5 Powerful Strategies for Building Confidence as a Leader
What’s the true cost if a CEO can’t cope with the loneliness and pressure that bubble up in the hot seat every single day?
At the executive level, it’s confidence.
And as doubt and indecision trickle down through the rest of the organization, the processes that should be driving the company forward are going to stall out.
These five strategies can help CEOs regain and maintain the forward momentum they need to keep leading their businesses to BIG.:
1. Reconnect With Your Purpose
We know–it’s not easy being a great leader!
The complex responsibilities. The exhausting hours. The endless decisions landing on your desk. The dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of employees who would be looking to you for direction and trusting you with their careers. The pivot points where you would have to pick the best way forward.
So, what is that core thing that can keep you going even during the darkest times?
Reconnecting with your purpose, reigniting the vision that excited you early on, and recommitting to the mission that you felt uniquely qualified to carry out.
Maybe your lack of confidence has kept you cooped up in your office a little too long. Talk to the customers whose lives and businesses you improve with every sale. Spend a week sitting in on a different team’s daily huddle and help each group celebrate wins and address challenges. Visit the charitable organizations or communities that your company contributes to.
And then, when you go back to your office, think about how all of these moving parts connect to your BIG vision of success.
Regaining that mental alignment with your core purpose, vision, and mission will remind you why you wanted to be a CEO in the first place and help you get your leadership journey back on track.
2. Master Strategic Decision-Making
High-performing CEOs never make a decision in a vacuum, or in the bubble of their own offices. They go out of their way to take in every data point, every perspective, and every relevant opinion. Arming themselves with all of that information gives CEOs the confidence to set a clear strategy.
To feel more certain the next time you have a BIG decision to make:
- Gather diverse perspectives. How is this choice going to affect shareholders? Board members? Employees? Customers? Prospects? The community?
- Consider long-term implications. Today’s growth grab is tomorrow’s budget crisis. Likewise, a band-aid won’t heal a broken bone. Consult experts, run your data through AI simulations, and game out every possible scenario.
- Consult your CEO coach. There’s no crossroads that a seasoned CEO coach hasn’t already stood at. Learn from their successes as well as their mistakes.
- Debate and commit. Take in every opinion. Assign a team to play devil’s advocate. But once you’ve arrived at your decision, commit to it and make sure your subordinates buy in as well.
And remember, you’ll never have “all the information.” At some point, you have to decide and go.
3. Prioritize Mental and Physical Health
CEO self-care isn’t optional, and it isn’t just for the weekends. Your daily routine has to support your physical and emotional well-being. Feeling your best and thinking with a clear head are both essential to confident, decisive leadership.
So, take a look at your daily and weekly agendas and ask yourself:
- Am I getting at least 7 or more hours of sleep?
- Am I exercising at least 3 days every week?
- Does my morning routine include some “me time” that gets me focused on the day ahead?
- Are my meals and snacks healthy?
- Am I taking small breaks throughout the day, ideally every 60 – 90 minutes?
- Am I spending enough quality time with my family and close friends?
- Have I blocked off time for sports, hobbies, and learning?
- Am I leaving work at work and unplugging completely at least one hour before bed?
As we get closer to a new year, take a page out of Mark Moses’ book. At the beginning of every year, Mark looks at his blank calendar and schedules BIG family vacations and his exercise routine before anything else. All CEOs have that power to establish these non-negotiables. Organize your days around the people and activities that nourish your life and you’ll feel more confident about what you’re doing at work and why you’re really doing it.
4. Own Your Unique Leadership Style
You’re never less confident than when you’re trying to be someone you’re not. The best CEOs learn how to avoid the pressure of “playing the part” of a CEO and instead, lean into who they are and lead with authenticity, humility, and empathy.
Embracing your own leadership style often starts by understanding that there’s no one “right” way to be a CEO. Think about your unique strengths as a leader. If you’re really good at inspiring people to achieve something BIG, then lean into that visionary role and set the tone for the company’s can-do culture. If you think you’re good at helping others improve their performance, be the coach that your company needs. If your deep technical or institutional knowledge is the company’s secret sauce, be the chief policy wonk.
When your employees believe in you, their confidence reflects back and boosts your own. And when you don’t have to waste any of your precious energy pretending, you’ll feel more confident about being yourself.
Now, owning your unique leadership style is not a blank check for problematic behavior and that’s where strategy #5 comes in.
5. Seek and Act on Constructive Feedback
The late behavior performance consultant Tim Kight liked to say, “You can’t learn what you think you already know.” In other words, confident leaders are comfortable admitting that they don’t know everything. In order to grow along with their companies, CEOs have to be willing to learn, acknowledge blind spots, and surround themselves with people who improve the company’s core competencies while shoring up executive knowledge gaps.
CEOs also have to understand that listening is often more important to leading than speaking. To improve your connection to your company’s feedback loop, Tim suggests that CEOS ask themselves:
- What do I not see that I need to see? Everyone has blind spots. Don’t ignore yours. In two earlier blog posts, we discussed 7 blind spots common to leaders; see the first 4 here and the remaining 3 blind spots here.
- How do others see this in a way that I don’t? Try to look at your actions or decisions from another’s perspective. You might be surprised by what you see.
- What do I see but I’m discounting? Your blind spots, prejudices, or preconceptions could be preventing you from seeing the true scale of a challenge or opportunity.
- What am I pretending not to see? Brushing aside uncomfortable truths won’t make them disappear.
When you’re struggling with a loss of confidence, implementing these strategies and answering these kinds of questions can be challenging. Working with a CEO coach could be the difference between letting fear paralyze your business permanently or regaining the courage you need to lead confidently and Make BIG Happen.
About CEO Coaching International
CEO Coaching International works with CEOs and their leadership teams to achieve extraordinary results quarter after quarter, year after year. Known globally for its success in coaching growth-focused entrepreneurs to meaningful exits, CEO Coaching International has coached more than 1,000 CEOs and entrepreneurs in more than 60 countries and 45 industries. The coaches at CEO Coaching International are former CEOs, presidents, or executives who have made BIG happen. The firm’s coaches have led double-digit sales and profit growth in businesses ranging in size from startups to over $10 billion, and many are founders that have led their companies through successful eight, nine, and ten-figure exits. Companies working with CEO Coaching International for two years or more have experienced an average EBITDA CAGR of 53.5% during their time as a client, more than three times the U.S. average, and a revenue CAGR of 26.2%, nearly twice the U.S. average.
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