because real confidence comes from setting realistic goals and means to achieving them. Compare your goal setting with your SWOT analysis. Set goals that match your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, realize your opportunities and strategise to overcome threats that you might face. 
Step 3:  Gather the knowledge you need to succeed. Identify the knowledge and skills you need to be confident. Look for a solution or a program or a course that enhances your knowledge and skills. On the job training, corporate trainings, professional courses or a university course are good examples which will equip you with the knowledge and skills for a better work performance. This ultimately will build confidence in you. You must remember to gain basics first and then move on to advance level knowledge.  
Step 4: Apply the learned knowledge and skills to your job. Application of these new techniques will show that your job performance has considerably improved.  Get in the habit of setting them and achieving them. And little by little, strive to attain more and more successes. Enjoy doing simple things successfully. Make notes on your Log Book on how you did it successfully. If possible, celebrate your successes with your team. Stay on top of positive thinking, and keep celebrating and enjoying successes.  This will make your mindset stronger and stronger consequently developing your self-confidence high.  At the same time learn to handle failures. Accept that mistakes do happen and get into habit of treating mistakes as learning experiences. It will add to your confidence building. 
Step 5:  Start stretching farther. Once you have built your confidence and the performance result is positively higher, start stretching yourself further. Make the goals a bit bigger and accept the challenges a bit tougher. Increase the size of your work further along with higher ambition and commitment.  Apply your already proven skills into newer tasks and projects.  As long as you keep on gradually stretching further and further and successfully achieving it, you will find your self-confidence building stronger and stronger. 
Self-confidence is about balance. At one extreme, we have people with low self-confidence; at the other end we have people who are over-confident.  Those who are under-confident, they will avoid taking risks. And those who are over-confident they may take on too much risk and stretch themselves beyond their capabilities. They tend to crash badly. Therefore, the right thing is to have the right amount of confidence built on realistic approach that is attainable. Self-confidence is based on true ability, knowledge and skills of the individual. Often leaders and managers get frustrated and they give up. Success in life is a planned struggle in which self-confidence is the only parameter of success. If you fail, don’t stop there. Try again and again with your learned knowledge and skills. Never be regretful for there are other doors behind you which are open. To conclude, I would like to quote Alexander Graham Bell, the Scottish-born scientist,  “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”  So keep going.     
The writer is a senior consultant of Pro-edge Associates Ltd, and an adjunct faculty of Dhaka University.

Organisational Behaviour

Building self-confidence

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. -- Eleanor Roosevelt Nur Faisal, a brilliant university graduate, joined a group of companies with much hope and aspiration. But as the days passed, he became demotivated as he could not perform his jobs confidently. He realized that his confidence level was low as he could not apply his learned knowledge at the university with that of practical job requirements. To increase his self-confidence he took relevant professional courses and gradually applied the learned knowledge to his job. Within a few months he became self-confident enough to perform his job confidently. If you want to prepare yourself for success, build confidence in you. In organizational behavior having self-confidence is extremely important. Success in life will be a far cry without building self-confidence. From the quietly confident manager whose advice we rely on to the inspiring charismatic leader; all have self- confidence. We all admire the qualities they have. In our work places not all leaders and managers are shining, only those that have confidence shine in life. Confident people inspire confidence in others; they influence their audience, their peers, their colleagues, their bosses, their customers, and their friends and family members. Sadly though, lack of confidence can be dangerously negative on career growth. The good news is that self-confidence can be learned and built-on. Attributes of a confident man: If you are a confident man your self-confidence can show in many ways i.e. through your behavior, your body language, your gesture and posture, the way you speak, what you say, how you say, the substance in your speech. A confident man will do what he believes to be right. One of the most remarkable attributes of a self- confident man is that he is willing to take risks and walk the extra mile to achieve his targets. He admits mistakes and learns from them. On the other hand, the man who lacks confidence will always remain in his comfort zone. He will not take risks for fear of failure. He has no willpower to accept difficult challenges. Building Self-Confidence: It is no denying the fact that self-confidence, like many other techniques, can be learned. But there is no quick fix or a five minute solution. It is a journey to attain this quality. There are many steps of building self-confidence but we will discuss only a few pertinent steps here: Step 1: Getting yourself ready. You need to take stock off where you are, think about where you want to go, get your mindset ready, and have serious commitment to starting and staying with it until you have developed self-confidence in you. Open a Log Book and write your strengths and weaknesses. Step 2: Setting and achieving goals is the most important part of this journey because real confidence comes from setting realistic goals and means to achieving them. Compare your goal setting with your SWOT analysis. Set goals that match your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, realize your opportunities and strategise to overcome threats that you might face. Step 3: Gather the knowledge you need to succeed. Identify the knowledge and skills you need to be confident. Look for a solution or a program or a course that enhances your knowledge and skills. On the job training, corporate trainings, professional courses or a university course are good examples which will equip you with the knowledge and skills for a better work performance. This ultimately will build confidence in you. You must remember to gain basics first and then move on to advance level knowledge. Step 4: Apply the learned knowledge and skills to your job. Application of these new techniques will show that your job performance has considerably improved. Get in the habit of setting them and achieving them. And little by little, strive to attain more and more successes. Enjoy doing simple things successfully. Make notes on your Log Book on how you did it successfully. If possible, celebrate your successes with your team. Stay on top of positive thinking, and keep celebrating and enjoying successes. This will make your mindset stronger and stronger consequently developing your self-confidence high. At the same time learn to handle failures. Accept that mistakes do happen and get into habit of treating mistakes as learning experiences. It will add to your confidence building. Step 5: Start stretching farther. Once you have built your confidence and the performance result is positively higher, start stretching yourself further. Make the goals a bit bigger and accept the challenges a bit tougher. Increase the size of your work further along with higher ambition and commitment. Apply your already proven skills into newer tasks and projects. As long as you keep on gradually stretching further and further and successfully achieving it, you will find your self-confidence building stronger and stronger. Self-confidence is about balance. At one extreme, we have people with low self-confidence; at the other end we have people who are over-confident. Those who are under-confident, they will avoid taking risks. And those who are over-confident they may take on too much risk and stretch themselves beyond their capabilities. They tend to crash badly. Therefore, the right thing is to have the right amount of confidence built on realistic approach that is attainable. Self-confidence is based on true ability, knowledge and skills of the individual. Often leaders and managers get frustrated and they give up. Success in life is a planned struggle in which self-confidence is the only parameter of success. If you fail, dont stop there. Try again and again with your learned knowledge and skills. Never be regretful for there are other doors behind you which are open. To conclude, I would like to quote Alexander Graham Bell, the Scottish-born scientist, When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. So keep going. The writer is a senior consultant of Pro-edge Associates Ltd, and an adjunct faculty of Dhaka University.