In our monthly Confidence Bootcamp, we start by asking attendees who they think is confident and why. The person can be anyone they choose, it's what they are seeing as confident that we’re interested in.  

The answers nearly always describe people that either speak up a lot, are successful, or loud. 

These people may well be confident but I’d also say that some of the loudest people I’ve met have been among the least confident I know.

You’re doing ok at work.

You get on with your boss and teammates. Your last appraisal said you were meeting expectations and you got the small single digit pay rise that goes with that.

While this isn't the job of your dreams, you think the job is ok.

But what might you be capable of?

Something a lot of managers who want to be ready to step up to the next level come to me about is personal branding. Its a phrase or name I don’t really like. 

Essentially, how do I act like a senior manager or in more simple terms, how do I give people at work a good impression of me.  

If you are good at your job, chances are you’ve been promoted. Well done you.  

The thing is in many vocations the higher you get up the corporate ladder, the less it becomes about the actual job itself; there’s a new set of skills you need.  

Most people lack confidence in one situation or another. It’s normal.  

Are you someone who sometimes lacks confidence at work? For example, in interviews or standing up in front of people and giving a presentation. Maybe it’s not something you've paid attention to because it hasn’t affected you too much. Perhaps you’ve grown with the company, maybe you’ve been promoted without going through a full interview process or you’ve benefitted from being an internal candidate. Perhaps the presentations you give have been good enough because everybody knows what a great job you do.

A situation that used to make me feel nervous was doing something unknown. Presenting to a group of people I haven’t met before, or going to a job interview where I didn’t know what to expect.   

But then I started to realise how visualisation could help. It's something that lots of hugely successful athletes like the swimmer Michael Phelps use. They create a picture in their mind of what the race or event will look like. They picture themselves right there in the moment. Most importantly what performing well will look and feel like.