Much ado has been made of late about the gender based confidence gap. In fact, this very same gap turned out to be the serendipitous theme of a recent women’s leadership conference. Three presenters, Claire Shipman, co-author The Confidence Gap, Molly Barker, founder, Girls on the Run, and I, spoke or led workshops on self-confidence and gender.
Shipman states that confidence is as important as competence for career success, and she may be right, but for now, I’d like to focus on women and the leadership competence confidence duet.
I’ll start by declaring, we’ve got something right.
Over confident leadership coupled with insufficient leadership competence brought us this.
By way of contrast, I’d like to share snippets of conversations from highly accomplished women, executive leaders in public service, who participated on a panel at The Boston Club. These women are singing about the leadership competence confidence duet
Question: “How did you learn to lead?”
Answer 1: “Go to the front line, where the job gets done and understand the work.” (Build Leadership Competence)
Answer 2: “Get mentors, role models, sponsors and a coach. Carry a clipboard and listen. Show up. Contribute in meaningful ways. (Build Leadership Competence)
Question: “What was your path to success?”
Answer: “I had my MBA, but I thought that wasn’t enough, so I pursued a law degree. I’m glad I did.” (Build Leadership Competence)
Answer: “Know the issues.” (Grow Your Competence)
Answer: “I started out by going door to door canvassing for a candidate in a local election. I got to know the people in my community and the issues that concerned them. (Competence)
Once they proved their competence, these women grew more confident.
Delegate: “Do the things only you can do. Delegate the rest. If I’m doing someone else’s job, who’s doing mine?” (Confidence)
Solve problems: “I would ask myself, ‘How can I solve this problem?’ And I had the confidence to ask for help.”
Ask for what you want: I applied for and received a promotion that “required” more travel. I told them.
“I can travel only one day a week.”
“Well then, you can’t do the job.”
“So you’re going to take ten weeks to find and train someone new, get them up to speed, and trust they can do what I do? Good luck.”
I got the job.
In conclusion, effective leaders build competence to grow their confidence. Then, they keep their leadership competence confidence factors side by side.
Addendum – This just in from 3Plus International Mini-Coaching featuring Whitney Johnson on the topic of Innovation by way of disruptive thinking. According to Curt Rice
Women have to be 2.5 times more competent for their innovative ideas to be heard.
So ladies, let’s keep our competence high and our confidence equally as high, until…There are 3 or more of us at the highest leadership levels of the organization, and then we can change the rules of play.
You can find tips for building self confidence in a series of posts that begin here.