Overcoming obstacles, leaping over hurdles, and recovering from fumbles can strengthen a team that has the discipline not to panic under pressure – so says Rosabeth Moss Kanter in her book “Confidence”.
For many of us, there is one story from our childhood that stands out in our memories. We may forget stories of bears or castles or animals, but none of us forget the little engine that could.
“I think I can, I think I can.”
This essence of perseverance sticks with us throughout our lives. Overcoming setbacks, clawing our way up through adversity. We think we can, we think we can.
Once we reach the top, the mantra changes to – “I know I can.”
This level of confidence is one crucial element that must be in play in order to ensure an organization’s future success. The role of the leader must ultimately be to help instill a sense of confidence in their organization. Confidence helps people take control of circumstances, rather than be dragged along by them. It is a self-propagating mixture of accountability, collaboration, and initiative.
Confidence is based on a cumulative set of events. As a leader, the focus of your effort should be to look at the “wins” and the “losses” in a historical context. Many times, leaders focus on the next win only and, while this is important, they must also consider their team’s overall track record – especially in crucial games.
The most important goal is to develop a series of wins, to be able to create serial success. This “winning streak” mentality is what ultimately translates into higher confidence for the team which, in turn, helps “psyche” them up for the next event. The resulting confidence not only enhances your team’s self-starting ability and sense of empowerment, but also allows you to look further out into the future for even more challenging goals.
In the same way, when your team is in the midst of a losing streak, your focus must be on analyzing missed opportunities, and developing a strategy to keep them from happening again.
Remember that momentum can shift either way with respect to confidence. In sports and in business, winning teams have temporary setbacks to be sure, but they are able to keep the overall momentum moving in the right direction because they have an ability to recall the taste of confidence.
Confidence is self-propagating. It is contagious. Once an organization gets it right, there can be several benefits that ultimately lead to enhanced levels of confidence, including:
- an emotional climate of high expectations
- positive, supportive, team-oriented behaviour
- organizational structures and routines reinforcing accountability, collaboration and innovation
- a network to provide supportive resources
The cycle goes on and on. Winning builds confidence and this confidence builds more winning.
