LeadershipandSelf ConfidenceAxelrod
LeadershipandSelf ConfidenceAxelrod
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
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
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.)
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
Confidence-Building
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
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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Adapted from Weintraub, P. (2015, May/June). The voice of reason. Psychology Today, 50-59 and 88.