The Financial Times Guide to Leadership

4

Gaining self-confidence

‘They can because they think they can.’

Virgil, Roman poet

This chapter covers:

• the concept of self-confidence and why it is a critical attribute for leadership
• self-belief and positive reinforcement – the first building blocks of self-confidence
• why fear holds you back and how to overcome this stumbling block to progress.

Playing the piano and the British Army

Estelle Clark is Group Business Assurance Director for Lloyd’s Register. She was born without index fingers and significant deformity to most of her other fingers. At the age of four, she undertook extensive plastic surgery, the doctors constructing some of her fingers from scratch. On the last day of her stay at the hospital, the chief surgeon brought ...