Type: Insight

How to balance confidence and humility

Confidence is a great strength in a leader when used appropriately. But we often celebrate its upsides while turning a blind eye to its drawbacks.

An appropriately confident leader is a great asset to their organisation and the people they lead. They tend to be open, assertive, reliable and honest.

However, we are all familiar with the notion that we can have too much of a good thing and most of us will have worked for someone who was all too sure of their ability.

Over-confident leaders often focus on their personal goals and achievements at the expense of their team or the wider organisation and blame others when something goes wrong.

Such leaders can also be closed off and hard to reach. After all, why be open to feedback when you already know everything there is to know?

This armoured and potentially arrogant way of being is a significant obstacle to good engagement and long-term success.

The strengths of the humble leader

By contrast, let’s consider the strengths of a humble leader, which include:

  • Listening
  • Teamwork
  • Soliciting feedback

Humble leaders encourage others to speak up and give their opinions, regardless of their position in the company. As Steve Jobs once said:

“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

Such leaders are also commonly associated with positive traits such as sincerity, modesty, truthfulness, fairness and authenticity.

With so many positive associations with humility, why are so many business leaders so reticent about being humble?

Perhaps it’s because we’re bombarded with stories of strong, charismatic leaders in the business press. Or we’re influenced by images of strong leadership in the media. Or we just don’t want to risk appearing to not know the answer, doubt ourselves or be vulnerable. Reframing what it means to be a leader is a helpful starting point in shifting this mindset.

All coins have two sides

But what are the drawbacks of excessive humility? If there is a shadow to confidence, what is the shadow of humility?

For ourselves, if our doubts inflate, we can undermine our confidence and feel like an imposter who doesn’t know enough to deserve the role. A common fear around this is the sense that we got where we are by luck and will get found out someday. This emotional state can lead to rumination and dwelling on mistakes and feedback in a self-critical way that undermines learning and risk appetite.

For the people we lead, we might not be there for them when they need us.In conclusion, as with most leadership traits, there is a balance to be struck between confidence and humility. Too much of a good thing doesn’t seem to work and the best leaders have learned how to avoid the shadows and demonstrate both confidence and humility positively and, paradoxically, often at the same time.

As author Jim Collins wrote in his book Good to Great, those chief executives who most often helped to transition their companies to outperform their competition exhibited two key traits:

  • Humility
  • A will to advance the cause of the whole organisation

The empirical evidence is that both humility and confidence are critical to success.

Challenge and support in the workplace

Did you ever have a teacher at school who influenced you? Maybe even changed your life?

When I reflect on conversations with the people I have trained, coached or just met along the way in my time as a leadership developer, I notice how often an inspirational teacher from school is fondly remembered.

In any performance environment, knowing when and how to challenge or support people is a vital leadership skill and I can think of few professions which know more about how to do this well than teaching.

For some of us it is natural to want to stay in our comfort zones. As we mature and grow, we learn how to be more comfortable with pushing ourselves. Being stretched and challenged is uncomfortable for all of us initially, a bit like yoga or weight training, but with practice we get better and it becomes a habit.

I spoke recently with Louise North, Principal of Framlingham College, for her perspective and she described that when she started her job, she noticed the school was doing an amazing job at supporting and nurturing pupils – but that there was room to challenge them more.

“The school had a reputation for kindness and niceness, but we weren’t actually challenging the children to reach their full potential,” Louise said. “Kindness is not the same as accepting mediocrity – it’s just the opposite.”

Louise encouraged the teaching body to challenge the students more, giving them the confidence to do so with her support. She also encouraged the staff to be honest with parents about their children’s performance and to work together to motivate pupils more. It all served the goal of enabling children to reach their full potential within a supportive environment.

So, if this is the task at hand, how can we do it well?


Challenge and support

How can we define what it means to be challenged or supported at work? How, as leaders, can we try to achieve that same level of balance as the inspirational teachers of our childhoods?

A leader can challenge by questioning the status quo, looking for continuous improvement and keeping things moving. A leader can also support by checking in often with their team, encouraging everyone to participate and offering coaching where needed.

These are behaviours where we may have a natural preference to do one or the other and it takes self-awareness, emotional intelligence and developed skill to read the situation and respond accordingly.

The best leaders are able to both support and challenge, in the right way at the right time for the best results.

The value of big picture thinking

Getting lost in the detail is a risk for many business leaders. It can often impede performance, and remains a familiar and easy mistake.

Leaders tend to be promoted into a senior role after showing themselves to be brilliant at the details of their previous role. Former sales leaders become MDs who still love sales and selling. CFOs get promoted to CEO but may not stop thinking in the language of numbers.

This is like a violinist being promoted to conductor and focusing on the string section instead of the whole orchestra. The problem with this is obvious. Rather than getting mired in the detail, the new role demands that the leader broadens their view across the bigger picture and allows their team to work out the steps required to make that big picture goal a reality.

What is a big picture and why is it important?

A big picture is a compelling vision for the whole team. It might be a bold statement, a vision, a feeling or a dream of where an organisation wishes to be in the future.

The end game is the same: it is a shared hope for everyone to work towards. Everything a team does is in the context of and with reference to the big picture, moving the organisation forwards.

As an example, think of John F Kennedy’s speech to the US Congress in May 1961, when he said:

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

While the gendered language has not aged well, the point here is that he didn’t focus on the details, but the vision of the future. JFK invited others to join him in making something seemingly impossible come true and his ambition was so compelling that it continued to inspire action even though he was not alive to see it happen.

The benefits of a compelling big picture

This ability to inspire is one of the chief virtues of a strong big picture. Teams thrive on clarity and focus, on working towards interesting and measurable goals, and on having clear timelines for achieving them.

Once you have a Big-Picture goal, you and your team can get into the detail and plan what needs to be done, and the various steps that must be taken on a day-to-day basis to achieve it.

Managing mental health in the workplace

As mental health is a fundamental component of how people think, feel, relate and perform at work, it’s vital to have a company culture that is healthy and supportive.   

Mental health is no longer a peripheral workplace issue. The vast majority of a workforce will have been touched or affected by mental health challenges at some point in their career, whether it has been overcoming difficulties personally or supporting someone who has.

Recent years, particularly during and following the pandemic, brought mental health into sharper focus. While the virus itself was not a cause of mental health conditions, the global response, including prolonged uncertainty, isolation and changes to working patterns, created an environment in which anxiety, stress and low mood were more likely to emerge. In many cases, these challenges were dormant or manageable beforehand, but were intensified or newly triggered by the circumstances people found themselves in.  

For some, this period was especially difficult, particularly those with existing vulnerabilities or limited support networks. For others, it became an unexpected catalyst for adaptation, prompting reassessment of priorities, stronger boundaries and healthier work-life balance. What became increasingly clear was that mental health exists on a spectrum, fluctuating over time and shaped by both personal resilience and organisational context. 

Awareness in the workplace

A healthy workplace culture acknowledges mental health risks without defining people by them. While it is vital to recognise stressors and challenges early, it is equally important not to assume fragility or inevitability.   

Mindsets, therefore, matter. A tendency to catastrophise or to frame experiences in extremes can inadvertently undermine wellbeing. While the placebo effect is well known (where positive beliefs improve outcomes) the “nocebo” effect can do the opposite, reinforcing difficulty and diminishing confidence.   

And therein lies the rub. How do we adequately acknowledge very real personal stressors and mental health risks while, at the same time, keeping ourselves from making them a self-fulfilling prophesy?   

The key is to be aware of both the potential mental health issues that may arise and our ability to overcome them. 

Tips for leaders

1. Everybody’s different

How the working world has changed since the pandemic has shown that trusting people to manage themselves is not just possible but highly effective for the business and something that individuals prize. If you can maintain trust and flexibility, employees will continue to find their way to optimise their approach. It might look different for everyone but that is likely a good thing.  

2.  Wellbeing and performance

Prioritising performance over well-being in anything but the short term is a false dichotomy. They are two sides of the same coin. If we allow our people to attend to their well-being, then they perform for the long term. Performance without well-being is unsustainable, particularly in an ‘infinite game’ like financial services. At Goldcrest Partners, we believe an emphasis on both well-being and performance will yield superior long-term outcomes for organisations and individuals.  

3.  Slow and steady wins the race

Change often fails because it is ‘too much, too soon, too fast’ for the individual or organisation to tolerate. If we let people travel at their own pace and provide appropriate boundaries and encouragement, then it will certainly pay dividends.

In summary, at Goldcrest Partners, we believe it is important to be both vigilant and confident in the ability to mitigate mental health risks and support individuals if needed. Furthermore, allowing individuals the flexibility to optimise their working habits and trusting them to do the right thing may prove to be a key factor in not just mental health but also attracting and retaining the best talent.   

The upside here is a competitive advantage in your people.

Empowerability – the secret to maximising employee potential

Leaders are often advised that empowering their followers is the path to effective teamwork and success. It involves them providing resources, knowledge, skills, and support to their employees and team. Doing so facilitates and encourages employee participation in decision-making to help hit firmwide goals and achieve personal targets.

But to operate at Lightspeed, as exemplified by the success of the Pfizer Covid vaccine rollout, leaders must do more than just empower their teams. They need to ensure their members are ready to seize the opportunities given to them.

In other words, it is essential to consider a team’s empowerability. Arguably, it is just as important as a leader’s ability to empower.

Here, we explore why.

What is empowerability?

First, let’s look more closely at the notion of empowerability and what it means exactly.

Empowerment refers to the process of enabling individuals or groups to gain control over their own choices to help a team or department reach its aims and targets. It’s a key component of effective followership, where employees have the ability to take direction well and to do what is expected of them.

Empowerability, therefore, refers to a person or group’s inherent capability or want to be empowered. It emphasises the importance of building self-confidence, self-efficacy, and self-determination. It is dependent on individuals possessing certain qualities or attributes that allow them to be empowered or become agents of their own development.

Those attributes, skills and mindsets include:

  • ​​A clear comprehension of accountability, understanding the need to take ownership of results and to delegate specific tasks to achieve the desired outcome.
  • Inner confidence in their ability to handle the responsibility, supported by feedback and a track record of success.
  • A deep understanding of their team members who, in turn, can be empowered if they are ready.
  • Recognition of their responsibility to question and seek clarification from those they follow, ensuring a thorough understanding of the task at hand. These questions and challenges are meant for improvement, not just to be difficult for the sake of it.
  • A clear grasp of boundaries and successful followership, while being willing to challenge them when appropriate for the best outcome.
  • Effective communication up and down the chain, reassuring superiors that messages are understood and clearly conveying tasks and responsibilities to subordinates.

Why is empowerability so important?

Empowerability is crucial as it increases and strengthens trust between team members, leaders and followers – making teams more effective. Plus, while trust is the foundation of any strong team, it’s vital in allowing leaders to delegate with confidence. Being able to rely on individual members, means a leader knows they’re going to perform and play their part. Then, subsequently, a leader has more time to dedicate to other value-added activities – not simply checking up on the status of a project or task.

Looking at the real world provides some colour on how empowerability can be so essential to a team’s success.

Consider an orchestra: to create a harmonious symphony, every instrument must play its part flawlessly. Each musician must possess the technical skills and mindset necessary to carry the melody and its supporting parts, maintaining the same level of excellence. Moreover, every member of the orchestra must trust that their fellow musicians will fulfil their roles. The end result is a beautiful performance.

Or, in sports, when a player passes the ball to a teammate, the player needs to know that the recipient knows how to handle it, understands their options, can take responsibility and make accountable decisions.

How can you ensure employees can be empowered?

While some individuals have an innate empowerability, not everyone will immediately have the ability (or want) to be empowered. Across a global business, in particular, there can be difficulties with empowerability. These difficulties may arise due to different cultures having different approaches to leadership, leadership styles and followership.

However, it’s possible to develop empowerability and train employees so that they can be active, effective team members. To do so, consider the following factors:

  • Access to information: Provide individuals with accurate and relevant information so they can make informed choices and decisions.
  • Skills development: Offer opportunities to individuals to develop a range of skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills. Doing so will enhance their capacity to navigate challenges and exert influence.
  • Support networks: Encourage the development of strong social networks and support systems to foster a sense of belonging, increase social capital, and provide individuals with the emotional and practical support they need to pursue their goals.
  • Agency and participation: Encourage individuals to participate actively in decision-making processes, whether at the individual, team, or departmental level, enabling them to have a voice and contribute to shaping their own successful and prosperous career.
  • Advocacy and social change: Empowerability recognises the need to address systemic barriers and advocate for changes in policies, practices, and structures that hinder individuals’ ability to exercise their power and agency fully.

For leaders to support a team member’s empowerability, it can be helpful to remember a number of key ideas. Firstly, be brave and delegate – give people a chance to shine. You may need to support them, but they’ll never grow if you don’t. Additionally, be clear on your expectations as well as your boundaries. Finally, you need to be open and supportive of questions and challenges.

Making empowerability a priority

Remember, when employees possess the capability to be empowered, they transform into effective followers – a fundamental requirement for team success. So, by placing empowerability at the forefront, leaders have the power to unleash the full potential of their employees, fostering a culture rooted in trust and accountability. Organisations can then soar towards sustainable success amidst today’s fiercely competitive business landscape.