Your level of confidence will affect your income. How to improve
self-confidence at work? So, how to improve self-confidence at work is
something that my friend Dan Hartman knows a few things about. Dan is a Live
on Purpose licensed coach. And this is actually one of your areas isn't it Dan?
Yes. I like to talk about, you know, what you can do to build your career and
build your confidence. So, today we're going to talk about 4 ways to improve
your self-confidence at work. Oh, beautiful. Bring it. Alright, start us off.
Where do we go? So, the first one is know your unique value. Understanding who you
are and the unique value of who you are. It's really important. You may work in a
job where there's a lot of you to do the same job. In fact, I went to the D-M-V this
last week to register my car. And I walked in there and there's about 20
people with numbers above their door. Numbers above, you know, their head. That's
(right) number 435, you know, and you think, well, how do you stand out
if you have a job like that? I just kept thinking, "I hope whoever I'd gets going to be
really nice. And they were. They were great to work with. So, understanding what
makes you, "You." No one else that does your job has your same abilities. You're very
unique in that standpoint. So, you really need to understand that and be that
person. What are some other thoughts? Your
unique value... I love where you're going with this, Dan. Because every one of us
has a skill set, talents, abilities. And all of those things are different. So, we
might have some things that are similar. But there's always something about me
that's not quite like anybody else on this planet. So, what we're talking about
here improving your confidence at work has to do with understanding "What is my
unique contribution here?" What can I do differently or in my signature way
compared to everyone else. So, this gets us out of the self judgment where, "Oh, I'm
not as good as other people." Well, you're different from other people. A different
can be good. That's good news. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, that's number 1. So, number 2, we're
going to talk about is to always seek to improve
even in small little ways. Nothing builds confidence better than finding small
little ways to improve. Now, sometimes we had we set these great big goals at the
start of the year or things, you know, we want to do in our work stuff like that.
But setting small goals and reaching those is so important. But in fact, I have
a story about that as well. Not really in the setting goals but understanding
where you are to begin with. I think it's important in our jobs and in
relationships to get a clear picture of where are we? Where do we stand? Sometimes
talking to maybe a co-worker or a boss. And find out hey where do I stand? What
can I seek to improve on? And the reason for this... I have an interesting story
when I first had my first job out of college. Paul, I'm a recovering
perfectionist. You know this. Yeah. And I've always tried to do
everything perfectly when i could. And my first job out of college, I thought, you know, I
thought I was doing okay. But I thought I could do better and I just never felt
like I was doing enough. You know, when is that going to stop being true though? I
agree? That you could do better. So, I love that. You can always do better, yes. That's
why this step is so important. It is. You're going to create that better. But it's
interesting because I didn't have a realistic view of where it was. One day
my manager came over to my desk said, "Dan, I need to talk to the conference room."
And then he walked away and I thought, "I knew it. I'm getting fired."
This is it. It's you drops here. And I walked in there and he said, "Dan, you're doing a
great job, we want to give you a $5,000 raise." And that made me realize
that I did not have the proper perspective on where I was. So, it's
always good to get a starting point. So, talking to a co-worker or a manager. Get
understanding where you want to be. You also don't want to be thinking you're
the best and you can't improve. Because "Oh, you're better than anyone else." So,
there's always room for improvement. We can always upgrade our skills. But
setting small attainable goals, then once we achieve those, we celebrate those.
That's going to build our confidence. We're going to feel more confident on those things
that we can do. This is actually one of the indicators, Dan that we're on track
with identifying our unique abilities. And you talked about that a little bit
in the first point. But this is an indicator, too. Because those who are
really operating in their sweet spot, just part of what I like it I'll call it.
There's 4 characteristics. And the first is that you love it. Yeah. You
love what you do then you know you're on track, right? It
adds energy to your life, (Definitely) you've got better, sweeter
skills at this than most people. Yep. And the 4th one is exactly what you're
talking about. You seek constant improvement. You're
always looking for ways to upgrade it. Mm-hmm. And this is a dilemma and we get
stuck here sometimes because when we see that we can improve something, it's
tempting to take that go into evaluation mode and say, "Oh, therefore I'm not doing
a very good job." Which is what I thought at that time. Right. Because of your
perfectionism. Exactly. And as a recovering perfectionist, you know that
yeah, you can always do better and that's
good news. Right, and you can always do worse ,too. So, judge yourself
very kindly. Yeah. Shall we say that? Yeah. Use compassion when you judge yourself.
And then use that creative energy to then move forward and find the upgrade.
What can I do to improve or enhance or upgrade this thing and you'll always
find something. Absolutely. In fact, that's a great segue to our third point. And
that is to be sure to speak your mind in your job. We're always looking at our
jobs through a lens of judgment and wondering, you know, I wish the company
could do this better, wish my manager could do that better. And as long as
we're willing to put in the work to make our jobs better, it's important that we
do speak our minds. Importantly, we let management know things that maybe could
help sales productivity or efficiencies in the office. Or ways that you can have
better, you know, work together and things like that. So, it's very important to
speak your mind. If you don't say anything, if you just keep your head down,
do your job but grumble about them and be frustrated, you're never going to have that
opportunity for change. We need to be the catalyst for change. And now there
there's an important part of the this. You don't barge in your, you
know, boss's office and start ranting and raving about things that need to change.
I think it's important that we need to own that change. If we're willing to step
up and do something differently for the company and get the management onboard,
show them that you're willing to do that. You're willing to pioneer that. And then
that's going to be a great thing. Were not only going to gain more confidence but
they're going to see more value in you. That is really the
key, too. So, you want to use the diplomacy and tact and maybe some assertive skills
that you've built up. And you're going to own it.
Yes. People sometimes they're seen as complainers or Belly acres because they
constantly air their feelings without any kind of a solution or ownership. So,
I'm glad you add at that point, Dan. That's huge and it builds your
confidence at work. Because you see that you're actually innovating some
solutions. Those have an economic value to the company. Absolutely. And then you get
to have that surprise interview where you thought you were going to get fired
instead you get a $5,000 raise. Or maybe more. Or more!. Always, always get an upgrade. so
So, Paul, our fourth way you can improve confidence at work. And this is
one of the most important and really... When I grasped this, this is what
changed for me in my career. And that's to understand that you are your own
brand. The company doesn't own you. You need to understand that everything you
do, you take with you. In fact, my father gave me this advice. He was very
successful in a 40-year sales career and as I was starting out my sales career, he
said, "The only job security you ever have is who you are." And I've been caught in
the trap early on in my career when things weren't going well. And I wanted
to kind of give up or I felt like, "Oh, man the company is not doing their part. Maybe
I don't want to do my part." But when it was... What I realized that what I do in
my job stays with me. The skills I learned, the attributes I
gained. That stays with me. In fact, I spent 10 years in the IT sector in
sales. And I got laid off 3 times. And each of those 3 times, I was
fortunate enough to then land a job that was better than the one I had before.
With more pay and and just a better job overall. But a tribute a lot of that to
the fact that I saw myself as my own brand. In fact, you know, one of my good
friends, he told me that he always sees himself as a contractor. He works for a
company, he gets a normal paycheck but he sees himself as a contractor. So, we want
to look at ourselves as were contractors
contracting our services. As long as it's mutually beneficial that it works for me
and it worked for the company, that's great. But we always want to look at it.
How can we build our skills and abilities and not worry about what the
company is he's doing . In fact, this morning, actually
had layoffs of my work. 5 people lost their job this morning and you know and I had
to be there. And it was unfortunate. And it just made me realize
that in this day and age, you never know. You can't depend on the company. So, we
don't want to build our confidence at work just for that job. Or just for that
manager. We want to do it for ourselves. We're building our own brand, we're
making our selves better, so that transfers with us to whatever we do. And
you can take that sweet skillset that you have to the next setting which is
the company. Yeah. We're building confidence in ourselves. Yes. So, it's a
little misleading to think, How do I build my confidence in in my work if you
think that your work is your company? Yes. Your company is the setting where you're
bringing all of these skill sets and your brand. Your personal brand. I love
the way that you framed that, Dan. That was awesome. So, just to review the 4
things we talked about here. The first one, understand your unique value and
make that part of your job. Bring your personalities, your traits to
the job and make it asset. And building on that is number 2, where you actually
seek to improve or enhance those skills once you connect with your unique value.
You're actually improving it. You are and as you seek to improve, you're going to
see things in the organization that you work for or ways that you want to do
better. And that's why you need to speak your mind, that's number 3.
Do that in a right way. Go to a co-worker first. Maybe and run that by them before
going to management. But understanding that if you can stand up and be willing
to be the catalyst for change, you're going to be viewed as a really positive
person in the organization. And that brand follows you wherever you are. So,
it's not about your company. Nope. It's about you as a... I like the way you put
this earlier. --- A private contractor. Absolutely. Right? Where you bring your
brand, your unique skill set to the table and start thinking of yourself as that
contractor or that person who has an individual brand. And then it's not tied
to the success of the company. And there's interesting thing about that. An
interesting paradigm. The more confident you are and who you are as an
independent brand, the less fear you have about getting laid off or losing it off.
That may happen but you know that you can go find another job because you
focused on you not on the company. If the focus is on the company, you lose your
job, it's more devastating. So, it's building that brand of who you are that
goes with you. Nobody can take that away. Another strategic side effect of that. As
your confidence increases, you don't fear the layoffs (You don't) but you're also
less likely to be affected by it. Because you're one of the top performers.
Exactly. It's interesting. So, those are 4 ways to
improve self confidence at work. I am constantly feeling honored that you're
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