Young Leaders Lack Confidence, So What?

Much research has been done on this leaders lacking confidence. Michael Hyatt for one has positioned his company to solve that exact problem that many leaders face. Lack of confidence. Hyatt has created and developed many programs and products that offer a solution to this problem. Many of these products are phenomenal and I cannot recommend them enough. But I want to take this deeper. Why are leaders even those who attend his courses and read his books and many other personal growth books to “fix” this problem of lack of confidence still not confident?

Hyatt would agree that the inside-out approach that Stephen R. Covey introduced in his book, 7 Habits of highly effective people, is a great reason why many leaders lack confidence. There is a shortage of leaders and there will always be. Many leaders are thrust into positions that they are not ready for. Either their skill or expertise in the field and or their own character has not been further developed in a mature state to tackle real-life problems.

Personally, I truly believe that those leaders, myself included, who lack the confidence needed to be a good leader stems from lack of character. To this I say “why are we surprised?” Character is so fundamental to the ability to influence people long term. To have a long-lasting effective relationship. Leadership without character would be like asking a runner to run a marathon without water. The runner and the leader wouldn't last. Character is so fundamental that it is often overlooked.

Character has become a piece to the success puzzle and not the whole puzzle itself. The pieces to the puzzle were humility, integrity, patience, hard work. The pieces have been changed to attitude, personality, and outward appearances. We have forgotten the fact that character is the lid to leadership. (read about the law of the lid from John Maxwell)

So why is this important? Why do young people lack confidence in their leadership capabilities? One word. Character. Our character has not been formed or matured enough to the point that we need to be confident and THAT IS OK! Don’t expect yourself to have it all figured out. You actually will never have it all figured out, and that is the truth. Form your humility that you are not the greatest leader in your space, that you won’t be until your character is formed. Forming your character takes time. Be patient.

These attributes; humility and patience, are key to building your confidence as a leader because ultimately, they will build your character which will translate into having confidence. But you must work on it. You must work on practicing the virtues of humility and patience. Do not be passive, be proactive.

In summary, character is the reason for feeling a lack of confidence and it will take patience and hard work to strive to build your character up as well as your confidence. Have the humility to recognize that you still have a long way to go. Leadership is a marathon with many small bursts of speed. But it takes time. Be patient, be humble, work hard and be proactive.

Watch this video for a great contrast between the character and personality ethic.

Day 1 of 30 day blog challenge can be found here. This is Day 2