Interview on the price of business show, media partner of this site.
Recently Kevin Price, Host of the nationally syndicated Price of Business Show, welcomed Dr. Cassandra McBride-Smith to provide another commentary in a series.
If you listened to my last commentary on my book Confidence Slayers Fragile Souls set to release this February, I defined confidence slayers and some of the characteristics; these attributes and/or actions are often displayed by leaders in the workforce that hinder employees’ progress and creativity. I decided to write my book to look at confidence slayers’ stories in the workforce and the audio clips highlight some of the topics.
I found in my research that defining confidence isn’t monolithic. Confidence is multilayered. Lexicons, and I am paraphrasing, often define confidence as having a strong sense of believing in yourself and that you can accomplish the goal you set out to do regardless of the opposition or if people are bought into your ideas.
I define confidence in three ways:
1. Action-oriented – You can do what you set out to do without needing others’ approval and/or comments
2. Feeling-based – You know that you are enough, good enough, qualified, or at the very least proficient in the tasks you are completing
3. Presence – You exude a strong presence or ability. You know how some people say a person has a strong social presence when entering a room, a social media presence, and/or a good stage presence, I believe you can see attributes of confidence following that same school of thought
So, a slayer would naturally metaphorically be one who diminishes it and is able to weaken and take over your confidence resulting in the three statements above being impacted. What! A confidence takeover! Looking at the three points above, one could conclude that confidence is innate. I agree that confidence inception might start from within but I push back against this and my own internal thoughts about confidence when confidence slayers dissuade the action you set out for yourself, alter the feeling that you are good enough, and/or make you feel small when they are in the room. I’ve seen it in my own life and observed the confidence slayers’ impact on others.
When I was growing up, my oldest sister would say, “You are so sensitive.” I viewed that as a negative comment as a child. When I grew up, I soon realized that everyone was sensitive to some action or comment, and that is a natural trait. If we could remember to be aware of others’ feelings and emotions, sensibilities, then we might do better with our work interactions. Perhaps, respect in the workforce could then be actionable, consistently.
McBride & Smith Training Advisory Group offers employee engagement training. We implement simple ways to train busy adults in the workforce based on adult learning principles.
Here’s a training tip:
Use collaborative tools to start interpersonal learning pods (small group training) with your employees. As an activity, find out their commonalities and differences (favorite pastime activities to work ethics, response styles, and decision-making traits). Revisit this simple warm-up training activity whenever you have group projects your team needs to launch to remove barriers.
For help with training, visit Mcbridesmithtraining.com
Listen to the commentary for more on “Confidence Slayers – Sparking Sensibilities”
Dr. Cassandra McBride-Smith is a thought leader in people management, CEO and founder of McBride & Smith Training Advisory Group with over 22 years of training and professorship in Adult Learning. Her company specializes in helping businesses with training strategies, employee engagement, creating eLearning, and building leadership skills.
Dr. Smith has led global training for Fortune 500 companies and taught tertiary students online. Smith’s expertise spans both academic and corporate settings as she has done extensive research on leadership, working virtually, and enhancing soft skills for people managers.
Smith is a published author and the creator of the Virtual Team Global Business Model (VTGBM™) explained in her book Working at a Distance: A Global Business Model for Virtual Team Collaboration and her newest product Virtual Behaviors App an innovative employee engagement tool to help support to connect leaders to their remote teams.
Learn more at https://www.mcbridesmithtraining.com/.