By Mel Robbins | Melrobbins.com

Confidence is key in getting ahead at work.

Unfortunately, many women don’t feel like they can be confident until they are perfect (or close to it). Perfectionism is mainly a female issue and one can pervade your entire life. It’s also a major confidence killer. Perfectionism makes you risk-averse, filled with doubt, and it also keeps you from taking actions that build your skill of confidence.

It sounds crazy, but confidence might matter more than competence. According to Anderson, in reference to highly confident people, “Whether they are good or not is kind of irrelevant.” If you want to improve your performance at work, you must work on building the skill of confidence.

The secret to confidence lies in action. Because once you do–once you get out of your head and your own way–you’ll find that you are more confident and capable than you could ever imagine.

Here are seven things you can do to display and build more confidence at work.

1: TAP INTO THE PROGRESS PRINCIPLE

The Progress Principle was created by Harvard Business School researcher Teresa Amabile. She studied 12,000 workday accounts to determine that the most important thing that leads to a positive work life is celebrating the “little wins.” When you keep track of your progress and celebrate the progress you make at work every single day, you are happier, more productive, and more engaged in your work.

You can apply this principle to your own life by keeping track of your work. Whether you use a notepad or a Word document, keep track of what you accomplish each day (or every few days). Seeing your own progress boosts your confidence, helps you to realize what you have accomplished, and also helps you to see that you are a valuable member of your team.

And then, when you are going to ask for a raise, you can look back at the list as a reminder of WHY you are incredibly valuable and you will be ready to talk about all of the ways that you have contributed to your organization.

2: MANAGE YOUR VISIBILITY

A lot of the work that most of us do is invisible work that goes unnoticed. All of the preparation, planning, and behind the scenes work is important, but it’s never the work that’s going to lead to any advancement in your career.

The #1 thing you can do to display more confidence at work is to be more visible. The most visible place at work is in meetings. If you want to appear more confident, you must speak up in meetings. Do not stay quiet. Also, do not take notes. People subconsciously will think of you as the secretary. If you must write down things, jot down just a few bullet points.

You need to plan how you can contribute in meetings. If you are typically quiet in meetings, start by making statements of agreement or volunteering for projects. Then, you need to use the 5 Second Rule to push yourself to speak up and share your ideas.

3: BE A STRATEGIC CONTRIBUTOR

When you choose which projects to work on, you should actively seek to align your workload and your priorities with your boss’ strategic objectives. Put yourself in your boss’ shoes: what is the most valuable thing that you could do for him/her? While it may be more fun for you to work on projects that are not as important, when you become a proactive strategic contributor, you become an invaluable asset to your team.

When you approach your work from a place of seeing to add as much value as possible, the work that you produce will be even more appreciated. Feeling appreciated and like you are an important addition to your team is important in building confidence.

4: SOLVE PROBLEMS

In addition to aligning your workload with your boss’, you should also go out of your way to take on new projects/problems without being asked. If you see something that needs to be done…do it. Here’s where you need to push yourself: you should still act on a problem even if you don’t know exactly how to solve it. As I mentioned earlier, women tend to be perfectionistic and are more likely to solve problems that they can find an answer to.

Start to push yourself to take on any problem you see–and do your best to solve it. Taking action helps boost confidence, and like we learned about the puzzle experiments, you will probably be better at solving the problems than you think. 

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Source: https://melrobbins.com/