A major barrier to employee performance is their level of self-confidence. If employees do not believe they have what it takes to excel in their current roles, their possibility for growth is limited. As a manager, you can significantly influence your team’s beliefs in themselves and their abilities, and make them feel more comfortable in being creative, gaining new skills, and advancing professionally. Build up your employees’ confidence with these tips:
● Show Personal Interest
You cannot effectively boost your employees' confidence levels if you do not know much about them as individuals. Show personal interest in each of them; make small casual small talk about their weekend plans, their families, or hobbies. In the midst of a stressful workplace situation or when they are tackling a challenge, ask how they are doing. The more you engage with your employees and try to understand them, the more they will realize that they matter and their confidence will grow.
● Encourage Employees to Stretch Goal-Wise
To build up your employees' confidence, they have to wrap their minds around the notion that they are truly capable of doing more or operating at a more advanced level. Encourage your employees to stretch goal-wise by setting challenging goals that require them to learn new skills to achieve them. This will send the message that you believe in them enough to set more difficult goals, and once they accomplish them, they will have more confidence in themselves going forward.
● Focus on Positive Feedback
Managers may inadvertently offer corrective feedback more often than praise, which can cause employees to feel insecure in their abilities. Boost your team's confidence levels by focusing on providing positive feedback as often as possible. Whenever you have a compliment come to mind, communicate it to your employees. Not only will they start to think more highly of their performances, but it may take the sting away when the time does come for you to give constructive criticism.
● Guide Them Through “Failing Forward”
Taking risks and making mistakes is the only way to grow professionally. Chasing perfection is a futile endeavor, so if your employees’ confidence is contingent on never failing, they will never truly fulfill their potential. True confidence comes from overcoming adversity and bouncing back. To get them comfortable with this idea, guide them through the process of ”failing forward” or objectively assessing mishaps and figuring out how to learn from them to come out better than ever, rather than losing confidence.
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