Confidence at Work

1. Classification: Public
IIBA UK North Branch
Virtual Event – 12th October 2021
Jo Solecki
Senior Business Analyst
Volunteer - IIBA UK Chapter - North Branch
@UKIIBA #UKIIBA
IIBA UK North Branch LinkedIn group
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/5168049/
IIBA UK LinkedIn group
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/55932/
United Kingdom
Chapter

2. Confidence at Work
Susan Graves
Career Progression Coach
© Susan Graves 2021

3. Who Am I?
© Susan Graves 2021 3
Susan Graves, Career Progression Coach
Helping you go for the next step in your career
My history
I worked for npower for 25 years, in IT and then
Change. I was a Project Manager, then
Programme Manager, working closely with
Business Analysts. I am now a qualified coach
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-graves-1805956
https://susangraves.co.uk
coaching@susangraves.co.uk

4. Today I will be covering:
• Confidence – what and why?
• 5 Strategies:
1. Goal setting/be specific
2. Recording successes
3. Getting quality feedback
4. Working with inner chatter
5. Manage your stakeholders
• Q&A
© Susan Graves 2021 4

5. What is confidence?
• Confidence is the belief that you will handle whatever happens in a
particular situation
• It doesn’t mean that you have to be good at everything, or get
everything right
• Confidence can be influenced by what others have told you in the past
• Confidence can be situational
• Confidence can be learned
© Susan Graves 2021 5

6. Poll
© Susan Graves 2021 6
In which area would you benefit most from more confidence?
1. Networking
2. Self promotion
3. Leading a team
4. Dealing with challenging situations

7. Pitfalls of a lack of confidence
Holding yourself back
Procrastination
Take worries home with you
Dwelling on perceived
criticism
Doubting your ability to
cope in new situations
© Susan Graves 2021 7

8. Benefits of confidence
Raising your visibility
Taking steps forward and
learning from them
Increased Wellbeing
Learning and growing
Belief that you will get there
Realistic expectations
© Susan Graves 2021 8

9. Goal Setting / Be specific
• Rather than “be more confident”, pick a particular situation that you
want to be confident in
• Visualise yourself being confident in this situation
• What will it feel like when you are confident?
• How will you know you are confident
• What will you be hearing? What will you be saying?
• Decide how can you move one step towards this
• Do it - try it out
• Reflect on what happened – without doing yourself down
• Set a new goal and keep going
Visualise
Decide
Do
Reflect
© Susan Graves 2021 9

10. Record your successes
• Note down where you have been
successful or received some positive
feedback or a thank-you
• It reminds you to focus on what you have
achieved rather than on the things that
you haven’t yet achieved
• However small the achievements are,
reflecting on them should give you a
boost, which can then give you the
confidence to go and achieve more
© Susan Graves 2021 10

11. Poll
© Susan Graves 2021 11
How do you feel when you receive feedback?
1. Good
2. Indifferent
3. Uncomfortable
4. I don’t seek feedback

12. Get good quality feedback
• Identify people you have dealt with a lot
- Working for you
- People you work for
- Stakeholders
- Anyone you have helped
• Position why you want feedback and ask
them to be as specific as possible
• Ask 3 questions
- What should I do more of
- What should I do less of
- What should I continue doing
© Susan Graves 2021 12

13. Work with the inner chatter
• We all have an inner dialogue that goes on all
the time
• What does yours say?
• Isolate each voice, give it a name, and
acknowledge what it is saying
• By acknowledging the different messages you
can start to choose how you deal with them
© Susan Graves 2021 13

14. Manage your stakeholders
• List your stakeholders (not your project’s)
• Analyse their objectives, communication
preferences and importance to you
• Be aware of different personality types
• Make a plan to fill in the gaps where you
need to be higher on their radar
• Review regularly
© Susan Graves 2021 14

15. Confidence building
• Confidence is the belief that you
will handle whatever happens in a
particular situation
• Confidence can be learned
• Visualise, Decide, Do, Reflect cycle
• Focus on your achievements
• Get feedback
• Understand inner chatter
• Manage your stakeholders
Achievements
Feedback
© Susan Graves 2021 15

16. Thank-you
I’m Susan Graves, a Career Progression Coach
Visit my website https://susangraves.co.uk
Or email me on coaching@susangraves.co.uk
Connect with me on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-graves-1805956
© Susan Graves 2021 16