Today’s environment is putting pressure on everyone, including those you lead. They are struggling under this weight. You may feel they need your time more than ever. Leading in this environment can sap the energy out of the best of leaders.

Confidence problems can run deep. The causes are not easy to see.

Get a crystal clear picture of the main causes helps you see them in your employees.

Then you’re on a solid path to a solution that gets performance on track.

Valuable information—Let’s look at a few pointers so you will get the drift of a fuller meaning of the top causes of confidence problems.

1. Inadequate skills—It’s elementary, my dear Watson. Before assigning work, ask what skills are required. Then ask yourself if the employee you have in mind has those skills. It’s a good idea to ask the employee too!
2. Unrealistic expectations—In the new economy, everybody expects more with less. But this can be a clear sign of trouble if employees feel like expectations are impossible. They’ll conclude “I can’t” and this will hold them back. A full-fledged effort never comes from “I can’t.” Size the situation up yourself, but also find out how employees see things.
3. Inadequate resources or authority—As leaders we know what it takes for us to get a job done. We tend to imagine that others can do it with the same resources and authority. Not always true. Instead of assume, give employees a chance to indicate what they feel is needed to meet your expectations.
4. History of failure—When people have a history of failure, it shows up as a voice in their head that says things like, “You’re a failure sucker. “ Or “You failed on this same kind of thing before. You’ll fail again.” It is a painful history that none of us feel comfortable sharing, especially not with the boss. When people trust you, they may talk about some of their history with you. The main thing you can do is be sensitive to the possibility that a history of failure may be the root cause of a current confidence problem.
5. Negative self-talk—Everybody talks to themselves. Some say positive things like “I can do anything, if I make up my mind to do it.” Others have negative self-talk like “I’m over my head and there’s no way I can pull this off.” People tend to rush toward either negative or positive self-talk. You can see this in the people you lead if you listen carefully to the things they say aloud. They’ll slip you the clues you need to see how much their self-talk influences their confidence.
6. Over-demanding management style—Leaders who call for more and more, who see perfection as the only way, cause people to eventually conclude, “I can’t ever please him.” And with “I can’t” comes the bucket of cold water that cools down the fire to make things happen, no matter what. Does your style as a leader build confidence, or tear it down? Just something to think about.
7. Put downs/criticism at work—Putting people down, criticizing their work, and especially criticizing them as a person, sucks the self-confidence out of them and you can hear the swoosh.
8. Wrong person for the job—Sometimes when people can’t get the job done, it’s simply a matter of having the wrong person in the job. Experience shows that this problem is best fixed by getting people in jobs that are a good fit for them. This is an issue that every leader must come to grips with sooner or later

Understanding what causes a person’s confidence to sink helps you observe and clearly see those causes in the people you lead. When you see why people aren’t getting the job done, the cause will lead you to the solution. 

For more information get a copy of  Thad Green’s book, Motivation Management.

The pressure to do more with less has us seeing more confidence problems than ever before. It is a primary reason that performance and results are not where they could be.

Bolster confidence in those you lead and they will work harder and perform better. And you’ll get the business results you want.

See our website for more information, beliefsysteminstitute.com.

Or call Martha at 678.576.5207, if you’d like to discuss some of these issues.

Follow responses to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.