How to be confident at work is a video that describes four effective strategies to be a confident professional every day at work. Watch the video to get these strategies, or read the summary below to learn these tips.
If you want to learn actionable tips that would help you demonstrate confidence as a professional, check out the confidence course for professionals.Why do you need to be confident at work? Because you want to show your boss, coworkers, and clients that you are the best choice for them. When you are confident, what people see is competence. When you are confident, your boss sees an employee that can be trusted to handle the workload that comes with being promoted to a leadership position.
How to be confident at work: 4 Strategies You Can Use Today
1. Create the best first impression.
You need to create the best first impressions every workday. When you create the best first impression day at work, two things happen. You are setting your mindset or you putting yourself in the right mindset for the day.
You don't go to work with your physical body alone but with your entire being. Your mental, spiritual, and physical self go to work too. So when you make up your mind to create the best first impression, you are setting yourself up for success. You are setting yourself up to be positive.
Think about it. When you think of creating the best first impression, you are thinking of how you can show your worth. Your focus would be on presenting your best self. You see, it sets your mindset towards being positive for the day.
The second thing you do is to set the tone for which your coworkers, your boss, and your client will perceive you for the day. You are telling your clients and coworkers that you've got their back. When people meet with you, they form a memory of their interactions with you. They refer to these memories when they have to make decisions concerning you. For example, during performance appraisals at work, part of the opinion of your boss documents is based on the memory your boss has of you.
2. Pay attention to your body language.
Humans are visual beings. We make decisions based on what we see much more than what we hear. Research has proven that nonverbal communication takes a lot of weight when it comes to your interaction with people. That's why when people frown, or when they laugh, you have an idea of what they feel without them speaking. So make sure your body language, your facial expressions, and your body posture scream confidence.
I was reading an article recently on how people perceive others by looking at them. They concluded that sometimes when you are thinking, people may think you're angry, or you're upset. So it's important you school your emotions when with people, smile more often.
Have a positive expression as often as you can. Make sure your shoulders are relaxed. Don't look, tense, angry, or closed up when you're meeting with people. When you walk into work in the morning, relax, smile, and shake people's hands. Make sure the strength of your handshake is proportional to the one you're receiving.
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3. Be intentional about what you wear.
Like I said earlier, we are visual beings. We make decisions based on what we see. That's why when you're walking down the street, and you see someone who looks unkempt, you tend to give them a more room. You even do it without thinking. It is like an automatic reaction.
So how you dress would give people an impression about you. Perception becomes a reality. Therefore, when you are dressed well, people see a competent and confident professional. Even if you work in hands-on business, and you tend to get dirty with paint or with oil if you are going to meet with people for the first time, then dress appropriately.
4. Step out of your comfort zone.
It's so easy to remain in your bubble, especially when you're at work. If you go to work with the mindset of doing your work for the day and getting out, that's good. However, while you're at work, be actively engaged. When you are at a business meeting, be involved. Don't just go to a meeting and leave the meeting without being an active participant. If you want to be confident at work, you need to be engaged. When there are discussions about projects, also state your opinion. Research about the agenda of the meeting ahead of time so that when you're in the meeting, you would have something of value to offer. No one would know the value you have to offer if you are disengaged.
Learn to communicate effectively. If you work with people that are boisterous and you're the quiet one, don't be intimidated into silence. You don't have to be as boisterous as they are, just be you and express yourself.
If you do not communicate effectively, no one knows you have any value to offer. Sometimes it appears that loud people seem to get all the attention and all the good deals. That's because the loud people unintentionally or intentionally often demonstrate their value by expressing themselves more than quiet people.
Final Word
The strategies on how to be confident at work are:
- Create the best impression every day at work.
- Pay attention to your body language.
- Be intentional about what you wear.
- Be ready to step out of your comfort zone by actively engaging, by effectively communicating and by going above and beyond so that your work stands out for itself, especially if you are quiet.
Make sure that you learn to capture the attention of your coworkers by the way you communicate. So see you in the next video. Leave a comment below. Let me know which one you're going to, which one of those four strategies you can implement immediately. And I'll see you in the next video.