Confidence part 2
Recently we had the opportunity to witness real confidence.
Leonard Cohen performed at Copps Coliseum to a sold out house of 7,000. It is
immediately evident that this is a man who is extremely confident in his abilities
as a poet and a performer. His 3 hour + performance was without a false step.
He was charming, generous and slightly self-effacing. What rang true for me was
his relationship to the audience. We were simply a part of his world and he a
part of ours. In fact he referred to "us" several times as "friends." Real
genius is the ability to do the complex in what looks like an effortless way. With
confidence in that ability we rise above the mundane to create unique and
memorable experiences.
Few of us have the opportunity to perform around the world
to standing ovations nightly. Most of us would not want to; but that doesn't
mean each of us can't be supremely confident in what we do daily. So how
do we create and sustain this confidence?
1 Delegate what you are not good at. If you have to work at
tasks for which you are not uniquely suited to perform you will never reach a
level of confidence and superior ability. If your abilities lie in sales and
not in completing the corresponding paper work, find someone who loves
completing forms and writing reports. If you are great at building complex
strategies for selling large commercial buildings worth millions of dollars
your confidence is going to take a beating if you also have to write the sales
literature, go out and put the signs up, drum up customers etc. By
strengthening and focusing on your strengths your confidence will automatically
increase.
2 Self-confident people inspire confidence in others. Being
"at the top of your game" as the expression goes also goes along with the
natural generosity that confident people have. There is an expression that goes
something like "if you want something done give it a busy person." If you want
to instill confidence in people let them see what confidence really looks like.
How do highly confident and competent people generally behave? They're not
worrying about the future because they are confident in their ability to create
the future they desire and deserve. They are not focused on putting people down
or pointing out their weaknesses; they're appreciating the abilities of others
and the combined efforts to create a success environment. At the end of the
Leonard Cohen concert he thanked the people who made the concert a success; his
band, his singers, the people that take care of the performers back stage, the
sound and lighting people etc. and the crew. When was the last time you heard
someone thank the sound guy for their success? But this is the success that Mr.
Cohen delegated to an expert who was highly skilled and confident that he could
produce remarkable sound quality in a large concert space. In its own way he
was an important part of creating the artist's confidence in presenting a
memorable evening. If you are not perfectly comfortable operating a power point
projector at your next presentation, your confidence is going to suffer and so
will the whole performance. If typos appear in an important document because
proofing is not your forte, your confidence will be eroded.
Who is on your confidence team? Is it a trusted assistant, a
valued associate, perhaps a third party who is highly competent at a key skill
you are missing. Each of us whether we run a home based business, a large
corporation or a busy household will not be as successful, happy or fulfilled
without a team behind us.
"Confidence is preparation. Everything else is beyond our
control." Richard Kline
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