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LeadershipandSelf ConfidenceAxelrod

The document discusses self-confidence and its role in leadership. It defines two types of self-confidence - general self-confidence, which is a stable personality trait, and specific self-confidence, which is a changing state associated with a specific task. Both types are developed through internal dialogues based on experiences and feedback. High levels of both types are essential for effective leadership as leaders can help followers build task-specific confidence to strengthen performance. The document also describes self-leadership, a process leaders use to positively influence internal dialogues and build specific self-confidence.

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Ehsan Albadwy
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
63 views16 pages

LeadershipandSelf ConfidenceAxelrod

The document discusses self-confidence and its role in leadership. It defines two types of self-confidence - general self-confidence, which is a stable personality trait, and specific self-confidence, which is a changing state associated with a specific task. Both types are developed through internal dialogues based on experiences and feedback. High levels of both types are essential for effective leadership as leaders can help followers build task-specific confidence to strengthen performance. The document also describes self-leadership, a process leaders use to positively influence internal dialogues and build specific self-confidence.

Uploaded by

Ehsan Albadwy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Leadership and Self-Confidence

Chapter 17 in
Leadership Today: Practices for Personal and Professional Performance,
Joan Marques and Satinder Dhiman, eds., Springer, 2017

Ruth H. Axelrod
Granite State College
raxelrod@gwmail.gwu.edu
603-856-8377

Summary

Self-confidence has two aspects: general self-confidence, which is a stable personality


trait that develops in early childhood, and specific self-confidence, which is a changing
mental and emotional state associated with the specific task or situation at-hand. We
develop both types of self-confidence through automatic, mostly unconscious, internal
dialogues whereby we make judgements about ourselves based on our experiences and
others’ feedback. While both types of self-confidence profoundly affect our thoughts,
emotions and behavior, our level of general self-confidence is important primarily in new
and unusual circumstances while specific self-confidence is pertinent to our every-day
performance. High levels of both types are essential for effective leadership and enable
the leader to influence his collaborators, or followers, to build task-specific self-
confidences that can strengthen their job performance. The chapter includes instructions
for a conscious mental process called self-leadership, which effective leaders routinely
employ and through which we each can learn to positively influence our internal
dialogues so that we, too, can build on our innate abilities and develop specific self-
confidences to do what we choose.

Objectives

1. To be able to define self-confidence, distinguish the two types and explain the roles
that they play in our lives.
2. To be able to describe how self-confidence is developed and maintained in childhood
and beyond.
3. To be able to explain the role that self-confidence plays in effective leadership.
4. To be able to describe how a self-confident leader can directly and indirectly affect
his or her subordinates, helping them maximize their performances.
5. To be able to practice self-leadership.

Introduction

The ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, who wrote about leadership in his troubled
times, observed that confidence is a person’s greatest friend. Modern leadership
researchers generally agree, since most of those who have focused on the leader’s
personality traits include self-confidence in their lists of what makes leaders effective.1
1
In fact, a review study found, in 2002, that in the ten existing reviews of research on
leadership traits, self-confidence was the only trait that appeared in a majority (eight) of
the lists.2 Even scholars who focus on leader behaviors or leader-follower relationships
generally include self-confidence in their discussions.3

This chapter discusses the nature of self-confidence, how it affects both leaders and their
collaborators, or followers, and how a person can strengthen and maintain it.

The Nature of Self-Confidence

As with many psychological constructs, scholarly as well as popular definitions of self-


confidence vary considerably, with most people describing it as how we feel about
ourselves and our capabilities. For the purposes of this chapter, it is defined as an
individual’s level of certainty about his or her ability to handle things. Self-confidence is
formed through complex internal processes of judgement and self-persuasion4 whereby
we attach meaning to our personal experiences--particularly our successes and failures in
past performances--and comprehend others’ reactions to us.5 Thus, it involves sense-
making6 whereby we learn to understand ourselves and create expectations of our future
performances. Some psychologists conceptualize our resulting beliefs as a continuum
with high self-confidence at one end and uncertainty at the other.7

We experience self-confidence in two different forms—as a stable personality trait of


general self-confidence —e.g., “I know that I will do well in any job for which I am
qualified”--and as a variable state of task-specific self-confidence—e.g., “I can help with
the research but I am not good at creating PowerPoint presentations.”

General Self-Confidence: A Personality Trait

Our level of general self-confidence has to do with our beliefs and judgments about our
ability to do well irrespective of the task or context. It develops early in our lives, within
the contexts of our families and other social environments such as daycare and
kindergarten,8 as an aggregate of our judgements and feelings about our capabilities and,
therefore, ourselves.9 These early childhood self-assessments become part of our
personalities and, so, are highly resistant to change.10 In consequence, the level of general
self-confidence that we each acquire in childhood remains fairly stable over our lifetime.
For example, if Antonio is repeatedly told that he is stupid when he fails in various tasks,
he will tend to develop a low level of general self-confidence while Maryam, who is told
that he has the ability to do anything that she wants, develops a high level.

Specific Self-Confidence: A State of Mind

Our level of specific self-confidence reflects our beliefs and feelings about our ability to
do a specific task that we are facing at a particular point in time. Like general self-
confidence, specific self-confidence is built primarily on our judgments about our
performances. However, unlike general self-confidence it is a state of mind that alters in
some way after almost every new experience.11 Both Antonio and Maryam will gradually

2
gain confidence as they learn to do a specific task and succeed in performing it, but when
they fail, their task-specific confidence may wane.

The Interaction of General and Specific Self-Confidence

People with a high level of general self-confidence find it easier to enter into new
environments and take on new tasks than do people with low general self-confidence12
So, on the first day of their new jobs, Antonio may feel more anxious and uncertain than
does Maryam who, with high general self-confidence, is better equipped to develop the
new specific self-confidences that are required. However, at the end of their successful
probation periods, both are likely beginning to develop a sense of competence relative to
the tasks they perform, and that affects their immediate behavior far more than do their
general levels of self-confidence. Specific self-confidence supports our ability to deal
with recurrent and familiar problems though general self-confidence affects our ability to
cope with the unknown.13

Thus, with regard to self-confidence, at least, it is fair to say that eight decades of formal
leadership research has demonstrated that leaders are both born and made.

Case # 1. Speaking Truth to Power

Rachael was the new administrative manager of a special unit in a


hospital. One morning, the ward clerk ran into her office, saying, “Dr.
Smith is yelling at Carol in front of a patient!” Though anxious about
facing this formidable senior physician, Rachael hurried to the patient’s
room, sized up the situation, grabbed Carol’s arm and drew her toward
the door, saying, “I am sorry, Dr. Smith, but I need Carol in my office
immediately.” Astounded, he followed.

Once both were in her office with the door closed, he turned on Rachael,
saying angrily, “How dare you interfere with patient care!” “I am sorry
for interrupting,” Rachael replied, “But, in the future, if you feel you need
to shout at Carol, I will be happy to vacate my office so that you can do so
in private. Your patient is dependent on his nurse around the clock and
you may have just damaged his confidence in her, which is not to your
patient’s benefit, Doctor.” He glared, turned on his heal and left.

Rachael sat down, before her knees could cave in and took a deep breath.
Carol gave her a quick hug and left. Rachael immediately called her boss,
Dr. Rand, to explain what had happened before he heard Dr. Smith’s
version. She later learned that Dr. Smith had complained about her but
Dr. Rand had supported her actions. Several weeks later, hospital
scuttlebutt maintained that Dr. Smith had stopped shouting at nurses
throughout the hospital.

3
1. What factors made Rachael willing to challenge Dr. Smith’s authority
and how were they each relevant to her decision and actions?
2. How would you have handled this situation, and why?

The Self-Confident Leader

Self-confidence plays a role in every aspect of a leader’s thoughts, feelings, behavior,


relationships and job performance,14 through an internal psychological mechanism called
self-leadership.

Self-Leadership: A Meta-Skill

As we go about our daily lives, we continually receive incoming sensory data that we
must process in our minds before we can make sense of it. This automatic and largely
unconscious activity draws on all our internal resources—including our values, beliefs,
assumptions and expectations (VABEs), memories, attitudes and motivations—to assess
the input and determine what it means for us.15 Thus, our conclusions are, in part, shaped
by personality traits such as self-confidence.

The practice of self-leadership enables us to influence those conclusions by consciously


inserting selected information into the deliberative process; in other words, by attempting
to persuade ourselves of something that we want to believe. For example, after we fail at
a task, most of us automatically berate ourselves but if we practice self-leadership, we
can observe that we failed only because it was a learning experience and assure ourselves
that we will succeed next time. Articulating this causal attribution and positive
expectation helps guide our thoughts in a constructive direction and manage our
emotions, emotions,16 so it helps builds task-specific self-confidence, which can enhance
performance17 because people who believe they can perform well tend to do better than
those who expect to fail.18 It can also help us avoid over-confidence, which develops
through internal dialogues that focus solely on our successes, thus fostering unrealistic
beliefs and expectations.19

In short, self-leadership may be the leader’s single most important skill, an effective tool
that can help build task-specific self-confidence and, so, shape our internal life story to
foster success.20 For this reason, it is now being widely recommended in practitioner-
oriented books, scientific journal articles and leadership training programs.21

Effects of Self-Confidence on Leader Behaviors

Most effects of self-confidence are mediated by self-leadership but some are directly
affected by the leader’s belief in his competencies. Since both general and specific self-
confidence influence these self-beliefs, they were not distinguished in most of the
research that is relevant to leadership.

Psychological Empowerment: Self-confidence plays a role in psychological


empowerment by influencing our willingness to take control of our work and function
4
autonomously, being more or less independent in our decision-making and behavior.22
For example, research shows that to manage performance problems, self-confident
managerial leaders tend to work directly with their subordinates, using informal
persuasion and supervisory power, while those with less confidence may fall back on
formal administrative processes and referrals “up the ladder.”23

Goal-Setting: Self-confidence is a prerequisite for embracing the risk of challenging the


status quo, which is what the best leaders often do.24 Leaders with strong self-confidence
tend to have positive expectations and, so, are willing to take risks that others might
avoid.25 This allows them to accept accountability, making difficult decisions and
following them up with decisive action.26 The willingness to take risks, coupled with
their belief in their own competence, also prompts them to set high, hard goals,27 which
serve as a highly effective self-management technique because they have been shown to
maximize performance.28

Motivation and Persistence: Self-confidence also enhances motivation and engenders


persistence in pursuing goals. Even though he is not intrinsically motivated by a
particular activity, a self-confident leader will tend to demand of himself that he do it,
and will do it well, thus generating a goal and building commitment to a high level of
performance.29 Our level of self-confidence also affects our willingness to persist in a
task when we fear failure. For example, in situations where our known levels of
achievement are not sufficient to achieve a particular goal, people with strong self-
confidence will heighten their level of effort and persistence while those with low
confidence may quickly give up.30 When the discrepancy between goals and
achievements is so large, however, that it undermines our specific self-confidence, people
with high general self-confidence will adjust their goal while low-confidence people tend
to become discouraged and abandon the goal altogether.31 (Also see Chapter_____.
Motivation and Chapter _______. Perseverance)

Management of Emotions: Self-leadership plays a role in helping us manage our


emotions,32 particularly for self-confident people, so that we can distance ourselves from
our feelings and view them in perspective. It softens the blow when we fail, which is
important because failure affects us viscerally since confidence judgments shape our
emotions as well as our rational thoughts.33

Through emotion management, self-confidence has a positive impact on a leader’s ability


to manage conflict.34 By helping a leader remain emotionally stable, containing his
anxiety and anger during difficult confrontations, it allows him to focus all his attention
on positive, functional and constructive language and approaches that will yield
beneficial outcomes.35 In short, self-confidence plays a role in emotional control,
enabling leader to act, with honesty and integrity, in reliable and adaptable ways.36 Self-
control also enhances others’ perceptions of his abilities, while lack of self-control tends
to damage trust and commitment. (Also see Chapter _____. Emotional Intelligence.)

Presence and Voice: Presence and voice are twin facets of how we present ourselves to
the world. The “right” presentation confers social status on a leader and, so, helps him

5
win allies and rally support.37 Though self-confidence is an internal attribute, it must
always be evident in the leader’s voice, words and physical mien, for example, in his use
of persuasive arguments, rather than coercion, to influence others.38

A display of self-confidence works in combination with other characteristics, such as


assertiveness and decisiveness, to generate so-called “executive presence,”39 which is
comprised of a set of cues that most people naively associate with leaderly strength and
competence.40 The characteristics associated with executive presence are inherently
masculine, so it should come as no surprise that the term is rarely applied to women.41
Modern workplaces, though, are demanding new patterns of leadership behavior so both
men and women are forging new styles of presence and voice.

Authenticity and Achievement: Leaders who have a strong sense of self-confidence tend
to be comfortable disclosing their personal values and beliefs.42 This enables them to act
authentically rather than hiding behind masks, as people with low self-confidence often
do. When their driving values are prosocial, such as treating everyone with respect and
wanting to make the world a better place, their work can become intrinsically spiritual
and transforming,43 helping them reach their full potential and raising the aspirations of
those around them to achieve things beyond themselves. (Also see Chapter ______.
Spirituality.)

Case #2: Leading in Fits and Starts

Whenever Michael, the President of a large, urban teaching hospital


announced that he was going away for a few days to attend a managerial
leadership workshop, his managers exchanged knowing glances and
mouthed the words, “Not again!” across the room. On his return, they
knew, he would insist that they stop what they were doing and focus on
implementing the new management model or practices that were
recommended in the workshop. And so it was--the old vision was clouded,
priorities shifted and they started on a new course once again.

Over time, the managers who wanted to accomplish lasting changes that
would improve the hospital experience for the patients and their families,
and the employees, lost their motivation and left. Those who remained
were largely people who were comfortable living with the status quo.

Questions:
1. How and why do you think the workshops affect Michael’s
management decisions?
2. What should his loyal managers do in this situation?

6
The Self-Confident Leader and His Collaborators

Self-confidence plays an important role in a leader’s ability to influence his collaborators’


thoughts, emotions and behaviors,44 in large part, by bolstering his credibility, since
credibility is a cornerstone not only of leadership45 but also of trust.46 Thus, while it is
important that a leader be self-confident, it is imperative that collaborators perceive him
that way.47

Confidence-Building

The GLOBE studies of culturally-relevant leadership attributes found that “confidence-


builder” is positively endorsed as a leadership characteristic in all of the numerous
countries around the world where its researchers conducted their local studies.48 Other
research in the U.S. has demonstrated that a leader’s self-confidence can enhance the
confidence of his collaborators49 and, consequently, their performance.50 Some
leadership scholars even contend that fostering other people’s self-confidence is one of
the hallmarks of great leadership,51 and one of the most important tools for individual and
organizational transformation.52

Empowerment and Motivation

Employee empowerment is vital in all modern organizations, especially those that rely on
creative knowledge work such as architecture, economic development or technological
innovation.53 Strong, self-confident leaders empower collaborators by articulating
expectations of high performance and expressing confidence in their ability to achieve
it.54 Empowered employees take initiative, engaging in volitional behaviors that give
them a sense of freedom and autonomy.55

Goals and Performance

Collaborative goal-setting by a leader and subordinate produces different effects


depending on the subordinate’s levels of both general and task-specific self-confidence.
Those with strong self-confidence will tend to choose higher goals and accept more
difficult challenges, commit more strongly, spend more effort and persist indefinitely in
the face of difficulties,56 thus usually achieving more than do those with low levels of
confidence, who are more conservative in their aspirations.57

How to Develop and Maintain Self-Confidence

As discussed above, though we cannot improve our level of general self-confidence, we


can dramatically increase our task-specific self-confidences through learning, practicing
and interpreting our performances in positive ways.58 Research has shown that conscious
use of following strategies and techniques can help us achieve mastery in a wide range of
circumstances.59

7
1. Interpreting Our Performance Experiences

Information about our past performances, as we interpret it, has the strongest and most
lasting effect on our self-confidence, for better or worse.60 Our internal assessments
generally take into consideration the difficulty of the task, how much external aid we
received and how much effort we expended to achieve those performances.61 So it is
only insofar as we credit ourselves, rather than external agencies, with our successes that
our memories of the experiences contribute, over time, to a robust sense of self-
confidence.

2. Monitoring Our Emotional and Physical States

Noticing the emotions triggered by thinking about or engaging in a task can help discern
whether our self-confidence about it is low or high. If we detect feelings of fear and self-
doubt, for example, anxiety is likely to follow. For physical activities, ranging from
keyboarding to dancing at the company gala, we tend to interpret our physical
symptoms--such as high energy, fatigue or pain--as indicators of our competence.62 Thus,
managing our emotions and our physical output can help improve our self-confidence for
various tasks.

3. Heeding Our Cheerleaders

Other people play a crucial role in helping us build self-confidence (or not) by setting
expectations, evaluating our performances and helping us understand the reasons for our
successes and failures, as well as supporting us emotionally by celebrating wins and
supporting us through losses.63 To be effective, their input and feedback must be
believable and explicitly credit our underlying ability to do the task. It is most influential
coming from people whom we perceive to have expertise and prestige, as well as being
credible and trustworthy,64 and it plays an important part in our self-leadership dialogues.

Formal coaching is effective not only in sports but also in other areas of endeavor. So-
called “executive coaching” can increase a leader’s sense of efficacy65 so that he feels
better equipped to deal with the difficult aspects of his job;66 for this reason, many
companies fund it for their senior managerial-leaders. Typically, coaching involves
personal goal-setting as well as feedback, since both are required to achieve optimal
performance, though any kind of evaluative feedback is more helpful more none at all.67

4. Comparing Ourselves to Others

The less experience we have had in doing something, the more we rely on social
comparison, or modeling, to establish expectations of our own performance.68 We can
best approximate our capabilities by observing models who are similar to us in personal
characteristics and general experience.69 Seeing them achieve their goals through effort
and persistence can be a powerful source of aspiration and motivation. “If she can do it,
so can I” is a common inference that can help build our self-confidence sufficiently to

8
launch us into a task.70 When our self-confidence is on the wane, we also can benefit
from examples of others’ courage, using it to strengthen and guide us.71

5. Reducing Our Performance Anxiety

Anxiety, or stress, negatively influences our self-beliefs about our ability to cope, so
managing anxiety is an important way to increase self-confidence in anxiety-prone
situations such as confronting an under-performing subordinate or giving a speech in
public. We can mitigate the anxiety by rehearsing the event in our imagination, as many
experienced leaders regularly do (see procedure in box_____). Over time, this builds
confidence that we can cope with many kinds of stressors. But if high anxiety is an
omnipresent challenge, we would do well to consider formal training in cognitive-
behavioral coping skills.72

6. Practicing Positive Self-Leadership

The techniques described above are helpful only if we can use the information gained
from them to positively influence ourselves.73 This requires that we convince ourselves
that we either have or can acquire the skills needed to do the target task. If we believe
that it requires an inherent aptitude--such as boldness where we are shy, high intelligence
where we are average, or a large accumulation of knowledge that we do not possess--we
will never persuade ourselves that it is doable.

One way to build our task-specific confidence is to rehearse the activity in our minds,
generating mental imagery of a successful performance.74 For example, we might
rehearse a counseling session in our minds, imagining things that the under-performing
subordinate might say and inventing appropriate responses, then concluding the session
inspirationally. Then, when we get to the actual session, we have already done it once
and learned by the experience.

A second say is to engage in constructive self-talk.75 Both before and after doing a task,76
a well-constructed series of affirmations and ego boosts can undercut our inner critic,
reduce our anxiety (even for those with perennial, trait-based anxiety77) and help us learn
to trust our ability to achieve success. Self-talk is most effective when we address
ourselves by our given names in our internal thoughts and directives. Avoiding the
pronouns, “I” and “me,” helps distance us emotionally so that we can focus on the task,78
working through our thoughts and feelings to rationally compare its needs with our
known aptitudes and skills.79 And afterwards, whether we succeeded or failed, it helps us
construct a confidence-building narrative to augment our accumulated experience.

9
PLACE IN BOX
How I Can Talk Myself Through a Challenging Task:80
A Lesson from Ryan

 Ryan will sit back and take a few deep breaths, which will relax him. Ryan does
not need to be anxious because this is an easy task and he has already done
something similar.
 First, Ryan will go through the steps of the task in his mind. He has assembled the
things that he needs. Wow! This will be easier than he thought! The next step is
to…
 Now, Ryan is ready to do the actual task. The first step is just like he imagined. It
really came out well. The next step is more complicated but Ryan can do it.
Oops! That does not look right but now Ryan knows what it should look like so it
will be easy to do.
 It’s all done and it looks great! Ryan came through with flying colors! He
messed up one piece of it but now he knows how, so he won’t do that again. Let’s
see what the boss thinks about it.

Some of these techniques will probably be familiar as we all sometimes practice them
consciously. Others may feel odd, at first, but if we persist in practicing them, they can
help us develop task-specific self-confidences and, so, become more effective in all
domains of our lives.

Discussion Questions

1. What are the two types of self-confidence described in this chapter and what role does
each play in our lives?

2. Consider a very recent experience where you failed to meet your own standards of
excellence. Did the failure impact your specific self-confidence? If so, how and why?
If not, why not?

3. Think about a leader whom you have observed close-up, such as your boss, another
manager, officer, politician or religious leader. Do you think that he or she has a
strong sense of general self-confident or not? Drawing on the material in this chapter,
as well as your own experience, explain what led you to that conclusion.

4. You have been randomly assigned as the leader of a group of peers who have
volunteered to arrange an event for your club or class or school. What would you do
to ensure that each of you contributes as effectively as possible to the task?

5. Select one thing that you are not confident about doing but that you need to do either
now or in the near future. Jot down some ways that you can mentally prepare
yourself for it, drawing on the techniques described in the last section of this chapter.

10
11
1
See, for example, Bass, B. M., & Stogdill, R. M. (1990). Bass & Stogdill's handbook of Leadership: Theory,
research, & managerial applications (3rd ed.). New York: The Free Press; Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & Annie,
M. (2001, December). Primal leadership: The hidden driver of great performance. Harvard Business Review;
Goleman, D. (1998, November-December). What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review; Kirkpatrick, S. A., &
Locke, E. A. (1991). Leadership: Do traits matter? Academy of Management Executive, 5(2), 48-60; Northouse, P.
G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). London: Sage; Stogdill, R. M. (1948). Personal factors
associated with leadership: A survey of the literature. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 25(1),
35-71; and Yukl, G. (2001). Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
2
Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., Ilies, R., & Gerhardt, M. W. (2002). Personality and leadership: A qualitative and
quantitative review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 765-780.
3
Alvolio, B. J., Waldman, D. A., & Yammarino, F. J. (1991). Leading in the 1990s: The four I's of transformational
leadership. Journal of European Industrial Training, 15(4); Heifetz, R. A., & Laurie, D. L. (1997, January-
February). The work of leadership. Harvard Business Review; Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (1993). Credibility:
How leaders gain and lose it, why people demand it. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; and Zaleznik, A. (1977,
May/June). Managers and leaders: Are they different. Harvard Business Review, 55, 67-78.
4
Bandura, A. (1990). Perceived self-efficacy in the exercise of personal agency. Journal of Applied Sport
Psychology, 2(2), 128-163.
5
Oney, E., & Oksuzoglu-Guven, G. (2015). Confidence: A critical review of the literature and an alternative
perspective for general and specific self-confidence. Psychological Reports: Mental & Physical Health, 116(1),
149-163.
6
Weick, K. E. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
7
Oney, E., & Oksuzoglu-Guven, G. (2015). Confidence: A critical review of the literature and an alternative
perspective for general and specific self-confidence. Psychological Reports: Mental & Physical Health, 116(1),
149-163; Stajkovic, A. D. (2006). Development of a core confidence-higher order construct. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 91(6), 1208-1224; and Tubbs, S. L., & Schulz, E. (2006). Exploring a taxonomy of global leadership
competencies and meta-competencies. Journal of the American Academy of Business, Cambridge, 8(2), 29-34.
8
See, for example, Conger, J. A. (2004). Developing leadership capability: What's inside the black box? Academy
of Management Perspective, 18(3), 136-139.
9
Oney, E., & Oksuzoglu-Guven, G. (2015). Confidence: A critical review of the literature and an alternative
perspective for general and specific self-confidence. Psychological Reports: Mental & Physical Health, 116(1),
149-163; and Stajkovic, A. D. (2006). Development of a core confidence-higher order construct. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 91(6), 1208-1224.
10
Matthews, G., Deary, I. J., & Whiteman, M. C. (2003). Personality traits (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press; and Oney, E., & Oksuzoglu-Guven, G. (2015). Confidence: A critical review of the literature and
an alternative perspective for general and specific self-confidence. Psychological Reports: Mental & Physical
Health, 116(1), 149-16.
11
Demo, D. H. (1992). The self-concept over time: Research issues and directions. Annual Review of Sociology, 18,
303-326.
12
Oney, E., & Oksuzoglu-Guven, G. (2015). Confidence: A critical review of the literature and an alternative
perspective for general and specific self-confidence. Psychological Reports: Mental & Physical Health, 116(1),
149-163.
13
Oney, E., & Oksuzoglu-Guven, G. (2015). Confidence: A critical review of the literature and an alternative
perspective for general and specific self-confidence. Psychological Reports: Mental & Physical Health, 116(1),
149-163.
14
Kolb, J. A. (1999). The effect of gender role, attitude toward leadership, and self-confidence on leader emergence:
Implications for leadership development. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 10(4), 305-320; and Neck, C.
P., & Manz, C. C. (1992). Thought self-leadership: The influence of self-talk and mental imagery on performance.
Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13, 681-699.
15
Kleitman, S., & Stankov, L. (2006). Self-confidence and metacognitive processes. Learning and Individual
Differences, 17, 161-173; Knippenberg, D. v., Knippenberg, B. v., De Cremer, D., & Hogg, M. A. (2004).
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