Your First Advantage in the Corridors of Power

Last week, I facilitated an insightful session on leadership for a crop of next-generation leaders and one of the remarkable things I told them is that “confidence is not a derivative of your competence or status but the knowledge of your value.”

If confidence was dependent on competence, then the most talented and skilful people would be the most confident. But we have seen very skilful people who are shy even when it comes to unbundling their potential before others. There are even people with natural endowments like facial beauty and attractive features who are nervous in the company of other people.

On the other hand, some people are less endowed with facial beauty and abilities who are confident of expressing themselves anywhere. Some other people are confident despite their low economic and social status. No wonder, it is not the best guy that gets promoted – it is the guy who confidently forms significant relationships that walks himself into the corridors of power.

While many might, therefore, think that confidence is overrated, I think otherwise – it is underrated. Imagine that after boarding a flight, the pilot turns on the engine to take off only for him to inform you that he is just attempting to fly a plane for the very first time so you should forgive him in case he makes any errors! Lack of confidence is just intolerable in leadership.

It is one thing to know, and yet another to know that you know. The first is competence which makes you capable of solving problems. The latter is confidence and it makes others believe in you and follow you. Confidence enables influence. In other words, confidence makes the leader.

Every time you appear before people, you are marketing yourself consciously or unconsciously. Based on what you do and how you do it as well as what you say and how you say it, people are forming a perception of you and taking decisions based on that perception.

They judge how confident you are about yourself and your “products.” Your products include your knowledge, skills, and any other tangible thing you might be producing.

Your demonstration of confidence determines the extent to which people believe in you and commit to you. It also determines whether people seek your opinion or not, whether they request your service or not, and whether they recommend you or not.

In fact, confidence is your first advantage in the corridors of power and how you use it determines whether you get a chance to unleash others. People who are competent but not confident hardly get a chance to demonstrate their competence, especially to those who could determine their promotion.

The major difference between highly confident people and their counterparts with less confidence is the way they think about themselves. I illustrated this important truth to my audience thus:

Suppose you live in your old-fashioned house in a remote area and you have an opportunity to migrate to an urban area to upgrade your standard of living, would you consider migration? Would you also consider selling the house to fund your migration plans? How much would you put up the house for sale? Just name your price in your heart.

Now, consider that you have negotiated with a prospective buyer and reached a good price. However, a day before he was to pay the money, explorers discovered that there is gold in the land upon which the house was built. Would you still be willing to sell? If yes, what would be your terms?

Most people whom I have asked this question prefer not to sell at all. Instead, they want to forgo their migration dream and make a business out of the gold in the land. Others who entertain the thought of selling say that they would increase their asking price exponentially. You will likely fall into one of these categories.

In the first place, what changed the value of the land? If you answer that it is the gold in it, you are wrong. Actually, it is not the gold, but the discovery of the gold!

There is another important question: Who buried the gold in there? You? Or the explorers? Or your prospective buyer? None of you. God, our supreme Creator, did.

Confidence comes from knowing the value of that land with gold buried inside. People who lack confidence are yet unaware of the treasures that God has put in them from when they were born. 

Body build, competence, status, etc. are like the house you put on it – big or small. It is obvious that the house on it is not what makes the land essentially valuable. It is the gold in it that determines its “intrinsic value.”

Basically, as humans, intrinsic value means that we are all valuable because of our design – we are all bundles of possibilities. A confident person knows that even if he is not competent in a particular thing, he has the potential to be competent in it. He knows that his economic status does not determine his real value.

When you sit with people of higher economic or social status, you must realize that you might not be on the same level economically or socially but you are not of less worth; you have the potential to be where they are if you work at it.

Indeed, it takes knowing your worth to influence others confidently. Know who you are; know what you have got and what you can still get; know what you can do; know that you are a bundle of endless possibilities; know that you are a solution to people’s problems; know that you are to be sought-after; know that you have a place among the greats.

To your greatness,

Bright UK

Leadership Expert