In her April 23 “Calling the Game” video, Bobbie LaPorte covers the third of three important shifts every leader needs to make NOW. This shift requires understanding what confidence and competence look like in today’s rapidly changing world.
From Functional Skills to Self-Awareness: New Foundations of Leadership Confidence
Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.
In recent vlogs, I’ve been sharing what I call “The Three Shifts Leaders Must Make” to successfully navigate continuing uncertainty. This week, I’ll share the third shift: from a traditional definition of confidence and competence based on functional skillsets to one based on self-awareness, self-knowledge, and deployment of your strengths and assets.
This shift is less about relying on your past experience to deliver results efficiently but more about expanding what you’re capable of to deliver results more effectively, drawing on your strengths and what you already do well.
Because confidence looks different today.
Why Confidence Looks Different Today?
In the past, we were chosen for our functional expertise; we advanced in the organization because we directed people well and we delivered results. We learned over time that we needed to be unfazed by change, confident and purposeful, and in control of our environment.
In our current workplace—where there are competing priorities and more stakeholders to serve than ever before, where information overload is increasing, and where our teams often work virtually—we need to expand beyond our skillset.
We must become more aware, self-reflective, open, and vulnerable. We must shift our definition of confidence from having all the answers ourselves.
I understand that your concept of self-confidence is very personal. In today’s highly competitive workplace, it is normal for us to compare ourselves to others.
But once you make this shift, your confidence will come from deeper self-knowledge and self-awareness, from relying on your internal compass, and from being very clear about how your strengths and assets can be put to use in new ways.
This kind of confidence allows you to move forward when any curveball hits and assures that you will always have a response to challenging situations.
And your peers will most likely continue to rely on past experience, what they know—a strategy that will be short-lived since, increasingly, what they know counts for little in a world of unrelenting uncertainty.
Because, in an increasingly uncertain world, Readiness is an inside job.
Here is how I would summarize The Three Shifts Leaders Must Make Now that we have covered in the last three weeks.
Today’s leaders need:
- The discipline to stop and consider what you are facing rather than default to autopilot based on what you’ve done in the past.
- To develop the confidence to accelerate decision-making, accepting that risk-taking and making mistakes is more acceptable now.
- To recognize that you can no longer rely upon your functional skillsets, your confidence now must come from within.
Okay, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” Hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!