Self-Confidence: How To Find It, How To Keep It

“Self-confidence. Everybody wants it, but how to get it and keep it is something of a mystery. In fact, the topic has been widely researched with an equally wide range of conclusions. It seems like almost every week there’s a new theory that promises the magic elixir for projecting self-confidence. But alas, many of us find ourselves lacking it when we need to tackle big roles and big issues in our personal and professional lives.

This seems particularly true for women leaders.

I remember reading a study about the first women admitted to Harvard Business School in the 60’s. The study set out to decipher what trait these stellar women most commonly shared. The study’s conclusion: a close relationship with their fathers. Reading this study soon after its release, I thought, “Darn it!” Could it be that my career ambitions would somehow be slowed or stopped altogether because my father died early? No offense to Harvard, but that turned out to not be true for me at all. Thankfully.”