Throughout my entire life, having a lot of confidence in my
decisions has been something I have always struggled with. I feel confident in myself when I really
believe in the problem or answer, but when it’s a topic that I am unfamiliar
with or feel like I lack enough authority or information to back up my
decisions, I lose a lot of confidence. Gaining
self-confidence in both my actions and myself is an area I have been working on
improving for a while. Every experience
I have, however, has been helpful in my improvement.
Professor Baba Shiv discussed the
differences in low confidence and high confidence when it comes to
decision-making in a way that really made sense to me. Shiv discussed how low confidence equals
higher maintenance for both you and your client. Not only are you putting more time and effort
into someone who isn’t confident, but also you are not getting anything in
return from the situation. Shiv then
goes on to discuss the characteristics that develop high confidence. He notes passion because it is extremely
persuasive, confidence because it is contagious, and most importantly
extraction of utility from the experience.
When I do have confidence in my decisions, I see myself more as a quietly confident person. In some instances, however, I do get very
excited and passionate about a topic, but when it’s a situational decision that
involves others, I struggle.
This is a problem I am currently
dealing with as I am in a new management position, overseeing individuals who
have more knowledge and experience at the company that I do. Going into this position, I knew that there
was a lot of tenure at the company who were not in management positions. Most of them are older than me and have more
direct experience with how the company operates. This is one of my first management positions,
however, I do believe I am a strong leader, but management within a work
environment is much different than other areas where I have been a leader. That, along with the current experience of
the employees, makes it difficult for me to feel confident in some of my
decisions when it comes to managing the group.
With all of that said, a situation
where I felt a lot of confidence was several years ago when I was working on a
project that I felt would greatly benefit the area of focus. It was a recycling project that I was trying
to establish in an organization. What
led me to feel confident in the project started with my direct passion for the
subject. My passion did lead to
persuasion, which in turn led to me being confident in the project. People got excited and began to come up with
their own ideas to add on to my idea. I
felt empowered, accomplished, and happy overall to know that my interest and
passion in something wore off on other people and led them to participate
outside of the project.
An area where I lacked confidence
happened during an interview I had in college.
It was my first interview with a big company and I was really excited
and nervous. I was a junior and college
and the interview was for an internship position at Kohls to be a textile print
designer. My best friend at the time was
also applying and we would get so excited about the idea of us interning and
then potentially worker there. It was
exciting, but also incredibly intimidating.
With no prior interview experience involving a portfolio review, I
subsequently went into the interview and pointed out every flaw and every
aspect of my life I needed to work on. Thinking
back on it, I feel embarrassed, but I learned a lot from that interview. There was even a point during the interview
where I skipped over a section in my portfolio because I said it needed more
work. While that experience is one I do
not like to look back on, I realize that without that experience I wouldn’t
know what not to do and how to grow from that area. Since then, I feel I have gotten
significantly better at interviews and pointing out my good points. That experience made me feel embarrassed,
deflated, and insignificant. I did not
sell myself to the interviewer. I
realize now that situations like that these people know nothing about you,
which is an excellent opportunity to highlight all of your great points, not
your weakest.
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