“Now that’s a really great idea!”
Haven’t we all wanted to hear that statement? Did you feel emboldened to go out and get it when you heard that?
Recently, my awesome women friends and I have been talking about confidence. We’re bouncing around ideas of how to help people become more confident. [Spoiler alert – early testing shows that we are and yes, there will be awesomeness announcements coming soon.]
These conversations are fascinating. I spoke to a LADYBADASS in New York who shared her brilliant way of getting her team to be more confident. It’s so simple and brilliant that I immediately wanted to share with you all.
What does she do?
Each team member is to bring two “brags” to meetings with her. The stories/examples are supposed to be quick (no more than 60 seconds) and genuine.
Brag # 1 – Brag about someone else.
What did someone else is in the organization (not necessarily the team) do this week which is brag-worthy?
Brag #2 – Brag about yourself.
What did SHE or HE do this week that is brag-worthy?
It only takes a couple of moments. I can almost hear the value spilling out everywhere.
It encourages looking for and articulating the good in others. Don’t get me started on how awesome this is.
It encourages looking for and articulating the good in yourself. The whole point of this confidence thing is to practice.
It provides examples to the manager of both the big and small wins in the organization. Part of your job as a leader is to be the champion for your team. This gives you mountains of stories to champion them with.
It identifies and subtly rewards cross-functional collaboration. This value takes a little more effort on the manager’s part. Imagine for a second your boss walked up to you and said: “I hear you….fill in the awesome blank here.” How would you react?
I could go on for hours with this list but wanted to share a couple to make you think for a second. Could you implement this simple exercise with your team?
Now here’s the magic part of this whole idea. You don’t have to be the boss. This, my awesome friends, is what leadership looks like. Say, for example, you have a weekly meeting with a group because you’re working on a project. What if one or two people in the group opened or closed the session with the 60 second brag about activities against the project? With practice, confidence will arise. Confidence that will permeate all aspects of what you and your team do.
Just an idea for you ladybadasses out there.
Originally published at www.joannabloor.com