Self Confidence and Leadership - Research Paper Example

 Self Confidence and Leadership “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.” Is a dialogue from a famous fictional character, Peter Pan. This dialogue although belongs to a character from a fictional book mostly read by children, but the life lesson behind it is not easy to overlook. It highlights that important attribute that clear cut paves the way to success. Forbes Magazine published an article ‘Top 10 qualities that make a great leader’ and most of the qualities that have landed a spot in that top ten are linked to self-confidence like ability to delegate, communicate, ability to inspire, having a positive approach and many more [Tan12]. This paper will look into that special quality, which is self-confidence, and will research on how self-confidence is linked to leadership. Brian Tracy a motivational speakers believes that Great leaders are charismatic and display self-confidence, which creates the Halo effect and people are keener in following them [Bri13]. It will in deep analyze how in the field of leadership, self-confidence has made its mark and how important and necessary it is to have self-confidence. Before highlighting the connection self-confidence has with leadership it is quite essential to define both the terms. How is leadership defined? Many different people have tried and explained the meaning of leadership looking at different aspects of leadership. The author of The Art and Science of Leadership, Afsaneh Nahavandi has defined the term leader in a very complete and clear sense which covers most of the aspects attached with the word, “A leader is defined as any person who influences individuals and groups within an organization, helps them in the establishment of goals, and guides them toward achievement of those goals, thereby allowing them to be effective”[Afs06]. Martin Chemers, a social psychologist has describes leadership as “a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task” [Mar97]. Some of the most important qualities that are sought out in a leader are his ability to guide, lead and his ability to persuade and inspire people and lead them to a path of success. People have often related the art of leadership with skill of a leader that connects him with his followers, what they fail to look at is the idea of the building of a leader. Questions like what makes a regular person a ‘leader’? What qualities give him the edge to lead people and not just follow them? In recent literature people have defined many of those invaluable qualities that’s bring the person in front of the line and gives him the courage and the vision to lead, here are some examples, self-confidence, charisma, creativity, integrity and many more. This paper will look at the aspect of self-confidence. Self-confidence is something we have all heard in our lives, is something that has always been asked of us. But the real question we need to ask ourselves, before we can contemplate further whether we have it? Or if we don’t how do we build it? Is what self-confidence is? How is it different from ego? Self-confidence is a socio-psychological concept of believing in one’s own self, to believe that you have the power the ability to do something. A famous psychologist, Raj Persaud, in his book, ‘The Motivated Mind’ says that self-confidence comes such an outlook where you, “Promise yourself, no matter how difficult the problem life throws at you, that you will try as hard as you can to help yourself. You acknowledge that sometimes your efforts to help yourself may not result in success, as often being properly rewarded is not in your control” [Raj05]. Now that it is defined in clear terms what self-confidence and leadership actually is, this paper will continue to explain how closely both these concepts are linked. To be able to lead a group or and make them believe in what you say, a person has to have self-confidence. And the main reason that in circles this proposition is the idea that if a person himself doubts his ideas and decisions, he will never is able to make other people believe in him and further down the road to follow him. In a blog post, Katy Goshtasbi, who has an experience of thirteen years working as an attorney in law in the cooperate sectors of America shares her point of view how leadership comes hand in hand with self-confidence. She quotes a clinical psychologist, Leslie Pratch, who conducted a research about the personality traits of leadership and she concluded that self-confidence is indeed one of the main qualities an effective leader possess [Kat11]. Every quality that a leader should have somehow is linked to self-confidence; let it be communication with his team, decision making, creativity or having a particular skill. All these qualities will be of no value if a person is lacking self-confidence. As self-confidence does not only about believe in yourself but it also gives you the push you need to make yourself stand out from hundreds of other candidates. Adalia John in her article creates a distinction between great leaders and normal leaders by saying, “Leaders without confidence stand on shaky ground and lose the respect of the people they are leading. People do not trust or want to follow leaders who lack confidence. On the other hand, leaders with self-confidence garner the respect of the people they are leading because of their decisiveness” [Why10]. Leadership is all about the confidence of making decisions, Francisco Dao gives an example of her client who had no confidence and so was so averse of making decisions that she was unable to give a straight answer. According to him Self-confidence is the fundamental basis from which leadership grows, without confidence there is no leadership [Fra08]. Peter Barron Stark, in his article brings to light the significance of self-confidence by saying that “confidence is the cornerstone of leadership” [Pet121]. It is not only the side of the leader that is affected by this quality but it also ensures that people will follow a leader who is confident in himself. People tend to follow people who are confident in their abilities and who know that what they are doing is right. Followers tend to feel safe under such a leader and are more happy and willing to work under him as it gives them some confidence and assurance of their own. Stark later in his article concludes, “In reality, self-confidence is a more important asset than skill, knowledge, or even experience. Without confidence, you will find it difficult to make tough decisions, lead meetings with authority, get people to communicate with you candidly, and be open to feedback, particularly when it is of the constructive type. Without confidence, you will second guess your decisions and find yourself becoming defensive, when challenged. Without confidence, you may find yourself sadly lacking in one very important component of leadership… followers.” [Pet121] The article has made it very clear about how self-confidence is the fulcrum of success and leadership. But the main point is why some people are leaders and why some people are not? How people who lead are capable of doing that job? And why some people never make efficient leaders. The answer to all of them is self-confidence. But is this ability a natural inborn ability? The answer to that is no. self-confidence is one of the qualities that a person is taught about since the very first day. Students in school are appreciated on work, students are given responsibilities and are asked to believe in themselves, and the primary goal of all these activities is to build self-confidence. Marshall Goldsmith, a renowned American leadership coach, talks about in his article that he has never seen a person at a high level post that lacks self, because according to him it is just not possible to succeed in life with self-confidence. And so he is often asked to speak in business schools to prospective leaders on how to build self-confidence, and according to him it’s just a five step plan. Firstly is to forget about being perfect and there is no right and wrong to business decisions, a person should forget about public opinion and work to his full potential. Second being creating acceptance towards failure, he says that a person who is ready to accept failure is one who is most likely to succeed too, as people learn from mistakes. Perceiving failure as a stepping stone instead of looking it as an end. Third is to believe in yourself, you should not second guess your choices. Fourth is to show courage, he believes that everyone feels afraid inside but if a leader shows courage and hope it reflects positively on the whole team, which leads the team to believe in him. Last but not the least is to find happiness in what you do, if a person is not happy about the kind of work he does he would never be confident enough to lead other people [Mar09]. The paper not only connects two of the most important concepts in business but also highlights how effective leadership cannot survive without self-confidence. It can be seen that self-confidence is the root of all other qualities needed by a good successful leader. Great leaders stand on the foundation of self-confidence as if they didn’t have that they would be no where no matter the high level of skill they possess, as after all being a leader is all about putting yourself out there, selling your own brand, making people believe in you and how could people believe in you and follow you if you are unable to believe in yourself. Theodore Roosevelt, the twenty sixth president of United States of America said, “Believe you can and you're halfway there.” Is just the right way to sum up the importance of self-confidence. Works Cited Tan12: , (Prive, 2012), Bri13: , (Tracy, 2013), Afs06: , (Nahavandi, 2006), Mar97: , (Chemers, 1997), Raj05: , (Persaud, 2005), Kat11: , (Goshtasbi, 2011), Why10: , (John, 2010), Fra08: , (Dao, 2008), Pet121: , (Start, 2012), Mar09: , (Goldsmith, 2009), Read More