Shannon O’Connor Bock
Growing up I never played sports. Let me clarify that statement, not only did I not play sports, my lack of athletic ability really kept me from trying or sticking with any sport. I’m not saying you have to play spots to gain confidence but for me there was a correlation, I never wanted to put myself out there, to expose my weakness, although believe me it was no secret. Eventually found my way to the stage (I pursued the path of theater) however a lack of confidence would still plague me, even though I had the technical skills.
What is the point of mentioning such a thing and how does it relate to my leadership today? As I reflect back on my childhood I can’t really remember a time when I can honestly tell you that I felt confident. Whether it was born out of environmental influences I can’t say, although I am sure there is some influence and probably some if it can be attributed to me, just being the way I am wired, so to speak. Regardless, this has been a challenge for me as I have gotten older and particularly as I have assumed leadership roles.
Looking at the skills model for leadership (Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, et al., 2000) and the individual attributes and how they support people as they apply their leadership competencies I focused in on personality. The skills model suggests that any personality characteristic, like confidence, has an impact on our leadership skills and may affect a leader’s ability to solve organizational problems. (Northouse, 2017).
Luckily, skills can be developed. So, I set out to do just that. I am fortunate to have great coaches and mentors who have been there along the journey. One of whom shared an article with me, The Confidence Gap and within it is a great description of confidence, “Confidence is a belief in one’s ability to succeed, a belief that stimulates action. In turn, taking action bolsters one’s belief in one’s ability to succeed. So, confidence accumulates—through hard work, through success, and even through failure.” (Shipman, 2015). One friend of mine who is an executive coach puts it very simply, “you have good instincts, use them, swing freely.” Now, I mentioned I didn’t play sports so initially I didn’t understand the swing freely, baseball reference but now the concept resonates.
I continue to work on gaining my confidence, and developing critical leadership skills.
References
Shipman, K. K. (2015, August 26). The Confidence Gap. Retrieved May 28, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/05/the-confidence-gap/359815/
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications
Alex Coombes says
Shannon, While reading your post I really found it to be entertaining as well as interesting. Since I too used the used the skills approach for my post I found it very interesting to see how you applied it to your topic using specifically the skills model for leadership. One of the reasons for this is because I used the three skill approach instead and this allowed me to see the difference with how the two different parts of the skills approach can be used. I also really enjoy your point about how personality characteristics can affect your leadership skills but in turn these leadership skills can still be developed which is what your decided to do to improve upon your skills. I think it would be really interesting to here about how you went about trying to develop these skills and if you used previous experiences and any other influences in addition to the different things people have told you or just specific people in general from your past. One reason I ask this is because in the skills model of leadership it is explained that in addition to individual attribute like personality, previous experiences and environmental influences can affect any different portions of the model (Northouse, p.56). I also ask this because I also used to have the same struggles with my confidence as you did and I know personally many of my experiences and influences from my past have really helped me in developing my leadership skills. I believe these experiences and influences have really helped become some one that can lead if it is needed of me, while I continue to use newer and more recent experiences and influences to help me to develop my leadership skills even further.
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications
ban5104 says
Hi Shannon, I must say I enjoyed your post and your comparison to sports. I was active my whole life and enjoyed participating in different sports. Even though I participated in sports I many times felt incapable of succeeding at times. As a young child I always thought that people were born to do this or that. As I grew older my view of course has changed. The reason I gave up on many sports is because I felt I was just not cut out, if I were to go back knowing what I know now I would do things differently and would have stuck it out.
I enjoy the skills approach because it does not limit those who can succeed in different areas. Instead the skills approach focuses on growing and developing through experience. According to the text, there are specific classes that focus on improving certain leadership skills (Northouse, p.58). I think experience is more important than what your born with. I think this because many people who are born with gifted abilities many times do not per sue what they are good in. This could be due to various reasons but if you want something bad enough it is definitely attainable.
I can relate this to my experience with instructing dance and how I never would have seen myself as an extrovert or confident. At the beginning of my experience I felt incapable of instructing children how to dance but now with experience find it to be a piece of cake.
References
Northouse, Peter, G. (2016) Leadership, Theory, and Practive, 7th ed., SagePublications.