How to be confident in the workplace

Being confident in the workplace is key to being successful in your career. It will also lead to respect from peers and help you manage those more difficult relationships. With confidence it’s much easier to manage up and down.

Here are some tips to help you give your confidence a boost: -

1. Reframing the situation 
Think positively about the situation ahead. Don’t dread it. For example, don’t let your inner voice tell you that you’re not going to present well, repeat to yourself instead how great you’re going to be and think about all the benefits you will get from doing well. Take control of your negativities about yourself.

2. Practise
Stop making up excuses for not doing things. Volunteer for things that scare you like presentations, leading meetings, etc. This will increase your confidence as instead of hiding away you are confronting your fears and doing something about them!

3. Body language
Think about how you hold yourself. Hold your head up when you walk into a room and have open gestures which show you're happy for people to come and talk to you and that you’re confident in yourself.

4. Self appreciation
Notice your outward dialogue – (how you speak about yourself). Don't put yourself down and don’t apologise for things, which are not your fault.  Create a list of your best qualities and carry them round with you everyday and read them. This will help you get the respect you deserve, as you’ll start learning how to respect yourself too.

5. Positive affirmations and self talk
Don't think negative thoughts about yourself. Say positive affirmations about yourself like "I'm a confident and interesting person". This is a powerful technique as it means you're literally talking to your subconscious where ingrained perceptions of yourself are stored. 

6. Modelling
Think about people in your life who you think are great in work situations and see how they talk, words they use, the way they stand, their relationships with people, etc and add these characteristics to your own repertoire. This is not copying; it’s just allowing yourself to be inspired by others.

7. Write a list of past successes
Think about the times in your life when you've been successful at something. Write a list of all of these and remind yourself of how you did this and how great it felt when you'd achieved your goals. Use this past experience to fuel your self belief and confidence for achieving your goals in the future.

8. Visualisation
Rehearse how the event will go and see yourself in the situation achieving your confidence goal. Smell, see, feel the success and go for it!