This document summarizes a presentation by Susan Graves on building confidence at work. Graves outlines 5 strategies for improving confidence: 1) Set specific goals and visualize success; 2) Record accomplishments to focus on successes; 3) Get quality feedback from others; 4) Work to understand inner negative thoughts; 5) Manage stakeholders by understanding their objectives and communication preferences. Graves emphasizes that confidence can be learned through focusing on achievements, seeking feedback, addressing inner doubts, and effectively engaging stakeholders. The presentation aims to provide practical tips for developing confidence in both work and career progression.

1. Classification: Public
IIBA UK North Branch
Virtual Event – 12th October 2021
Jo Solecki
Senior Business Analyst
Volunteer - IIBA UK Chapter - North Branch
@UKIIBA #UKIIBA
IIBA UK North Branch LinkedIn group
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/5168049/
IIBA UK LinkedIn group
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/55932/
United Kingdom
Chapter

2. Confidence at Work
Susan Graves
Career Progression Coach
© Susan Graves 2021

3. Who Am I?
© Susan Graves 2021 3
Susan Graves, Career Progression Coach
Helping you go for the next step in your career
My history
I worked for npower for 25 years, in IT and then
Change. I was a Project Manager, then
Programme Manager, working closely with
Business Analysts. I am now a qualified coach
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-graves-1805956
https://susangraves.co.uk
coaching@susangraves.co.uk

4. Today I will be covering:
• Confidence – what and why?
• 5 Strategies:
1. Goal setting/be specific
2. Recording successes
3. Getting quality feedback
4. Working with inner chatter
5. Manage your stakeholders
• Q&A
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5. What is confidence?
• Confidence is the belief that you will handle whatever happens in a
particular situation
• It doesn’t mean that you have to be good at everything, or get
everything right
• Confidence can be influenced by what others have told you in the past
• Confidence can be situational
• Confidence can be learned
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6. Poll
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In which area would you benefit most from more confidence?
1. Networking
2. Self promotion
3. Leading a team
4. Dealing with challenging situations

7. Pitfalls of a lack of confidence
Holding yourself back
Procrastination
Take worries home with you
Dwelling on perceived
criticism
Doubting your ability to
cope in new situations
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8. Benefits of confidence
Raising your visibility
Taking steps forward and
learning from them
Increased Wellbeing
Learning and growing
Belief that you will get there
Realistic expectations
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9. Goal Setting / Be specific
• Rather than “be more confident”, pick a particular situation that you
want to be confident in
• Visualise yourself being confident in this situation
• What will it feel like when you are confident?
• How will you know you are confident
• What will you be hearing? What will you be saying?
• Decide how can you move one step towards this
• Do it - try it out
• Reflect on what happened – without doing yourself down
• Set a new goal and keep going
Visualise
Decide
Do
Reflect
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10. Record your successes
• Note down where you have been
successful or received some positive
feedback or a thank-you
• It reminds you to focus on what you have
achieved rather than on the things that
you haven’t yet achieved
• However small the achievements are,
reflecting on them should give you a
boost, which can then give you the
confidence to go and achieve more
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11. Poll
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How do you feel when you receive feedback?
1. Good
2. Indifferent
3. Uncomfortable
4. I don’t seek feedback

12. Get good quality feedback
• Identify people you have dealt with a lot
- Working for you
- People you work for
- Stakeholders
- Anyone you have helped
• Position why you want feedback and ask
them to be as specific as possible
• Ask 3 questions
- What should I do more of
- What should I do less of
- What should I continue doing
© Susan Graves 2021 12

13. Work with the inner chatter
• We all have an inner dialogue that goes on all
the time
• What does yours say?
• Isolate each voice, give it a name, and
acknowledge what it is saying
• By acknowledging the different messages you
can start to choose how you deal with them
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14. Manage your stakeholders
• List your stakeholders (not your project’s)
• Analyse their objectives, communication
preferences and importance to you
• Be aware of different personality types
• Make a plan to fill in the gaps where you
need to be higher on their radar
• Review regularly
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15. Confidence building
• Confidence is the belief that you
will handle whatever happens in a
particular situation
• Confidence can be learned
• Visualise, Decide, Do, Reflect cycle
• Focus on your achievements
• Get feedback
• Understand inner chatter
• Manage your stakeholders
Achievements
Feedback
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16. Thank-you
I’m Susan Graves, a Career Progression Coach
Visit my website https://susangraves.co.uk
Or email me on coaching@susangraves.co.uk
Connect with me on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-graves-1805956
© Susan Graves 2021 16