Confidence is essential in any area of your life, and that’s certainly true in business. Confidence is often one of the defining characteristics that set successful business people apart from their less successful counterparts.
A lack of confidence, even when paired with talent or a great idea, can doom your career in many ways, so how do you make confident decisions in your business life, and display that sense of confidence to others in a way that feels natural?
Be Prepared
One of the best things you can do to boost your business confidence and make the best possible decisions at the same time is to ensure that you take the time to do the necessary research. The more prepared you are for anything, whether it’s launching a new product or something as simple as a meeting, the more confident you’ll be.
There are plenty of things that are outside of your control in the business world and your life in general, but you can create the sense of more control for yourself through preparation.
Thing About Your Positives and Successes
There’s probably no faster way to diminish your sense of business confidence than to focus on the negative or your failures or shortcomings.
The power pf positive thinking is extremely important, as cliché as it might sound. If you struggle in this area, take some time at the end of each day to reflect on what went well, and write it down if that helps you.
The more you have concrete evidence of your successes, the less likely you are to dwell on things that make you lack confidence.
Give Yourself a Time Limit To Prevent Overthinking
A lot of times we can start out feeling confident about a business decision, only to give ourselves days or weeks to think it over, which ultimately erodes our sense of confidence and makes us second-guess ourselves. Timing is critical in business, and the more quickly and succinctly you make decisions, the more confident you’ll feel because you won’t have the time to overthink.
If you have an important decision to make, give yourself a window of about two hours to weigh out the pros and cons, and come to a final determination. Write that decision down to cement it in your mind, and let that be the end of it. This might also be the time you ask for advice from trusted advisors.
Asking for advice doesn’t mean you don’t have confidence in your decision-making abilities, but rather, it’s something a lot of the smartest people do in business.
You’ll likely find that the more decisive you can be, the more confident you’ll also feel.
As a final note, if you reach a decision and you know it’s the best option for you, let yourself be confident in the fact that you are doing your best. Even if it doesn’t turn out the way you hoped it would, learning and evolving are essential parts of successful businesses and successful business people.