Prepare Your Mind For Action To Be Confident

We all want to be confident don’t we? This is especially true if we’re leading a team, either formally or informally.

The problem is insecurity. It’s always within us. It’s lurking, waiting to attack and destroy our confidence.

And, when does this attack occur?

When things get difficult.

I’m sure you’re nodding your head, because you know this is true.

It’s easy to be confident when there are no obstacles in our path, no challenges we have to fight against. But, an environment of ease and comfort doesn’t describe the world we live in.

So, what can we do to be confident when we encounter resistance?

The answer is really pretty simple.

We need to expect things will get hard and prepare our minds for action.

Mobilizing – The second step in leading a team

Before we discuss how expecting resistance and getting our mindset right helps us to be confident, let me explain how this topic fits into this blog series on the Connect. Mobilize. Deliver. framework.

As I outlined in 3 Things To Focus On To Lead A Successful Team, Connect. Mobilize. Deliver. is how I think about leadership.

Connect people. Mobilize them. Deliver results.

I got into the details of the first and most important step, Connecting, in the post Connect People with 2 Easy, 2-Minute Techniques.

If you haven’t read the post yet, I encourage you to check it out. As the title says, you can start connecting with your teammates and connecting them with one another in no time at all.

After Connecting comes Mobilizing.

But, what is Mobilizing? And, what does it have to do with being confident?

Mobilizing is preparing for action

Let’s go back to the definition from the introductory post where I wrote this:

The most appropriate definition as it applies to leading teams with kindness and confidence is from dictionary.com.

Mobilize – To marshal, bring together, prepare (power, force, wealth, etc.) for action, especially of a vigorous nature
Dictionary.com

Leaders must help their teams prepare for action.

Let’s talk first about being prepared and how it can help you be more confident in yourself.

Being prepared causes us to be confident

We are more confident when we are prepared.

I know. This is an obvious statement.

Whether we’re taking a test after studying for days or we’re delivering a presentation we’ve practiced countless times, knowing our material and being ready gives us confidence.

We gain confidence in many different ways. The WikiHow article How to Be Confident, includes valuable and practical tips on how to have more self-confidence.

But, for those aspiring to be a confident leader, I would add something to that list. It goes back to the problem I described at the beginning of this post.

We lose our confidence when things get hard and we encounter resistance.

So, to be an exceptionally confident leader, do these two things.

Prepare your mind for resistance and prepare your mind for action.

Note that I said you can be not just a confident leader, but an exceptionally confident leader by doing these two things.

Why do I use the term “exceptionally confident”?

Because most leaders don’t intentionally prepare their minds for resistance and the action required to overcome it.

When they and their teams face difficulty, which they eventually will, the insecurity within them attacks. They lose their confidence and their ability to lead effectively.

You can be the exception.

Of course, there are countless tactical ways to prepare yourself and your team. But, the most important preparation occurs in your mind.

Knowing what to expect and having the proper mindset for what you will experience is critical to being prepared.

Be confident by preparing your mind for resistance

I realize I may sound like a pessimistic.

Most resources on being confident focus on being positive. For instance, the WikiHow article How to Be Confident includes a section on “Expect Success” and even warns of the dangers of pessimism.

I completely agree with maintaining a positive, optimistic outlook. In my opinion, however, the article could be improved by adding a section called “Expect Resistance”.

Because that’s what you’re going to encounter if you are leading people to do meaningful work.

Leadership is defined as facing resistance

In the book Teaching Leadership [affiliate link] from The Kansas Leadership Center, leadership is defined as addressing “difficult challenges”.

Leadership means mobilizing people to make progress on difficult challenges at work, at home, and in community.
The Kansas Leadership Center

Difficult

Challenges

Since these words are in the definition of leadership, you will necessarily face resistance when you lead. Your teammates will too.

The sooner you face this reality, the better. Your mind will begin to prepare not for ease and comfort, but for challenges and struggles.

And, when those difficult times come, you won’t be caught off guard. The insecurity inside of you will be less effective at destroying your confidence.

You will stand strong as a confident leader.

But don’t stop there.

Once you, as the leader, have come to terms with the reality that things are going be difficult, you have to tell your team. They deserve to know the truth so they can also prepare their minds and be confident when they face difficulties.

Tell your team the hard truth early

It isn’t always easy to tell your teams the truth. Especially, when it’s a hard truth.

As leaders, we don’t want to discourage people. We want them to be enthusiastic and positive.

But to lead well, we need to help our teammates understand the reality of the path before them. This positions them for success.

I agree with this message from Shane Parrish, former Canadian spy and business expert.

A great advantage can be found in accepting hard truths faster than others.
— Shane Parrish (@ShaneAParrish) August 21, 2020

By accepting the hard truth that you and your team will face resistance, you will have a great advantage. And, so will your team.

The sooner you accept this reality and the sooner you share this hard truth with your team, the greater your advantage.

I admit sharing this reality with your teammates could be discouraging for them. It might be discouraging for you as well.

But, it doesn’t have to be. Remember the definition of mobilizing a team.

Mobilize – To marshal, bring together, prepare (power, force, wealth, etc.) for action, especially of a vigorous nature
Dictionary.com

People thrive when they have purpose, even when a situation is discouraging.

And, preparing for resistance has a purpose: action.

Be confident by preparing your mind for action

Action is required to overcome resistance.

Resistance is present when we are trying to get something started. It’s also fighting against us when we are working to keep things moving in the right direction and at the right pace.

I’m an engineer by training so my mind goes to the laws of physics when I think about resistance, action, and leadership.

Inertia – a leadership lesson from Sir Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton introduced the concept of inertia way back in 1686 with his first law of motion. It basically states an object at rest or in motion will remain at rest or in motion unless acted upon by an outside force.

Applied to leadership, the first law of motion means, if a leader and a team don’t take action, nothing is going to change. No progress will be made on the difficult challenges the team is working to address.

With no action, things will stay just as they are. (Or, they’ll get worse. But I’ll keep the topic of entropy and all things tending toward disorder for another post).

Action takes energy. Lots of energy. From you as a leader and from every one of your teammates.

Overcoming the inertia of “how we’ve always done it” takes effort.

Keeping a project focused on the goal when others push it to move a different direction requires work. Successfully pushing forward as opponents pull in the opposite direction only occurs through exerting energy.

Making progress and delivering results require action.

We all need a reminder to get ready for action

I have observed in myself and others a tendency to forget, or maybe to just not want to admit, that work requires, well, work.

Let me give you some examples of what I mean.

A team meeting turns into an hour of complaining about how much we have to do. It’s as if we forgot doing work is why we are there.
I want to develop a new skill but get frustrated when I don’t get results immediately. I don’t like that I have to put in effort over time to see change.
During a project, we are surprised when we have unexpected challenges to overcome. We forget part of our role is to solve problems.

I don’t mean to sound judgmental because I do things like this all the time. It seems all humans are prone to behavior like this.

As leaders we need to remind ourselves and our teams to be ready for action.

Mobilized teams must be ready to act and being ready to act starts with our minds.

Gird up your loins – a leadership lesson from the Bible

This week I was reading the Bible and came across the phrase “prepare your minds for action“. Another Bible translation uses a more intriguing version: “gird up the loins of your mind“.

The idea of “girding up our loins” isn’t familiar to me, but the imagery in How to Gird Up Your Loins: An Illustrated Guide, from one of my favorite podcasts, The Art of Manliness, is powerful.

I don’t wear a tunic, but if I lived during biblical times I probably would have.

With a tunic as my clothing, I would have to make some adjustments before I was ready for hard work or a battle. The outfit was comfortable and breezy when it was hanging loosely. But, it was also in the way when a person needed to move quickly and take action.

The author in the Bible, Peter, was telling his audience to expect resistance and to get their minds ready for action.

That’s the same message we need to hear as leaders. And, it’s the message we need to share with our teams.

Sometimes it seems like we show up to work with our teams mentally wearing our tunics. Or, maybe fuzzy slippers and pajamas in today’s style.

We too easily forget why we are there and we need a reminder to “gird up the loins of our minds”, to tie up our tunics.

We are there to do hard work. To take action and deliver results.

Be confident by preparing your mind for resistance and action

Doing meaningful work is hard. Get ready for resistance. Expect challenges. Don’t be surprised by them when they occur.

Do you want to be confident in yourself as a leader?

Then, get your mind right. Acknowledge reality. Embrace it. Prepare for it. Tell your teams how things are really going to be.

You will face resistance. You will need to act.

By setting your mind now on the realities to come, you will have exceptional confidence as a leader.

Being prepared brings kindness as well as confidence

This blog is focused on training leaders to lead with kindness and confidence. I said nothing about kindness up to this point.

But, if you put into practice these techniques to have confidence as a leader, you will also be in a position to lead with kindness when you and your team face resistance.

I struggle the most with being kind when I am insecure and lack confidence. If I’m not prepared for resistance and difficulty, I am at a high risk of being a jerk to my teammates.

You may be the same way.

If you are, I encourage you to prepare your mind for resistance and action now, before you encounter the challenges that are sure to come.

You will ready as an exceptionally confident leader to lead with kindness and confidence when your team needs you the most.

Let’s do something great.

Greg