Leaders, Are You Misjudging Employee Confidence? | #Leadership #LeadMorale

Leaders, how do you assess employee confidence? What is your definition? Now ask yourselves, what is your picture of a confident employee? Is your picture of employee confidence skewed toward who you are?



Employee Confidence: Image is diverse employees.

Employee Confidence: Leaders, Are You Misjudging It?

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Are You Mis-Defining Employee Confidence As …?

  1. Quick acceptance of your ideas? If employees don’t jump on board right away, do you label them as lacking confidence? This is a big mistake.

  2. Highly competitive behavior? Natural collaborators are just as confident as competitive types. Collaboration vs. competition has nothing to do with confidence.

  3. Showing no emotion? It takes strength and confidence to show emotion and vulnerability.

  4. Action toward goals without many questions? Asking questions doesn’t mean employees aren’t confident. They need information to make your leadership vision happen. If you are a Driver personality, you may be saying “do it” and leaving out needed details.

  5. Extroverted behavior? If employees think quietly before responding or are introverts, do you misjudge them as lacking confidence? If you are an extrovert, don’t make this mistake. Reflective thinking and introversion have nothing to do with lacking confidence.

  6. No resistance to change? This mistake comes from the common belief that people resist change because they fear it. Well, some people do. Yet many people confidently resist change to preserve their comfort, their importance, their preferences, and their dignity. You must find the true reasons employees are resisting change in order to succeed. Assuming that fear and lack of confidence are the reasons will lead you to a mirage.

  7. Bravado and boldness? This old stereotype lingers and squashes success. Bravado and confidence are different. Moreover, today’s workplace has employees of different cultures, genders, personality types, communication preferences, and learning styles. Therefore, employees show their confidence in different ways. Learn about your employees and see their confidence as it is — not as you assume it should be.


If you misjudge employee confidence, you will likely promote those who fit your skewed definition. In fact, you may promote people who are just like you and fall prey to the mini-me syndrome.


Leaders, Replace Your Skewed View of Employee Confidence

  • List the employee behaviors you see as confident? Next to each behavior, write down why. What outcomes do you think these behaviors produce?

  • Now ask yourself, what other behaviors can produce the same results? Speak with your employees and learn how their behaviors can reach the end goals just as effectively.




What are some of the diverse ways people show confidence?



From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™

Related Post:
Leaders, See & Communicate Clearly About Confidence – A Story

©2018 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. I appreciate your sharing the link to this post on your social streams. However, if you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission and guidelines. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.


Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.



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2 Responses to “Leaders, Are You Misjudging Employee Confidence? | #Leadership #LeadMorale”

  1. Khalid says:

    Spot on Kate…

    Leaders should have high EQ and always get themselves into wondering about their employees behaviors and by wondering a leader should ask questions to understand. Only by open dialog between both leaders and the employees, such assumptions won’t created premature gaps.

    Regards,
    Khalid

    • Kate Nasser says:

      You are spot on Khalid. When leaders learn about their employees and create ongoing dialogue, they avoid troublesome assumptions!
      Thanks,
      Kate

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