When you work as an entrepreneur, you have the ultimate power to control your success or your failure. What you project to your clients, colleagues, and other business contacts can have a huge impact on how you’re received and how you fare in the business world. Your ability to exude confidence is essential as you build your reputation. And while it’s essential, many people don’t know how to project self-confidence in a professional situation. Most of the time the reason people don’t project that poise is because there’s an area where they are feeling insecure.
What is Self-Confidence?
Many people are confused about what it really means to be self-confident. While it’s closely linked to self-esteem, it’s not quite the same thing. Your self-esteem is the way that you feel about yourself.
Self-confidence is how well you think you can complete an activity. You can have high self-confidence levels in some areas and low self-confidence in others. For example, you may have a lot of confidence in your ability to set up a website, but scant amounts when it comes to writing an ebook.
It’s critical that you have a lot of confidence in your ability to work in your chosen field. As an entrepreneur, it’s even more important to exude self-confidence in
everything you do.
Projecting Poise
It’s important to take a look at how confidence can affect your job performance and impact your professional life. When you are feeling sure of yourself, you will radiate
that feeling into everything you do. Here is a sampling of how you can make sure your professional contacts know you’re right for the job – or trust that they have made a wise decision turning to you for any type of help.
Writing It Right
When you have self-confidence, you need to make sure that it shows in your writing. Be clear, concise, and certain. If you’re communicating with someone about a specific project, be detailed and precise. Don’t give a lot of excuses or elaborate too much. Just tell your clients, customers, or colleagues exactly enough to get the job done, without superfluous details.
In a world where so much is done through electronic mail, make sure that every email you write comes across as confident and complete. Take the time to carefully read
everything that your correspondents send to you and respond to every question and concern. Good written communication is essential to success whether it’s with your customers or your partners or colleagues in business.
Give Examples of Your Success
One of the best ways to exude confidence in your abilities is to provide clients with scenarios of past successes. When you can show that you have a proven track record, you’ll be able to wow them with your expertise.
If you don’t have a lot of experience and are new to a particular arena, you may need to build up a portfolio of work or a clientele. In that situation, it’s even more
critical that you radiate strength and determination. You may even choose to do some work at a reduced price or even for free in exchange for referrals. This will allow you
to have examples for future clients along with a good reference.
Vocalizing with Vivacity
When you have opportunities to speak with professional contacts or customers, be certain that you don’t become a shrinking violet. Speak clearly, directly, and be loud enough that you can be understood easily.
Whether it’s on the telephone or in person, don’t make promises that you can’t keep.Be clear about your limits and your expectations.People who are confident in their abilities don’t have to spend as much time in negotiations or making excuses as those who don’t feel up to par.
Stand Firm
Confidence allows you to stand up for yourself when someone tries to take advantage of you. In a perfect world, you’d never have a client or competitor behave in a way that’s unethical or inconsiderate. However, there are plenty of people in the real world who don’t operate that way.
You don’t have to be pessimistic or jaded, but you do have to be practical about how you may be treated. Don’t allow yourself to be put in a situation where you feel awkward or uncomfortable. There may be times when you can’t take no for an answer – and you will need to radiate confidence in order to do that.
Faking It
What if you don’t really have selfconfidence yet? In that case, you need to fake it until it’s real. Practice saying things directly and assertively on your own before you have to speak to a customer or partner. It’s even easier to do it in writing. Look at an email before you send it and change words that seem unclear into action words that show your determination and drive.
Once you have mastered these steps, your self-confidence will shine through in everything you do. You will also tend to experience more success as you command more trust and respect, as most people view confident business owners as competent business owners.
