Early in my career I used to think being the boss was synonymous with confidence. That they knew exactly what they were doing all the time, never worried about speaking to a packed audience and were sure about all their decisions.  It’s only when I got to more senior positions and worked closely with the leadership teams and saw  ‘behind the curtain’ that I realised this theory was off the mark. 

I love music. I’ve played the guitar for about 30 years now and a few years back I used to play gigs around London. It was all solo acoustic stuff.

It was great fun and I (mostly) enjoyed it, but it also taught me A LOT about confidence and getting the best out of myself.

Here are three of the lessons that I continue to use everyday.

No, it’s not a scam, it’s a way to start building your confidence.

Confidence is the stuff that turns thoughts into actions. Here’s the good news – you don’t need to become a super confident person; confidence can be specific to the thing you want to change.

Here’s some more good news, it’s within your power to boost your confidence. Try these tips.

No one wants to look like a fool.

Fear of looking a fool can stop us doing a lot of things, from wearing a slightly different outfit to speaking up in meetings.

That’s pretty common, but as a coach, the question I ask clients is how are they interpreting what a fool looks like? In my experience it’s mostly just our own perception based on assumptions we are making about what other people think.

I remember feeling rubbish at my job. I also knew that I was my own worst critic and set very high standards for myself. After struggling for a while, I decided it was logical to measure my peers using the same scale I applied to myself. When I did this, nobody did very well.

That’s when I thought, we are all rubbish at our job. This didn’t make sense, it seemed very unlikely - why would the organisation employ all these people that were rubbish at what they were doing?

At New year people will often take stock and look at what they can do to improve their work situation. Naturally if things aren’t quite right, thoughts turn to a new job somewhere else. But is this using a sledgehammer to crack a nut as my grandad would say? Is it just something about your current role you need to change? Could you be overlooking the potential in your existing role?