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I coached a recruiter recently and her pitch and CV profile start with ‘I help organisations find great I recently ran a value proposition writing workshop with a group of internal recruiters and was astonished when they presented the propositions they’d been asked to create.

colleagues to make informed decisions by analysing account data for indications of fraud, formulating and presenting

technique is acknowledging difference, putting it out there that you’re on different sides – and not pretending

And more time to just be, to enjoy the present as much as, if not more than racing to the future and

Knowing the steps you can take makes it easier to see your direction and progress A lack of confidence can be a very real barrier to career success and being fulfilled at work. It might stop you from putting yourself forward for opportunities, voicing your ideas or pulling back when faced with a new or challenging situation. It can also hinder how well you ‘sell’ yourself in interviews. Some people have a lot more confidence than others, but for those who lack confidence and experience low self-esteem, there are things you can do to help you reach a place where you feel more confident. Here is how you can build confidence in 5 steps: Step 1 is acknowledging what is going on . Put simply, to plan a journey, you need to understand where you are starting from. Most low self-esteem or lack of confidence comes from the past and negative messages we have received, though there are also people who naturally think less of themselves, are prone to anxiety or set impossibly high standards that they fail to reach. Whatever the root, we build up an image of ourselves that is either totally or partially negative. We might say things like ‘I’m bad at interviews’ or I’m no good at asking for something I want’ and over time, we start to believe these things are true - and unalterable. The key to addressing these inhibiting and self-sabotaging beliefs is to look for evidence. A coach can help you here by listening and asking you questions such as ‘Where do you think that comes from?’ and ‘Is that always the case?’ If one of your beliefs is ‘I’m bad at interviews’, but you have a job, then at some point that statement has to have been proven untrue. Pinpointing when you started to think the negative thoughts can be helpful. With hindsight and life experience on your side, you might realise the source and challenge it, or at least set it in context. Often negative beliefs start in childhood and so it is a vital step to see them – and the source – for what they were and how they are impacting us even now. And that can help us put them in perspective. Applying logic and looking for evidence to contradict the negative belief can be transformative and free you to let go of the belief because you realise it’s simply not true, or not true anymore. Other times the process is more evolutionary, where the evidence is more subtle and your belief is no longer true ‘all the time’.  To further lessen the power of negative thoughts, focus more on positive ones. Start a list of things you are good at, for example, I’m a good listener, I get things done on time, people can rely on me. If my clients struggle with this in a work context, we look at personal positives. Being good at cooking requires planning, visualisation, organisation, strong time management, budgeting and multitasking. It can also require you to use risk assessment techniques [is the oven too hot?], push the boundaries of accepted thinking [I like salt, I’ll add a bit more than the recipe says], resource management [we’re going to need more milk], stakeholder management and communications [I know you’re hungry but it will only take five more minutes] and expectation management [no, it doesn’t look like the picture but it tastes good]. Through either or both approaches, you can start to break down seemingly permanent negative aspects of your personality and move on from them. They are no longer absolutes and you can move away from them to define you, your future and your true potential. Step 2 is focusing on your strengths . You might use an online assessment tool such as ( Clifton Strengths  or  StrengthsProfile ), or you can simply start to make a list. The goal is to identify what your strengths are so you focus on those instead of weaknesses. I’m not good with following detailed processes, my brain just refuses to go in straight lines. I used to focus on this, compare myself to others to reinforce my negative belief that I was rubbish and failing, and I gave it a lot of worry space.  But – big BUT and major revelation – once I recognised my strengths lay in other areas, I realised it was OK to not be good at detailed processes. More than that, it was liberating. Other people are skilled in following detailed processes and can do this far more effectively than I can. And I can step aside and let them get on with it whilst I shine for seeing connections, solving problems and being amazing at getting people on board with ideas.  My guiding ethos since then has been that you’ll increase your confidence and see more progress in life and your career by focusing on your strengths. You can take your strengths from good to great and great to amazing once you know and optimise them, but you’ll rarely get beyond competent by spending time trying to polish up a weakness. Reviewing your list of strengths with someone – or a few people – is a powerful way to help you identify other strengths, especially as people often see us in ways we don’t see ourselves. And it might be that you ask a cross-section of people that you know from different situations in your life to get more perspectives and data. Fundamentally, big or small, common or unique, we all have strengths and gathering evidence of them helps us be more positive about what we are capable of. Step 3 centres on detoxing to eliminate negative influences . These might be energy-draining relationships and/or demanding situations. With the former, try to spend less time around people who take more from you than they give and focus your time on interacting with people who appreciate you, energise you and make you feel good about yourself. With the latter, you may need to learn how to say ‘no’ to people. This can be tough at first, but there are tools and techniques to help you. (Check out my newsletter for practical tips.) One of the tools is to ask yourself, ‘Why is that person’s time/input/demand more important than mine? Step 4 is the energy step . This is where you find ways to assert and challenge yourself. Start small and build up confidence as more and more things go well and you say more positive things about yourself than negative. Gather the evidence every time you take a forward step so you can keep challenging those negative beliefs and stop self-sabotaging. If you believe that you are bad at interviews and no one will ever employ you, and feel it’s not worth making an application for a job, then research what interviews are about and how to prepare for them. Then prepare. There are multiple articles, tips and videos online to help you identify the types of interview questions you’ll face and how to prepare to answer them well. Then practice. Record yourself, watch it back. Practice with someone and ask for feedback. Keep practising and getting feedback to improve until you have the evidence and feel confident that you can, in fact, do well at an interview. (Check out my article on warming up for interview success .) If you’re really struggling, look for role models who project confidence and copy them. How do they stand, how do they hold themselves, how do they speak, what is their face doing? Do what they do and you can find your inner strength. Or at least you’ll be able to project confidence so you sound convincing. Eventually, you’ll start to believe it and it will feel more natural. Step 5 is about how you see and talk about yourself . If you say negative things about yourself, then you are inviting other people to see you that way. Being kind to yourself, giving yourself recognition and thinking positive thoughts goes a long way to diminishing the power of negative, confidence-draining beliefs. How you used to be and what happened to you in the past does not have to define you now. You might have been a precocious child who was criticised for being disruptive in class and too keen to follow your own direction, but is that still who you are now? And is it an issue in your professional life? As long as you see the strength in it and recognise the effect your behaviours have on others, then you can move away from the negative messages you received and harness your intellect, energy and drive for excellence. One way to see if you are being unkind to yourself is to ask yourself what you would say if you heard a friend or colleague talking down their abilities and saying how terrible they are at something. We can be harder on ourselves and kinder to others, so turn the tables and think about what you would say in that situation, then say it to yourself. If you’d like to talk about how your negative beliefs are holding you back or would like help identifying and optimising your strengths so you can feel more confident, then please get in touch and let's see where a session of Career Therapy can take you. Click ‘Book a call’ on the website for a free intro call or email me at louise@careertherapy.co.uk Why not follow me for more career confidence-boosting tips, tools and talks: LinkedIn   Louise Newton Instagram   @career_therapy_uk If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the twice-monthly   Career Therapy Newsletter ? It’s packed full of thoughtful career support, grounded in years of coaching experience - and real life. Check out my other articles on careers and confidence:   You can grow your confidence ,   Pick your shine time ,   5 steps to building confidence  and   Want more confidence? Take control .  Photo by Alex Shuper  on Unsplash

These are all part of our personal brand that help us create professional presence and showcase our abilities I can help you find your ‘you’ words to power up your brand and professional presence.

Pretend to be more confident than you are (shoulders back, chin up) and then go and try it.

I laughed out loud watching Michael Bungay Stanier , author of The Coaching Habit and The Advice Trap talk about ‘How to tame your Advice Monster’. “You nod, you look engaged, yet caring, yet concerned…just waiting for your turn to speak.” I wonder how many of us are good at faking active listening whilst our brains rush to devise solutions. As someone who loves problem-solving and offering solutions, wearing both professional hats as a ‘you’re the expert, what shall we do?’ consultant and a ‘tell me more, what else is going on?’ coach is a challenge. My AGH (Advice Giving Habit) used to be like that excited child stretching their arm up in the air so high that they leave their seat crying “pick me, pick me! I know the answer.” I can’t deny that child is still in me, but I can now ask them to shush and listen. Why? Because, as Michael points out, we often try to solve the wrong problem by thinking that the first problem we hear about is the most important one. Wrong. Nancy Kline’s Thinking Environment is based on the same principle; that the more people work through their ideas uninterrupted by comments, solutions and advice, the more interesting and powerful their thoughts will be. Two hard but vital lessons for me in my career have been to stop my brain racing and listen and think about the best solution, not the first solution. Learning how to do both of these things has paid remarkable dividends, professionally and personally. And they opened my horizons. The other lessons I learned along the way are: Questions are more powerful, useful and interesting than answers Adding value is not about me having all the answers It’s OK to stay in the not knowing, the answer will come What and so many other possible questions Whether you are a leader, manager, consultant, mentor or coach, your role is as a guide. A guide that enables and empowers others to think, act and move forward. They are the ones who need to come up with the answers for the solutions to feel real and have a chance of being realised. They need to feel the ownership, not rely on advice. Giving and receiving advice can be great sometimes but as Michael Bungay Stanier’s video reminded me, it can limit someone else’s ability to think more – and think better. Advice can lessen someone's willingness to take ownership and feel like they can’t find the answer themselves. I’m not a quiet coach. I’m not a coach who ‘knits yoghurt’ as one of my clients calls it. That client and others work with me because I ask challenging questions. I push them to leave their comfort zones and challenge their own beliefs and assumptions. But I do it in a safe way, striking a productive balance between challenge and support. Of course, I form opinions, that’s what enables me to ask more of those provocative, incisive questions. But I no longer feel compelled to share them. It’s not about me. And if the Advice Giving Monster emerges, I override it by knowing that if I listen more, I’ll learn more. And learning more helps my clients realise and achieve more. Watch Michael Bungay Stanier in action and see if you recognise some of your own habits and check out his book, The Advice Trap . Take the quiz to see what type of Advice Monster you have , when it is most likely to emerge and, crucially, how to tame it. If you’d like someone to help you work out why you are where you are and what might be next, or if you’d like to be challenged to step out of your comfort zone (in a gentle but candid way), why not get in touch and see where a session of Career Therapy could take you? Introductory calls are always free if you’re curious to find out more about coaching and working with me. Click on Book a call on the website for a free intro call or email me:  louise@careertherapy.co.uk   Why not follow me for more confidence boosting tips, tools and talks: LinkedIn   Louise Newton Instagram   @career_therapy_uk What’s stopping you? You might also be interested in my article on changing negative questions to positive ones. If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the twice-monthly   Career Therapy Newsletter ? It’s packed full of thoughtful career support grounded in years of coaching experience...and real life. Photo by Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash

Set yourself up with the direction, tools and energy you need for immediate and long-term success Do you know how to start your new job the right way? There’s a lot to think about - a hundred things, big and small, that you don’t know but need to learn very quickly. Some things you can plan for, some you can’t in your 30-60-90 plan, but there is one sure-fire way to make yourself unpopular and set you back on your path to success, and it happens more times than it should - coming on too strong and trying too hard. It’s a mistake I see people make time and time again, especially more senior employees. They think they are doing the right thing and often have no idea how annoying or disengaging their actions are to their new colleagues. This grave error? Wanting to ‘create impact’ and ‘add value’ from day one. OK, I hear you asking: “Surely, that’s a positive, isn’t it?” Well, yes. But it needs to be done the right way. It’s natural to want to make a good impression, show your strengths and justify why you were hired. There’s often a sense of needing to prove oneself quite quickly in a new role, which is OK, but what's not OK is when that drive overtakes clear thinking and works against you. How? Well, imagine you’re an employee and someone new starts. They jump in with ideas from the get-go, looking for things to be improved and changes to be made. Because that’s how they feel they justify being hired. Unfortunately, they don’t realise that their seemingly positive ideas and suggestions have a negative side. Firstly, they often don’t know enough of the background or history to be making assumptions and pronouncements about what should have happened or needs to be done. Negative strike one. Secondly, someone suggesting that changes need to be made implies that everyone is currently doing a less-than-stellar job. Negative strike two. Yes, you may have been hired with an agenda for driving transformation and delivering improvements, but there is a way of going about it, taking a little more time to truly understand where you are, who you are with, how they work and what they will respond positively to. Taking some time to observe, to learn and understand will lead to far more impactful change and value add. Learning how people and processes work, you’ll know which levers to pull, where to put pressure and how to deliver lasting change that your colleagues engage with and support. What you wear on day one is up to you, but here are my top 5 tips for starting a new role: Don’t rush to act. Look, listen and learn. Take your time to learn about the people, the place, the culture and the dynamics. Then, when you do act, you’ll have more impact because your suggestions will be backed by evidence and observation. • Be approachable, interested and confident. Introduce yourself, don’t wait for people to make the first move. Talk about them, not yourself and ask lots of questions. • Ask, don’t assume. Ask people to explain how things work at your new company. Don’t assume you know, even if you have experience in similar roles or organisations. Be open to learning. • Keep asking questions. No one will expect you to remember everything you see or hear in your first few days. Also, you can play the newbie card for a while without coming across as critical: “As I’m new, can you tell me how you arrived at that decision?” • Be yourself. Don’t try too hard, relationships are built over time and it’s not a popularity contest. • Be yourself. Prep and practice your pitch to answer " Tell me about yourself " with ease. If you’re nervous about your first day or how to make an impact in a new role, why not try a session of Career Therapy to help you prepare? From handshakes to value props, strategy to goal setting, it’s good to have a plan. Click ‘Book a call’ on the website for a free intro call or email me at louise@careertherapy.co.uk Why not follow me for more confidence-boosting tips, tools and talks: LinkedIn   Louise Newton Instagram   @career_therapy_uk There are 1000s of resources online to help you successfully onboard and this list from Coursera is a good reference point. Remember to keep track of what you've learned to date. If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the twice-monthly   Career Therapy Newsletter ? It’s packed full of thoughtful career support grounded in years of coaching experience...and real life. Photo by Clay Banks  on Unsplash

Electrify your energy and ignite your passion Passion. It’s not a word you’d necessarily associate with being professional or career growth. But we all need a bit of it. Why? Having the power of passion for career growth is a strength. What does passion have to do with being happy at work, getting your career back on track or finding the right job? Well, a lot. A whole lot, in fact. When you have passion, you know what inspires and motivates you. You have purpose, which gives you focus and direction. And knowing all of that means you know your strengths. And knowing your strengths means you feel confident and capable. Powerful, right? Passion has a lot to do with being happy at work and finding the right job or taking the next step. It can help you recharge your career, reconnect with things that excite you and enrich your working experience. Passionate is a buzzword you see (too) often in job ads and on CVs, but it’s often just a bit 'meh' and lacking substance. On a CV, who isn't going to say they are passionate, dedicated and hardworking? No one is going to write 'mildly interested, invested a bit and sometimes lazy' are they? One would hope not. If you want to include passion on your CV and LinkedIn, show the proof of how you demonstrated your passion and what outcome it drove or resulted in. If you talk about being passionate, be...passionate. I was hosting a mock interview with a client and with a deadpan face and very flat voice, they responded to a question with "I'm very passionate about..." but their face and voice said differently. We have to convey our passion with a bit of animation - eyes that sparkle and a face that lights up - even if it's just a little. If not, it's counterproductive. If you genuinely have passion, you have an edge. It’s more than enthusiasm and energy. Enthusiasm bounces around and can obscure the path ahead, but passion is honed and enduring. It’s powerful. It can take you places in life and in your career. You know passion when you see it in someone, even if you’re not sure what it is. It helps you make connections and it’s so attractive to other people – including recruiters, hiring managers, colleagues and leaders. They know you are genuine, that you’ll go the extra mile, give your all and stay motivated. Do you know what your passion is? Do you know how to harness it to give you an edge? A session of Career Therapy with me as your coach can help you connect with and articulate your passion in a way that is authentic to you. It can also show you just how powerful passion can be to help you grow your confidence and recharge your career. Let's explore how you can find or reignite your passion with a free intro chat. Click on 'Book a call' anywhere on the website or email me: louise@careertherapy.co.uk . And don't forget to check out other posts for more impactful career tips. What's stopping you? Why not follow me for more tips, tools and talks: LinkedIn   Louise Newton Instagram   @career_therapy_uk For questions to challenge your thinking and ignite your passion, here's my article on the Superpower of Knowing Your Why and this blog from Kira Day , Founder at the Passion Centre. If you'd like to receive no-fluff, practical insights direct to your inbox, why not sign up for the twice-monthly   Career Therapy Newsletter ? It’s packed full of thoughtful career support grounded in years of coaching experience...and real life. Photo by  Hal Gatewood  on  Unsplash

Positive role models, representation and good mentors like Louise are vital in life and at work.

She recently faced a dilemma: should she leave for another start-up offering a massive pay hike, or stay