We recently asked our cracker-jack researcher Lara Feghaly to decode the 10 most substantive articles on confidence that she could find. And to do the same with the book The Confidence Code.
What she discovered is startling and crucial for women's career advancement. And we've turned it into an infographic for you.
While useful to varying degrees, conventional advice is insufficient. With its over-emphasis on dressing, looking and feeling the part and lack of emphasis on knowing what you're talking about, conventional advice can even set women up for disaster.
In a recent interview by The Legacy Project I said,
"Success doesn’t rest on your strengths alone, but on the studied application of your strengths in a specific context."
I could have said the same about confidence.
When a woman's "specific context" is business, all the designer clothes, assertive language, insights into weaknesses, practice at making herself big, faking it 'til she makes it, breathing exercises, and acknowledgment of her fears, while possibly helpful, won't assure her confidence.
Her confidence to speak up will be proportional to how able she is to make a "business savvy" contribution to the situation at hand. Her confidence to take on a new challenge will be proportional to how well she understands how the new position/project is expected to move the business forward. In other words, she needs to close The Missing 33%®!
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Without an understanding of the relationship between The Missing 33%® and confidence, women in your organization will definitely hit a glass ceiling. Help them - especially your emerging leaders and your millennials - decode confidence and break through to higher levels of management.
