Why confidence sets top performers apart

Some employees walk into a room ready to take on any challenge. Others hesitate, even when they have the skills to succeed. Leaders often assume that difference comes down to talent or experience, but experts say it really comes down to confidence.

Joining us on this episode of Business Trends Today is Amy Summers, Speaker, Entrepreneur, and Author of Lift: 10 Mentorship Touchpoints to Empower Your Team and Accelerate Your Career. Summers returns to ASBN’s Mentorship Moments for Business Leaders series to discuss Touchpoint Four: Build Confidence.

Why confidence is a leader’s responsibility

Leaders need to take direct responsibility for developing confidence in their teams, rather than waiting for employees to find it on their own. A confident team is an independent one, according to Summers. Leaders who build that trait create employees who can operate and produce results without constant oversight.

"It doesn't come down to talent or education. It really comes down to someone's confidence."

Summers argues that confidence, more than credentials, is what separates people who advance quickly from those who don’t.

When employees carry themselves with confidence and others believe in them, Summers said, they tend to rise above their peers faster.

Practical tools for building confidence

Summers uses a method she calls the worst-case scenario game with team members who hesitate on a task. In her work as a publicist, that often means employees nervous about calling a journalist or following up too many times.

Walking through the worst possible outcome together tends to shrink the fear, Summers said, because the imagined outcome is often worse than reality. She added that the exercise doesn’t require a leader to initiate it. Employees can bring the request to their manager themselves when they want to work through hesitation before taking the next step.

Summers also builds confidence by asking her team directly where they want to grow, rather than assuming. She said the answers often surprise her and help her assign the right projects to the right people.

One team member recently told Summers she wanted to improve at video editing, a gap Summers hadn’t noticed. Summers responded by giving her smaller, low-risk projects to publish on social media, with plans to build on that foundation over time.

Why small wins deserve recognition

Leaders often wait for a major milestone before offering praise. Summers said that approach misses the point of mentorship.

"If you start giving them that title, that they're a good writer, then they're going to lean into that a little bit more."

Part of a leader’s job is recognizing potential in someone before that person sees it in themselves, according to Summers. She gives the example of an employee developing writing skills. Rather than waiting until the work is polished, Summers tells the person directly that they’re a strong writer.

The employee may not have fully arrived at that skill level yet, Summers said, but naming the strength early helps the person grow into it.

Confidence fuels problem solving and initiative

Confidence affects more than output, according to Summers. Employees who feel confident tend to ask better questions and approach their work with more curiosity.

That confidence also shows up in how willing employees are to speak up. Summers said confident employees are more likely to suggest a different approach to their manager, because they trust that the suggestion will be heard. She frames confidence as a collaboration skill as much as a productivity one.

Rebuilding confidence after setbacks

Failure, in Summers’ view, is one of the fastest ways to build confidence rather than erode it. She said she often sees a mistake coming and chooses not to intervene unless the stakes are severe enough to seriously harm the business.

Letting an employee work through their own mistake, and fix it themselves, builds a different kind of confidence than getting it right the first time, according to Summers. She pointed to an example of a team member who lost a media placement for a client after failing to overcome an objection. Rather than solving it herself, Summers asked a follow-up question that pointed the employee back toward the problem. The employee tried again and secured the placement.

The same principle applies to smaller mistakes, Summers said, such as an email sent with an error. Asking an employee to rewrite and resend it, rather than fixing it for them, reinforces the lesson.

“It’s important that they have these mistakes because that is what’s going to build confidence,” Summers said.