5 Steps to Build Confidence in Your Team Members

In a previous posting, 5 Tips to Build Confidence in Yourself As a Project Manager, we looked at how to build confidence in ourselves. In this post we change the focus and look at how to build confidence in others.

As project management experts, one of our most important roles is to bring out the best in our team. This includes not just building a great team, but encouraging collaboration and empowering people around us. We achieve this success by helping individuals improve their confidence and make them see that their contributions and talents matter. The rewards are big-from improved employee engagement and efficiency to increased productivity.

Related: Motivational Speakers and Corporate Trainer India

Here are five ways to instill confidence in your team members:

1. Help people learn and develop. 

Confidence and competence are closely related. If team members feel that they're not developing professionally and that their skills are being under-utilized, they'll quickly begin to doubt their capabilities. To increase your team members' confidence, you have to help them improve and learn fresh skills so they can play a stronger part in contributing to the project.

One way of doing this is to give your team access to courses, training and conferences. Another way is to give them time to study or to run a dog project they're passionate about. You may also set up knowledge-sharing classes to the benefit of the entire team, or even the entire department.

2. Delegate step-by-step. 

A terrific way to build up your team members' competence-and therefore their confidence-is to delegate specific tasks that will assist them grow in an area they're interested in. Just be careful you don't delegate too soon or too quickly; and don't leave people to their own products when they're in fresh territory. When someone lacks confidence and competence it's far better to gradually give them more responsibility and to stick close by them until they no longer need you. Your job is to help you team members set reachable goals and to break difficult jobs into smaller steps. In that way people slowly but surely gain confidence as they start to master each step of the assignment.

3. Focus on people's strengths. 

As a project manager or team innovator you're likely to have a fair bit of influence over who does what. You can use that to actively build up someone's confidence by giving them work that they're genuinely good at and interested in. People's confidence (and motivation) will generally grow when they're given the chance to put their skills into practice and display mastery. 

One of the most fundamental ways to boost people's confidence is to actively support them and build them up emotionally. And one of the best ways to create a strong supportive base is to connect with individuals one-on-one. When you do, make space to sincerely listen to their concerns and help them realize how much they have to contribute. When you get to know the members of your team at a more personal level (e.g., what motivates them; what really matters to them) you'll intuitively understand how to best support them.

Another way to demonstrate your support is to actively praise a team member and provide positive feedback when someone does something well. We all like to feel appreciated and it takes so little to say "Thanks, that was a superb job you did."

Another great way to build people up is to let them know that it's OK to make mistakes-as long as they don't keep making the same ones. When you remove the fear of failure you make people feel safe. As a result, team members open up and are more willing to contribute and experiment. Knowing that they have the space to learn from their mistakes rather than becoming penalized for them builds their confidence and takes away an enormous chunk of negative energy and worry. Essentially, you free people up to pursue that which is truly important: The successful delivery of the project.

Report this Page