Confidence and Competence: Which One Will Boost Your Career More?

Let’s explore confidence and competence and understand which one is more important for women.

We will dive into how confidence can help women in the workplace, what competence in the workplace looks like, and unravel the confidence competence loop. 

Here is everything you need to know about confidence and competence, and how they work together.  

Why is Confidence Important for Women?

Confidence can be defined as having a strong belief in oneself and one’s abilities. Confidence is about trusting yourself to act on knowledge and achieve your goals. It is a mindset that affects your actions, behaviors, and who you are as a person.

Confidence can help us in many different ways.

Communicate clearly and improve our decision-making

Confident women can trust their instincts and make decisions while feeling less self-doubt. This is especially important for female leaders who need to make effective decisions quickly. Confident leaders inspire trust and respect in their teams and enable team members to work independently. They can also deliver impactful speeches and leave people feeling empowered.

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Increase resilience 

Confident women don’t feel derailed when they fail, instead they see it as an opportunity to try again and try something new. Confident women are also open to feedback, knowing that it doesn’t reflect their self-worth, but is a tool to improve. With increased resilience and an open mindset, women are more likely to overcome obstacles and succeed. 

Find Out How You Can Develop a Growth Mindset as a Woman in Business. 

Help You Take Risks

Risk-taking requires confidence.

A confident person is more likely to take initiative, embrace opportunities, and be better problem solvers. Confidence is one of the biggest predictors of whether or not you will be an entrepreneur and one of the top challenges for female entrepreneurs. 

Issues such as imposter syndrome—where you feel like a fraud—are more prevalent among women, contributing to a lack of confidence despite competence.

What can we do to improve this essential skill that can help us in almost every area of our lives?

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What Does Competence in The Workplace Look Like?

Competence is the ability to do something successfully and have sufficient knowledge or good judgment in an area. 

Competence in the workplace relates to your ability to consistently deliver high-quality work, your technical skills, and often your problem-solving abilities. 

Your competence could be measured by reaching your targets, team reviews, or finishing projects. It also could include personal or soft skills such as communication and collaboration. Your ability to continuously improve, innovate, and keep up to date with trends could also impact your competence. Confidence is an important characteristic of ambitious women.

The bottom line is that your perceived competence drastically impacts your career. 

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How can you develop competence?

Let’s dive into the confidence competence loop. 

What is The Confidence Competence Loop?

The confidence competence loop is a concept that describes the cyclical relationship between competence and confidence.

When you feel competent at something, you naturally feel confident too. 

When we become more competent in our roles, we trust our abilities more, which boosts our confidence. With more confidence, you feel ready to take on new challenges, try a new role, or develop new skills, which only promotes more competence as you try new things and develop more skills. The confidence competence loop is a self-perpetuating cycle. 

For any woman who doubts their ability, competency can drive confidence.

But what starts the cycle?

Confidence Vs Competence: Which Comes First?

Which comes first for women, confidence or competence? 

Women in the workplace often undermine their adequate abilities and according to Forbes, 75% of women executives experience imposter syndrome at work. Women also hold fewer leadership positions than men, so some women won’t get a chance to showcase their competency. Female entrepreneurs also take on more work and delegate less than men.

If women underestimate their abilities, hold fewer leadership positions to showcase their skills, and delegate less, it shows that competency is not what we battle with – women are incredibly competent.

Confident people are also seen as more competent, even if their skills aren’t necessarily better.

Most importantly, confidence is often the catalyst for action.

So while it is still worthwhile to selectively develop competence and skills in your chosen areas, we think it is more important for women to develop deep confidence. 

Luckily confidence is a skill and like any skill, it can be developed and nurtured. 

So don’t fake it till you make it. Focus on confidence and competence with a heavier emphasis on the latter – confidence.  

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What Are The Best Confidence Building Exercises for Women?

1. Set Goals

You can never feel successful if you don’t know your goal or what you are striving for. Reaching goals can also make us feel competent and dramatically improve our confidence and morale.

2. Try Power Poses for Women

A slight switch in your posture can be one of the easiest building self-confidence activities to implement and trick you into feeling and acting confident. 
Power Poses to Try: President Lyndon B. Johnson inspired the Loomer, a powerful pose he used regularly. You stand near a desk or table and touch this item while leaning slightly forward.

3. Prepare to Feel More Confident

Preparation is one of the simplest and most effective ways to feel at ease, overcome doubt, and confidently navigate defining moments in your career. Preparation can help us feel more competent in situations by giving us better judgment. 

4. Use Affirmations for Confidence and Success

Affirmations are simply positive statements that boost self-esteem. They can rewire our brains and influence our behavior.

Here are a few affirmations for women that you could try:

• I am prepared to fail if it leads to growth because that is the ultimate goal
• I am a creative person who is always open to new ideas
• Sometimes, I need to accept that my work is good enough and put it out into the world

Here are 20 Powerful Affirmations for Female Entrepreneurs.

5. Focus on Self-improvement and Discovery

It could mean redefining your focus, finding your passion, broadening your skillset, or shifting your mindset. When you learn a new skill, you feel more competent, which boosts your confidence. Que the confidence competence loop. 

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Confidence is The Willingness to Try

Top female motivational speaker, Mel Robbins, says that confidence is the willingness to try.

You now have a tool kit to practice and improve your confidence. The more confidence you have, the more likely you are to try new things and develop confidence. The more competent you are, the more confident you feel. 

So when in doubt, be brave and try new things.

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