Find Out What Makes a Confident Organization
The essence of personal confidence is self-management–knowing yourself well and trusting your ability to do the appropriate thing in a wide variety of situations. It takes time to build this confidence and involves a fair amount of risk. Think of all the unfamiliar situations you need to be exposed to in order to learn new responses. Over time, you learn to trust your ability to adapt. This confidence is a powerful asset.
In the same way, the confident organization is one that knows its members well and trusts them to choose appropriate responses to all sorts of challenges. It supports its members in learning and provides time and space for growth. Promotions are granted with purpose, exposing members to new situations in order to learn new skills. Risk is managed by understanding both the pace of a member’s learning, and his or her capacity to add increasing value to the organization as growth occurs.
How cool would it be to work for a confident organization! Every one of my clients wants this kind of work experience. The reality, though, is a lot different. In most organizations there is precious little time or money available to support people in growing at their own pace. Things move too fast and the consequences of error are too grave to allow room for adaptation. Moving people around to help them grow is far too risky in tightly measured and rigidly managed workflow processes. The quest for productivity gains prohibits experimentation of any kind. Thus, specialists are hired to perform specific functions, not to expand their knowledge or change roles.
We face a real paradox in business today. People have a deep need to be seen, heard, valued for their contributions, and supported in their growth. They expect organizations to provide these things. Organizations need to hire people they can trust to perform in effective and efficient ways with minimal guidance, support or formal development plans.
The confident organization hires confident people and enlists them in creating a future worth having. Partnership, collaboration, resourcefulness, trust, and support are core competencies of the confident organization. How many of these can your organization claim?
Categories: BusinessAbout Susan Marshall
