Build self-esteem

Jules Ciotta

Self-esteem is an important element of success, and as a leader, you play a crucial role in helping build and nurture it in your employees. 

Here are some ideas for increasing your workers' self-esteem:

• Document their achievements.  Those who are low in self-confidence tend to forget their accomplishments and focus on their failures.  Keep records of their successful projects to share with them during performance reviews and other occasions.
• Assign jobs that use talents.  Put people to work on tasks that take advantage of what they do best and you'll boost their opinions of themselves and their abilities.  Make sure the tasks are meaningful and carry a degree of responsibility.  That tells workers how much you trust their skills.
• Teach them how to listen.  Train your people in the skills of listening – concentrating, repeating, and paraphrasing, and so forth.  Once they've mastered these skills and see how effective listening can help them in their careers, their confidence will soar.
• Train them in assertiveness.  Show employees how to ask for what they want and how to negotiate with others in order to get it.  Part of this involves employees knowing what they want, so work with your staff to help them determine what's important to them personally and in their careers.
• Focus on performance, not personality.  If you must criticize, target the worker's performance – "This project is two days behind schedule, Bob" – and not the employee – "What the matter with you?  Why can't you make these deadlines?" Similarly, when you praise, concentrate on the good performance.  Either way, you want to express to the employee that performance, which they can control, is what counts. 

Jules Ciotta is president of Motivation Communications Associates. He can be reached at (770) 457-4100 or julesciotta@comcast.net.