Courage to have 'business confidence', so do you run your business like you live your life?
Matthew Porter • 10 January 2023
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The courage to have business confidence - when I am sailing I am often sailing into new and changing conditions, on a boat with a lot of moving parts, sometimes with crew, sometimes solo, often in the dark.
I am unable to predict what the weather will actually do, I don’t know what is going to break or fail, I never know what surprises will conspire to catch me out or challenge me. And yet I always cast off with a sense of freedom, satisfaction, anticipation and confidence.
With courage in my heart I know deep down that I will tackle with all my ability anything that arises, in short I am confident in myself despite all the unknowns.
At times whilst running start-up and scale-up businesses or during my brief corporate career I have not found the same courage to be confident in business.
Even though sailing is actually far more dangerous.
In business I have been caught up listening to my inner critic, tangled in the details of sums that don’t seem to add up, grappling with strategies that don’t deliver and at a loss with teams that are somehow just not finding their groove.
I have at times let all the unknowns dissuade me from taking the actions I could or should. I always had lots of logical reasons, external reasons, and it was never about my own courage to be confident.
Now with the benefit of years of practice as a professional certified coach, and a few more miles under the keel, it seems so clear that it was nearly always about my own courage to be confident in myself, in my business, in my career and in my teams.
Without the courage in my heart, I doubted at some level my own ability to overcome the unknowns and did not step forward with confidence, satisfaction or joy as often as I could have done.
This reflection on the difference between my confidence on the water and my confidence at work has taught me that confidence is not innate and transferable, nor is it a by product of success.
Confidence then is contextual and can be created with the ability to recognise and overcome our inner critic, to have the courage to have the confidence to design what we wish and to act - in different settings.
Let’s talk about having the courage to have the same confidence in your business as you have in the rest of your life.
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Walking with my wonderful friend Krish Surroy through the woods at the end of the summer I was talking about my latest plans about how to serve my coaching clients in the new year. Having clocked up a few thousand hours coaching some amazing people, I was enthusing about the latest neuroscience based coaching book I had read, and the frameworks it offered, when my wise friend turned to me and said “blah, blah, blah”…. This kinda stopped me in my tracks, we turned to face each other – both noticing the silence, the woodland surroundings, the ground under our boots. Krish placed his hand on my chest and gently pushed me of balance and I gently staggered backwards. Then he quietly said “Matt, your strength is not in your head, it’s in your heart”. My head is a busy place, it thinks it is the boss. My heart is full of warmth and courage. I have an endless bookshelf, full of the books I think I need to read to continue to be a great coach for my clients… Maybe that’s not what my clients need from me? So, perhaps I should open my heart further in my coaching for the coming year and shift to a focus on helping people discover a warm confidence? A 'warm confidence' through the exploration of values, beliefs and the stories we tell ourselves; through the strengths, balance and choices we bring; by exposing the fears and saboteurs we all live with - including at times a restless mind in my case. How does the idea of discovering a 'warm confidence' in your work and in your life resonate with you?
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