THE FIRST BELIEF-CONFIDENCE

“Can I Do It?”

Wouldn’t you like to prevent the negative consequences of “I can’t” in the people you lead?  It all begins with having a clear picture of what “I can’t” really means and understanding the consequences that follow.

The first belief (confidence) deals with the relationship between effort and performance.  Employees must believe their effort will lead to performance.  Without this belief, there is a motivation problem, usually a big one.  Consciously or not, people always ask themselves, “If I give it my best, can I perform?”
 
Suppose a person is offered something desirable but concludes, “I really want that, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t perform well enough to get it.”  What happens to motivation?  Obviously, it suffers.
  
All of us bring a confidence history to work. Listen to Juanita and Gary give an interesting insight into confidence and the impact it has on motivation and performance.

Juanita: “All of my life when there was any mention of me doing something new, my mother always said, ‘You’ll never be able to do it.’  Eventually I believed her.  So when I’m faced with doing something new here at work, fear overwhelms me.  My first reaction always is ‘I can’t do it,’ so I resist.  I’m 61 years old, my mother is in her eighties, and she’s still telling me I can’t.”

Gary: “I got my self-confidence from my grandfather.  Anytime I doubted myself he’d say, ‘Just remember, you’re as good as the best and better than the rest.’  I believed him. So I’m willing to tackle most anything.”

Unfortunately, “I can’t” problems usually go undetected, mainly because people find them hard to discuss.  Generally we don’t like to confess our shortcomings.  It’s human nature.  Feelings of inadequacy and weakness often are attached to such admissions.  So we cover up our “I can’t” problems.
 
Not only do employees tend to cover up confidence problems, they may even deny their existence. Why?  It usually boils down to a fear of the consequences.  “If the boss thinks I can’t do the job, he’ll find someone who can,” or “It will hold back my career.”   
 
The irony in the cover-up is that “I can’t” problems tend to be relatively easy to remedy, especially compared to the problems they cause. 

Clear up confidence problems and you open the way for motivation to wield its power on performance; allow the problems to fester, and motivation doesn’t get out of the starting gate. Individual performance and overall business results hang lower than they should.
 
If you want to avoid the negative consequences of “I can’t” problems, all you have to do is get in tune with the people you lead. Find out what they are thinking and believing. You can’t take action if you don’t know there is a problem.