Coach Catherine Baxter provides some useful exercises for boosting your confidence as a new CEO. She is offering discounted coaching sessions over January 2025.
Congratulations on starting a new leadership role! Whilst you are probably excited about your new role you may be feeling overwhelmed by your huge to do list, the impact you need to make and potentially doubting your ability. The following 5 easy exercises will help to give your confidence a boost in under an hour;
Do a quick audit of your strengths (10 minutes)
Think about the strengths you bring to your role, why you were recruited or promoted to the role and take some time to note down what they are. To help identify your strengths think about how others perceive you and answer the following questions;
- What would your peers, manager and team say about you?
- How would your friends and family describe you?
- When are you at your best and in your flow?
- What makes you unique?
Use these notes to form the basis of discovering your strengths and use them as the backbone of your brand in your organisation. Keep a record, revisit your strengths, and add to them as needed.
Think about your 12-month plan (15 minutes)
Take time to plan for the year ahead by asking yourself the following 5 questions to help gain clarity;
- What you would like to have achieved in 12 months’ time? How would this feel for you? Why are these achievements important?
- What have you learned from your previous role which you can build on in this role?
- How would reaching these achievements help in the long term?
- What support or training do you need to help you to achieve these goals?
- Overall, what would you like your legacy to be when you leave this role?
Visualising this will give you a strategy for your goals and keep you on track. Frequently coming back to the reason for taking on your new role and focusing on your ‘why’ is powerful as a motivator and in turn building your confidence.
Create a file of your successes (5 minutes)
Start to note down when things have gone well in your role. Whether this is in the form of verbal feedback, written feedback or ad-hoc comments. By keeping a record of what you have done well it will help to cement your achievements and boost your confidence. Keep a file with your achievements in so you can easily read through it when you are experiencing moments of self- doubt. This will help to improve your perception of your abilities and to see clearly how far you have come.
Adapt your way of thinking (10 minutes)
Notice how you approach and think about challenges. Take 10 minutes at the end of every week to think about your successes during the week and write them down. Look at how you think about challenges and try to adjust how you think so you can have a more positive outlook and a growth mindset. Try to reframe your thinking to use thoughts including; “I don’t have the knowledge around this yet but …” ,“What have I learned from challenges this week?” ,“How would I act differently if I believed the opposite of what I was thinking now?”
Doing so is valuable to help you when you are in a period of stretch and challenge. Understand that you will not know or be expected to know all the answers when you are new to a role. Over time this will help you to develop a growth mindset and a more positive approach to challenges and build resilience.
Move up the confidence scale (10 minutes)
If your confidence needs an immediate boost follow these six easy steps;
- On a scale of 1-10 rate your confidence now.
- Think how far up the scale you would like to be eventually, it does not have to be a 10, maybe you are happy with aiming for a 7 overall.
- To move up one point on the scale what small and achievable goals can you set yourself?
- Measure your progress against the goals.
- Make time to celebrate your wins when you achieve your goals.
- Repeat the process so you move further up the scale to the number you wish to reach.
Overall investing time in building your confidence will be worthwhile. Take the time to step back, reflect and celebrate your successes and visualise what you would like to achieve in 12 months’ time. Ensure you make time to build your confidence regularly so you do not stay stuck but continue to move forwards.
Catherine is offering a 50% discount on her services:
- The leader coaching programme: six coaching sessions for £600
- Three coaching sessions for £300
- A one-off one hour coaching session for £97
- Return to work coaching programme: three coaching sessions for £300
Get in touch: catherine@catherinebaxtercoaching.com / catherinebaxtercoaching.com / Catherine Baxter | LinkedIn
If you are an ACEVO member, remember you can also access our leadership development tools and resources.