Building the Basics of Self Confidence
Simple Tips that can Help You Project Your Self-Confidence
Feb 26, 2009
You may be educated, intelligent and have plenty of work experience. However, you may feel that you are lagging behind in your career development. The image you project upon others will reflect an assessment of your abilities, which may undermine your true qualifications. Sometimes, by just building a self-confident image, you will be more marketable to get ahead in your career.
Here are some simple tips to help build your self-confidence and have others appreciate you for your intelligence and qualification.
A Confident Physical Appearance
Assess yourself in a mirror before leaving home. Are your clothes ironed? Are they fit for the role you hold at the office. Your clothes do not have to be expensive but they should appear to suit your profession and even match with your shoes. Does your colour scheme command respect or do you still look like you have rolled out of your college dormitory?
If you feel good about the way you dress, it will help you with your posture, your speech and overall, your confidence, as your colleagues will also nurture a certain level of respect for you.
Also, when was the last time you trimmed your hair and nails? Hygiene plays an important role in depicting a positive and confident image. By keeping tabs with your personal hygiene, you are telling the other person that you care about yourself and you should therefore be given opportunities over others.
Confident Body Language
The human brain can only receive and process limited signals at one time. Your body language immediately speaks volumes over your speech; thus, if you have confident body language, people are more likely to listen to you. If your body language is meek or cowardly, it will be difficult to garner a serious audience, even if the content of your speech or conversation is extremely appealing.
Confident body language includes a good posture, healthy eye-contact, and appropriate hand gestures (preferably those with open palms to "invite" people to listen to you). Smiling also helps build rapport with your listener, your colleague or your boss. Lastly, remember not to fidget – twiddling your fingers, swaying from side to side, or continuously touching your spectacles, hair, watch or other accessories will indicate nerves.
Confident Speech
The way you speak will indicate the level of confidence you have in your speech. You may naturally speak slowly, so keep a low tone in voice and speak calmly without mumbling. Speaking quickly does not indicate low confidence, unless it is done in a manner to "hide" the matters at hand. If you speak quickly, pause for emphasis and keep your focus on the topic as concise as possible.
Vary your intonations for best results as it keeps people listening and lastly, remember to remain clear and fluent. If you make mistakes in your conversation, do not try to cover it up, instead, calmly revisit your statement and make amends without much fuss.
A Confident Person with Knowledge
A confident person always keeps abreast with current issues. Always read the news – know your industry, know your job and its environment, do not become an obsolete member of your organisation. This will do noting for your self-confidence.
Remember that a confident person has strong opinions about prevailing issues and is able to share them with others, without feeling embarrassed. Having strong principles commands respect, but at the same time, remember to accept and respect opinions of others without prejudice. There is no point harbouring rigidity, as knowledge is ever changing and the more you learn, the more you will improve yourself.
Confident Behaviour
Lastly, confident behaviour will leave a lasting impression with your superiors. Always step up to challenges and pose your own personal goals in achieving new milestones. Always be prepared a step ahead of others, even if includes your boss – it is part of being pro-active. Ask questions if you need help, as a confident person is always willing to learn something new. Always have a positive mindset at work and when someone praises you for your work, accept the praise with gratitude.
Confident behaviour also requires you to be humble and respectful of others. Someone who is neither will be perceived as arrogant or distasteful, bordering upon over-confidence. So remember to strike a balance when projecting confident behaviour.
Get Ahead in your Career
A strong education and years of working experience do not always translate into career advancement. You need to be confident about your abilities and there are so many ways to achieve this. While you work your way to building your own self-confidence, you will also project a confident image of yourself upon others.
