Building Confidence in the Workplace, by Jonathan H. Westover PhD

Abstract: This article examines strategies for building and sustaining confidence in the workplace. It defines workplace confidence as an individual's inner belief in their ability to competently achieve work goals while feeling assured, motivated, and resilient. On an individual level, confidence is developed through focusing on strengths, setting goals, positive self-talk, visualization, reframing mistakes, and self-care. Organizationally, leaders can provide training, mentorship, autonomy, constructive feedback, recognition, and foster a sense of community to support employees' confidence. The article analyzes examples from Cleveland Clinic, which implemented competency tracking to boost clinicians' confidence, and Anthropic, an AI startup using "confidence coaching" for engineers. In conclusion, confidence can be purposefully developed when organizations complement individual strategies through training programs, mentorship, autonomy, feedback, and recognition. Sustained commitment to evidence-based approaches helps create psychologically safe environments where employees can maximize potential.