Confidence

Susan M Barber Coaching & Consulting, LLC > Blog > Confidence

Monday Morning Leadership Q&A – 4/10/17

Monday Morning Leadership

Today’s Question:  “What are some tips to grow my self-confidence?” Self-confidence by definition is “a feeling of trust in one’s abilities, qualities, and judgment.” When you are young, you automatically have this trust in yourself. You don’t even question what you can do, you just do it.  If you try to do something that you shouldn’t, your parents will step in to prevent you from being hurt.  This is where you begin to listen to others about what you should…
Read more

Can You See My Vision?

Creating a vision is an important step for a leader to communicate to their team or organization. Leaders need to be able to confidently articulate the vision for their team or organization in such a way that people believe in it and see that it is possible.  A vision is defined as a high-level outcome that you want to attain and should be shared in a way that people feel inspired by it, connected to it and want to reach…
Read more

Your Leadership Moment: Will You Choose to be Calm?

If you have ever seen a picture of an iceberg you know that there is a portion of it that rises above the water and the rest is below the water.  This is the perfect metaphor for a leader.  Above the surface it is calm and everything appears to be good.  Below the surface, however, there are the unknown things occurring that we can’t see. I have been told that I am a very calm person.  I try to be calm…
Read more

Do You Want to be a Leader or a Director?

For the rest of the week, I am going to dive a little deeper into the leadership traits that were covered in the post that I did yesterday. If you missed it, you can read it here.  Initially, there were two leadership traits that were very challenging for me to learn. This could be because they seemed to be in direct conflict with leading to me. What I didn’t realize then was that instead of “leading others”, I was actually…
Read more

What Does A Confident Leader Look Like?

My first role with direct reports was a new role that didn’t exist before.   I had three direct reports and oversight of the daily activities of 22 indirect reports.  It was a little overwhelming at the time.  The great thing was I got to make up what the role would do, how it would work and define it all as I went along.   For a first time leader of people, it was a little scary.  There was no one else…
Read more

What makes a leader, a leader?

Have you ever considered the question, what makes a leader a leader?   By definition, a leader is “a person who leads a group.”    So that would say that when you have a group of people reporting to you, then you are a leader in the most formal sense of the word.   How would you describe yourself?  Are you a leader? I worked in an organization that felt a bit differently than that regarding the term leader.   Everyone was considered a…
Read more

3 ways to focus on the things that should be first

Generally when people talk about “firsts” they refer to babies and toddlers.  She got her first tooth today, she rolled over or she took her first steps.  The truth is that you go through a million firsts in your lifetime though.  First day of school, first time you go on a date, first time you drive, first job, etc.   Each time you go through the next big “first” it brings a little anxiety, a bit of fear, but it also…
Read more

Can changing your job make you happy?

 How many of you have thought about changing jobs or looking for a whole new career?  I think that we all consider it when we are having a bad day, but how many people actually do it?   I will share with you a bit about my story.  I worked at the same company for 20+ years and had created a good reputation for getting things done, bringing teams together and as a leader who was a good people developer.  I…
Read more

5 Ways to Put Better Balance in Your Life

“You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are.” – Anna Quindlen I saw this quote and it made me think about how much balance we have in our lives.  In my past, I had been known to have some (okay more than some ) workaholic tendencies at times.   This caused challenges when I had issues at work to deal with and my child was playing in a volleyball tournament.   I know you are…
Read more

The Chicago Cubs: A Great Example of Making the Impossible Possible

I am a big sports fan and wanted to share that two sports teams in Chicago had two big days this week.   My Chicago Bears won on Monday Night Football.  They have not had the best record this year, but I am happy that they did well and it helped me win in fantasy football this week.   Tonight’s big event was seeing the Chicago Cubs Baseball team tie up the World Series!   I am so excited for them and hopefully…
Read more