If you've ever participated in sports, made a sales pitch or dealt with difficult employees you'll have noticed that when you're in the right frame of mind and feeling confident you tend to end up with a better result.
Conversely when you're not feeling confident, maybe a little out of your depth, the results you produce are often a reflection of this feeling.
So what do all confident people have in common?
Confident people know themselves and their boundaries well and are able to communicate these well to others.
They openly express appreciation, admiration, respect etc.
They make and maintain strong eye contact, have an erect posture and make natural hand gestures.
Confident people are also decisive both in their decision-making and in their body language.
What makes someone confident?
Confidence comes from knowledge. The more you do something, the more you learn about something or the longer you are involved in something, the more confident about it you will feel.
When concentrating on your field of work in isolation the more you know about it, the more confident you will be. From product knowledge and sales techniques to the legislation and actual nitty gritty of the product or service, the more research you do and the more energy you put into your subject of choice the more confident you will be.
Can someone be too confident?
Confidence is one thing, but just like there's a line between Assertive communication and aggression there's also a line between confidence and arrogance.
Arrogance, or over-assertiveness, is characterised by demeaning, patronising, domineering, overwhelming and aggressive behaviour.
You could sum it up like this:
Confidence is saying, "I can do this," while arrogance is saying, "I can do this blindfolded…"
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