How to Grow Confidence In Your Team

Team confidence plays a significant role in the workplace. When team members don’t have confidence in their individual and group ability to perform and make decisions, it affects productivity, motivation and morale. 

When team members are confident, they share their ideas and positively contribute to conversations. They take an active role in problem-solving and clearly communicate what they can deliver. Confident team members hold themselves accountable for moving the team forward, meaning that you don’t have to.  

Confidence in a team environment

Confidence is a feeling of wellbeing that’s influenced by one’s surroundings. It’s a state of having firm trust in the skills, expertise and determination to perform a task well and it includes knowing what you’re good at, the value you provide, and acting in a way that conveys that to those around you. 

Confidence allows words and action to have conviction and it supports a person to push outside of their comfort zone. Confidence allows for concise and clear communication, which is critical for career advancement.  

In a team environment, confidence comes from individuals working together seamlessly. Members of the team believe in their collective abilities, allowing each person to fully commit to any particular course of action. Confident teams empower and delegate within and they take ownership of the work as a group. They discuss and make their own decisions, instead of running for help or advice, and they celebrate their successes and wins.

Building confidence within a team

Building the confidence of a team can come from scaffolding the environment, interactions and training in support of your staff. Staff need to be valued for their contributions, but equally challenged, introduced to new ideas, and supported to do their job well.

Team managers who are looking to build confidence within a team need to:

• Provide proper training

The time and costs associated with training can be extensive, but the cost of not training can be far greater. Training staff as a team means they can work together and fill in for each other much better. 

Effective team training is an organisation necessity. A well-oiled machine doesn’t oil itself and simply telling your staff about the importance of teamwork is not enough to create meaningful improvements in team performance.

• Be a coach

Great team managers motivate and engage team members. They create a productive team of engaged employees by giving regular feedback, creating a culture of team feedback and by pushing employees to their attainable limits. Great team managers don’t do work for employees when deadlines are at risk, they instead offer guidance, ask questions and support team members to navigate their own way through challenges.

• Help others find their niche

Great team managers help employees realise their own potential by honing in on the skills and capabilities that make each person unique. They find out what staff are passionate about, talk to them about their strengths, and find ways to develop these strengths to maximise the team environment. 

• Be open to new things

When you let your team try new approaches and test new tools it shows you have their back, even if it ends in failure. Supporting your team to innovate tells them you believe in their abilities. Just be sure to accept your part in any non-successes, rather than leave the team to deal with any collateral damage. 

• Treat everyone with respect

One of the most damaging things a manager can do is to disrespect a member of a team. Great managers treat every member of a team equally and refrain from discussing personal matters that do not affect the overall goal. Great managers are transparent leaders who do not pick and choose who gets privileged information. They instead ensure everyone plays on the same playing field. 

• Encourage teaching

One of the best ways for managers to grow confidence within a team is to encourage members to take on training roles. This may be within the team, to the wider company, or externally as part of consultancy work. Encouraging mentorship or teaching can make a considerable difference to how employees view their own skill sets and it can also strengthen the skills of others. 

• Be available

While encouraging your team to work through challenges themselves is important, you still need to take the time to be there for your team. Choosing to spend time with the members of your team sends a powerful message that you value them. If you find yourself continuously canceling or delaying meetings, you run the risk of eroding confidence.  

Principles to remember

When teams lack confidence, it can be hard to get them to perform their best. Ultimately, confident teams come from following a set of 12 principles:

Do:

• Be clear in your expectations
• Ask and listen to your team
• Provide specific feedback on what team members are good at
• Cultivate trust by showing team members you’re on their side and rooting for them
• Encourage mentorship and teaching roles within the team
• Celebrate successes and inject some fun

Don’t:

• Forgo team training
• Get angry when things go wrong
• Overly micromanage
• Dwell on any weaknesses
• Set unrealistic goals
• Treat members of the same team differently