Four Confidence Building Strategies

You’re a ministry leader. People are at the heart of your job. Your job is to get the ministry done through others: your staff and volunteers. What if they lack confidence? People often don’t believe in themselves. They are timid to act. Maybe they hesitate because they’re just unsure. They limit the potential of what God can do in them and through them because of one missing ingredient: CONFIDENCE. 

Think about your own journey in building confidence. What worked for you to gain confidence? Guess what? Not everyone gains confidence in the same way. 

Confidence is a necessary element to moving forward! You’ve got a job ahead of you: you need to build the confidence of your staff and volunteers. Here’s four ways people build confidence and some ideas to get you started on this journey. 

Do it

With a little encouragement, some people are really ready to do it, even when they’re cautious. Push them one step further and offer stretch projects. Take a look at what needs to be done, and realign what they do well with what needs to be done. Keep them engaged and focused on what they do best. All along the way, keep the encouragement coming. Celebrate past accomplishments to encourage success in the next one. 

Learn it

Offer to send them to a training. Share a podcast or a video that will help them understand what needs to be done and how they can go about doing it. Read a book and then talk about their take-aways from the book. Send them to a class and have them come back and share what they learned (or even go with them!). Hook them up with a mentor who can teach >> who has been there and done that. Find out how they like to learn and tap into that motivation.

See it

Sometimes people just need to see how it is done. Partner them up with someone who has been doing it for awhile. Ask them to join you and show them how it’s done. Give them a chance to practice it with support and observation. Don’t just expect them to know all the steps. They might simply need to embed it into their mind by seeing how it gets done.

Try it

Let mistakes happen and then nurture confidence from them. ASK questions — find out what they would have done differently and what they will do to adjust next time BEFORE you offer your own ‘2 cents’. Give second chances, but revisit the other three ways (do it, learn it, see it) to be sure they are equipped to try again.

Underlying each of these ways that people build confidence is encouragement. Push for persistence — we truly can do hard things. Encourage dependence on Jesus rather than self. Offer encouraging and supportive feedback that inspires them to the next step.

What's Next?

Want to brainstorm other possibilities to build confidence in a team member? Grab a call with me right HERE. Let’s take 30 minutes and come up with one or two new things you can try!