The cheap and cheerful guide to growing self-awareness of your own confidence and capability

Self-awareness of your own confidence and capability is key to progressing in your career, leadership and life and going after or accepting opportunities to step up and grow. Sometimes our language can seem like we are waiting for permission from somebody else. You are your own leader. You decide when you're ready. Nobody else can make that decision for you. It's your life, it's your career, and it's your decision when you are ready for something.

Here’s 5 ways to grow your self-awareness around your own confidence and capability:

1. Announce it to yourself and the world

You can just announce it to the world like, "I'm ready to lead my own change. I'm ready to do X, Y, Z. I'm ready to move into Change Management. From this moment, I announce to the world that I am ready." And you can do a practice around that if you want, if you're into more spiritual practices. You could even write it down in your journal and just go, "I am ready for this. Universe, hear me. I'm ready to step into this next thing." It is a form of manifesting. It's also about taking back your own power. That’s why my Leading Successful Change community is so powerful: it gives you a safe space with like-minded women to share your goals, dreams, decisions and commitments.

2. Understand why we seek permission

It's our industry and it's our society that sets us up in a way where we feel like we're always waiting for permission. Permission from our parents, permission from our teachers, permission from our boss. It feels like we're always at the whims and mercy of everybody else. Actually, it's your life. Nobody can force you to do anything that you don't want to do. And nobody can stop you from living the life that you want to live. Take back that power for yourself.

3. Put fear of failure in its rightful place

We can also avoid owning what we’re ready for by thinking: what if we try to do something big and fail? In Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), we say: “There is no failure, only feedback”. With the really big stuff, sometimes the smallest win counts. You might not get to the finish line, but you might get a third of the way there. That's a win for the big stuff. That's a win for the complex changes. Often people think that Change Management is going to come in and wave a wand, and magically transform everything. And everybody's going to be happy, and everybody's going to link arms and sing off into the distance into a rainbow. We're not wizards, we're not magicians, we're not magic. Sometimes you've got to take the wins as they come, and acknowledge that a little bit of progress counts volumes: transformation happens over time. It doesn't happen overnight. So every move in the right direction, every little bit of engagement you get, every stakeholder you can get on board, every communication that lands successfully, every little thing, you've got to celebrate those wins. Which is why making sure that you've got achievements in your CV is so important and so powerful. 

4. Go for progress over perfection

I read something recently that children who were told they were gifted and talented can often grow up with very perfectionist tendencies. I put my hand up as a recovering perfectionist and I am still in the process of learning how to celebrate and feel fulfilled from any achievement, big or small. In the loosely translated words of Winston Churchill, remember “Progress over perfection”. It's about taking those steps. And every opportunity to work on something big and something more complex is an opportunity for growth. That's what life is all about - we need growth for variety, excitement and anticipation and a little bit of fear can help keep life interesting.

5. Leverage your coach and community

That's what my LSC Community and Coaching Calls are here for: so you can go and try new things, grow, tackle new challenges and step up with a safe, supportive, celebrating community and coach to help you along that path. Because it is hard, and nobody's expecting you to do it on your own. You can’t necessarily rely on your leaders or more senior Changies in your organisation to give you that support. So that's what our LSC Community is for. We’re that independent group and I always encourage my students to use us, use the resources, and use the energy and support of our group to find the confidence to go for it and keep the confidence if and when things don't go to plan. You’ve got Change cheerleaders in your corner, every step of the way.

If you’d like to learn how to build your confidence to change to Change and lead change successfully, come along to my free Live Workshop + Q&A on Wednesday 18 September 2024 at 6.00pm Sydney / 9.00am London.

It’s part of my free Change Tools Masterclass and on it we’ll be going deeper AND answering all your questions on the live session held via Zoom.

CLICK HERE to join my free Live Workshop + Q&A of my Change Tools Masterclass

Lata xx