How To Help Your Employees To Regain Their Confidence

 Even if your business and your team are performing well, there can often be times where one or more of your employees’ lack self-confidence. This may be due to a number of factors; uncertainty over a project, issues outside of work; trying new technology; a couple of bad results in other projects. One of the more obvious reasons, recently, has been employees who have returned from a lengthy furlough. As a team leader or manager, it is important to re-build this confidence before it becomes a bigger issue. A lack of confidence can really eat away at an employee, forcing their work and attitude to work to suffer greatly through fears and anxiety. A good leader should be able to gently encourage their employee to re-build and work through whatever confidence issues they may have. Here are just some of the ways you can help your employees rebuild their confidence in the workplace. Understand the root cause As I spoke about in my introduction, there can be many reasons why someone’s confidence takes a blow. Put aside some time to offer an empathetic ear to your employee. If you can address the issue directly, take steps to do so. Reassuring your employee that their fears and legitimate and understood is very important. Showing respect will help your employee feel better. Be specific Saying “But you’re doing great, everyone loves you!” is not really too helpful as it comes across as an empty platitude. If you are going to be complimentary in order to try and help restore someone’s confidence, you need to be specific. Try using phrases such as: “I thought it was really great when you did X on Y project.” Giving detail will help. Offer mentoring Either undertake the mentoring personally or schedule in regular one-to-one slots with an experience member of staff to try and alleviate any further anxiety. Be clear that this is not some sort of punishment, but rather a friendly, relaxed way to check in and discuss any current worries or fears. It may well encourage an employee to try new things if they feel like they have support. Create a clear path Another good idea is to create a clear plan of action. If there are specific workplace issues that have caused a drop in confidence, see what you can do to tackle those. For example, if it is a new technology or product an employee is uncertain of, schedule in some time for extra training and support, if possible. Celebrate successes What better way to restore confidence than to celebrate a job well done. I don’t mean anything outlandish or over the top, but acknowledging an employee’s hard work and effort will go a long way to giving them a confidence boost. Encourage your employee to talk about their performance and use it as a launch pad to encourage them to build on this. If you would like to speak to me about hiring for your business, or some of the career coaching sessions we can offer, click here to drop me an email and get in touch.