It can be daunting working in health and social care, especially at these unprecedented times. From working on the frontline CARE-ing for your patients to facing challenges with your teams or manager or just general erring discussion(s).

“Having confidence can help you to reassure your patients or clients that you know what you are doing. Also, it can help you to illustrate to your teams or manager that you can do your job efficiently and effectively you will be more successful with your personal/career goals and objectives.”

Firstly, what is self-confidence?

According to dictionary.com, self-confidence is having real courage in one’s judgment, ability, power, etc. Likewise, self-confidence is about valuing yourself and feeling worthy, regardless of any imperfections or what others may believe about you.

Below are THREE ways you can boost your confidence at work.

• Practice self-reflection – think about a time when setting a goal and achieved it.
  Your self-confidence will increase when you can say, “I can do this, and here is why …. using your past achievements or the obstacles you’ve overcome as evidence.You’ve ever heard the story of David & Goliath? Did you know that self-reflection was one of the keys to David’s victory during the challenge with Goliath? David remembered his past achievements even when people around him didn’t believe in him which put him in the best position to defeat Goliath.”Similarly, as part of your Personal SWOT Analysis, you would have identified things that you are good at, based on your past achievements.List the five things that you are most proud and grateful for in a “gratitude log.” Then use them to make positive affirmations about what you can do. These statements are essentially powerful if you tend to undermine your confidence with negative self-talk.Dear colleagues, count your blessings, name them one by one.
• Boost your skillset: Sometimes lack of a particular skill or skills can cause timidity. Learning new skills can help you become better at your job — be it soft skills, such as working on your communication, or hard skills related to your role, such as IT skills.You will feel more confident about your abilities and find new ways to work when you are performing better. You will be less likely to make the same mistake twice and advance your career through this.There are lots of online learning platforms you can use for free such as Open Learning University: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ or Future Learn: https://www.futurelearn.com/ and the one that notably changed my mindset and increased my confidence is: Dominant Institute: https://domint.org/about-dips/
• Reach out if you need to: You might feel vulnerable talking about your difficulties but tackling and engaging in self-work with your peers, psychologist, or in a trusted community can help deconstruct our beliefs and overcome a lack of self-confidence. Moreover, a CARE-ing community such as Black Women in Care platform can be a real support in building or rebuilding your sense of self-worth.Self-confidence, especially at work, is a subject that concerns us all at some point in our lives. You can click here to learn more about how we support our members.

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence from every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face. You can say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Eleanor Roosevelt

For job opportunities and general enquires, email: info@blackwomenincare.com