4 Ways To Help Your Employees Build Their Confidence
Do you have a high achieving performer on your team that is talented, hard-working, and intelligent; but remains silent in group meetings and freezes in crucial calls? Freezing happens, but for some, freezing is a frequent obstacle to professional well-being. Every employee wants to feel seen, heard, and celebrated in the workplace, but for some, sharing ideas, thoughts, and accomplishments creates a total body and mind shut down.
They could be experiencing “destructive perfectionism.” Brené Brown defined this kind of perfectionism in her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, as ‘a self-destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought:
‘If I look perfect, live perfectly, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment and blame.’
While that keeps them safe, it prevents them from showing up with vulnerability and courage to step into feeling confident and connected in the workplace. Here are four suggestions to create a supportive and connected environment for employees to thrive:
1. Improv Exercises to Get Out of the Head & Into the Body
Curio specializes in creating expert-led interactive virtual experiences to help employees get out of their heads and into their bodies through creative, low-pressure improv exercises. These moments give employees permission to relax and show up unrehearsed.
2.Quieting the Loud Inner Dialogue
A relaxed mind feels at ease to connect authentically in a casual conversation or a board room. Some inner dialogues are so critical and loud, it leads to constant overdrive for the mind, and it drowns out all other thoughts. Mindfulness is not about clearing the mind. Mindfulness techniques slow down and quiet the chatter, leaving room for present connection with the self and others. Choose a breath awareness meditation, shifting awareness from the stream of thoughts to the breath.
3.Body-based Relaxation Techniques
The body goes into fight, flight, freeze mode when it feels that a situation is a high risk. For someone with ‘destructive perfectionism’, the body sees many moments (like meetings, calls, interviews, presentations) as another risk to be seen as imperfect. The threat feels high, so they shut down. Choose a body scan meditation, shifting awareness to the physical body.
4.Rewiring Through Journaling
Popular Psychologist Dr. Nicole LePera @The.Holistic.Psychologist has an incredible free resource called the Future Self Journal that takes you through a daily writing practice of rewiring thought patterns and creating new pathways to help achieve new habits and mindset.
Try sharing these techniques with your team or adding a new well-being activity to your employee health programs. Creating a supportive and open environment builds more creative and collaborative teams.
