How familiar does this sound?
Are you afraid of putting yourself out there? Of approaching your boss and team with an idea? Of speaking up when a coworker undermines you? Of asking for the raise you deserve? Do you sometimes need help and feel too anxious to ask for it? Do you feel like there will always be someone more experienced, more creative, more charismatic that deserves an opportunity you want?
Navigating the business world as an introvert can often feel like you’re stepping into hostile territory. It’s an extroverted world out there, but that doesn’t mean that you should give up. There is nothing wrong with being introverted. This is your superpower.
These upcoming tips are just a boost to help you navigate business. Today, our topic is building self-confidence and courage in business for introverts. Let’s get started!
If the previously mentioned thoughts are the kind of mindset that keeps you from taking action in your workplace, then you’re in the right place.
The 5 Second Rule
by Mel Robins
⏱ 15 minutes reading time
🎧 Audio version available
Draw Power From Your Clothes
Yes, today’s world is an extroverted one where most people assume people who hold center stage are the only ones that are confident. But this is actually a misconception. Just because someone is the heart and soul of the party and is often loud and attracts boisterous attitudes from those around them doesn’t mean that they’re as confident and courageous as you think.
The same goes for people who are perceived as reserved, who are more softly spoken. Just because they’re not shouting with the rest of the boardroom doesn’t mean that they lack confidence. Being introverted doesn’t mean that you’re doomed to be self-conscious and too anxious to take action.
Here is what you can do to get one step closer towards building an unshakeable confidence that can easily match and level the confidence of extroverts around you. Step number one? Draw power from the way your dress.
Dressing well doesn’t just make people pay positive attention to you, but it has the added bonus of making you feel good about yourself. Most importantly, it makes you feel more confident. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to go out and buy something that’s ridiculously expensive. Just put on an outfit that fits well, is appropriate for the occasion– whether it’s for work or for a function or event.
If you feel confident enough to venture into “courageous” territory, then consider wearing something that stands out a little as a conversation starter to give people a reason to strike up a conversation with you.
Make Your Body Language Speak For You
Confidence and courage are related. A lot of people struggle with confidence, wanting more of it. You may feel that confidence is the thing that is going to help you advance your career, land clients, ask for raises, et cetera, but when you’re saying that you want more confidence, you may actually also mean to say that you want more courage.
Confidence is essential to make it in the business world, but courage? That’s what’s going to get your foot out the door.
What if we told you that one immediate sign of both courage and confidence is proper body language? Standing up straight, chin held high, and with an open body language can immediately make you feel powerful enough to take on a presentation.
For this particular moment, your comfort zone when it comes to body language and posture may include folded arms when you’re feeling defensive, crossed legs, hunched shoulders, looking down, hands in your pockets, etc. While these movements often act as a protective barrier against the world and make you feel safer, they should be avoided as much as possible if you’re trying to build up your self-confidence.
You don’t need to be an expert in body language, but know that even just appearing relaxed helps you look and feel more authoritative. Long before you say a word, you can display your courage by carrying yourself the right way. Remember that you’re sending strong messages to your coworkers about who you are and how you feel about yourself.
So are you ready for this? Hold that chin up, roll your shoulders back, distribute your weight evenly on both feet. Practise this long and regularly enough, and you’ll feel beyond relaxed and confident in your own skin.
Ask Questions
Every introvert knows the struggle of feeling too anxious to ask a question. But this is one hack to navigate social situations, both on a personal and a professional level.
When in doubt– whether the conversation has stalled, you’re trying to work up the courage for something, etc– the key is to deflect the conversation away from yourself. You can do that by asking people questions. You’ll still be playing an active role in the conversation, but the attention will be less stressful and allow you to gather yourself.
And if you don’t know what to ask someone, try to remember something the other person has said about themselves and ask them if they expand on that. If that doesn’t work, keep watching because we’re going to cover how to navigate conversations in the workplace in a moment!
The more you ask questions, the more you break down that fear of asking someone for help.
Focus on Your Strengths
Passionate about what you do? Have lots of ideas you want to offer? Have valuable insight but you don’t know what to do?
Draw on the strengths you already have. You have the content. If you’re not the sort to give grand speeches, then that’s fine. In order to approach life with gusto and bravery, you don’t have to act like someone else. Your thoughts and ideas are valuable enough on their own, and that is your strength.
The Six Rules
The next time you’re at a meeting, a social function, or if you’re just engaging in a conversation with colleagues, try following the golden rules– aka, Dale Cargenie’s guidelines.
In his tried and true book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” he maps out six ways to make people like you. Confidence appears in the way you interact with people.
These six methods will establish the foundation for your future success. In other words, this is how you can confidently approach your coworkers. Number one is to be genuinely interested in other people.
Number two is to remember to smile; three is to remember that a person’s name is the most important sound in the world and across all language; number four is to be a good listener and to encourage others to talk about themselves; five is to talk in the terms of the other person’s interest, and finally, number six is to make sure you make the other person feel important and do it with sincerity.
Practise Being Center Stage
It takes guts to be the center stage, so for this next tip, here is a bit of an untraditional route. Want to do a test run and practise your new habits? Admittedly, the first few times you try this in real life, there are bound to be some errors and missteps. It happens to everyone.
But you can lessen the shock of the first time you gather up your courage to speak up and find all eyes on you. This untraditional method involves using technology to simulate reality. One of the most effective ways to mimic the actual event is to use virtual reality. This is where you can connect your phone into a virtual reality headset to immerse yourself in another environment.
Now, you can practise and make errors if you want. Get used to what it feels like to be in the center stage. And hey, you’ll be in the safety of virtual reality.
Charge Your Social Battery
Every introvert knows that even among family and friends, your social battery may often feel drained. This lies the main difference between introverts and extroverts– where you get your energy from.
If you look at an extrovert, you’ll find that they often draw their energy from engaging with other people. The more people they engage with, the more energetic and charged they are.
However, introverts on the other hand can often get their energy from being alone. With each extensive social interaction, their energy drains. If you plan on approaching life with confidence, then you need to strategize, and you can’t do that on an empty battery.
Make a time during your way, whether that’s during your lunch hour or even just simple bathroom breaks, and take this time to recharge. Consider having a strategic hour of alone time before you enter an important meeting or a particularly stressful networking event.
This allows you to approach others re-energized, helping you engage more easily with others. Most notably, this allows you to communicate confidence easily with your colleagues.
Don’t Be Afraid to Talk About Your Accomplishments
Do you often witness the more extroverted type getting more promotions and leadership opportunities? That’s because they’re more used to self-promotion. They are not afraid to let others, including their bosses, know about their accomplishments.
Now, there is a distinction between self-promoting and bragging about yourself. Bragging is driven by ego while on the other hand, self-promotion is all about being driven by your accomplishments. It’s not wrong to let others know what you achieved.
Build your bravery by finding or creating opportunities where you can talk about your contributions to successful projects and mention your ideas.
Business doesn’t have to make you feel like you don’t have a place unless you’re constantly struggling for it. And building self-confidence and courage as an introvert isn’t as impossible as some people make it out to be. Ready to take on the business world?
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