Why Self-Confidence Is Important

Self-confidence is the cornerstone to great leadership. Bill Clinton’s quote in an earlier blog post says it best. If you say something with a straight face and confidence, people are more likely to believe you than if you say the same thing in an unsure voice. When I conduct my leadership presentations at colleges, I teach student leaders how to demonstrate self-confidence to their team members so they can get through tough situations by simply acting as they think a confident leader acts.

It’s not about lying; it’s about speaking with authority. Let’s do a little exercise to illustrate this point.

• Think of someone you consider extremely successful. Get a very clear picture in your head of this person. Got it? Good.

• Now I want you to think of someone who you think is really unsuccessful or someone you don’t want to be like (we all know at least one person like this, keep it real, it’s just you and me). Got it?
  

Okay, now in your mind’s eye, get a clear picture of both of them standing side by side. If you had to list out everything you notice about them, what would be one of the first things you notice?

I bet the extremely successful person just exudes a self-assurance the other person does not. To be a leader, which I have a funny feeling you are, having the self-confidence to lead is fundamentally important.

Arel Moodie is widely known as America's Top Young Speaker. He has spoken to over 65,000 students in 39 states and 2 countries on the topics of student success, student leadership and student entrepreneurship. He is a leading authority on helping students of this generation succeed in school and in life. He is also the best selling author of the book Your Starting Point For Student Success. To find out more about Arel's book, go to www.startingpointbook.com. To find out more about Arel's speaking please go to www.arelmoodie.com.