Why confidence is so important in leadership
Confident leaders are approachable.
“Confident and courageous leaders have no problems pointing out their own weaknesses and ignorance.” – Thom S Rainer
My passion and commitment, as Veli Ndaba, is to help leaders move from leadership mental darkness to leadership mental light.
It’s to equip them to create a competitive leadership advantage by applying insights from neuroscience and engineering principles.
The neuroscience of confidence shows that confidence is contagious. It means self-confidence does more than change your behaviour, it also changes the behaviour of those around you.
Self-confidence is, in fact, contagious due to the phenomenon of mirror neurons. These mirror neurons are brain cells that fire both when a person acts and when a person observes the same action performed by another.
The mirror neuron effect is so powerful that it can convince other people to disbelieve their senses.
When a leader is confident, they typically are:
• Happy and laugh more
• Motivated and ambitious
• More open for feedback
Confident leaders welcome feedback from others and put their ideas into action. Because of their receptivity, people keep coming to them with feedback and ideas for improvement, helping the leader continue to grow and develop.
Because our brains are swimming in neurochemicals, it explains why our emotions have a huge impact on our thoughts, behaviour and actions. Our emotions trigger these chemicals which then dictate how we react.
Confidence leads to happiness, laughter, motivation and ambition and these emotions trigger dopamine – your feel-good neurochemical. So, confident leaders have a deep sense of their core values, regarding what is right and wrong.
Although open to feedback from others, they confidently form their own opinion or pick their course of action. These leaders are easy to follow because their words and actions are in alignment and consistent.
