Workout Objective: A lesson in self-confidence.
Prerequisite: None.
Recommended Frequency: Just once.
Workout steps: Read the scenario below and vote.
Who do you think is more confident in this scenario? Let’s assume that Cindy and Jack are equally qualified and capable .
- Well educated – Cindy graduated from Berkeley with a 3.4 GPA and majored in electrical engineering and Jack graduated from SF state with a 2.7 GPA and majored in marketing.
- Extensive work experience – Both have worked for 15+ years. Cindy worked in consulting and now for a fortune 100 company as a product management leader. Jack worked mainly in started up and is in his 8th start up as director of marketing.
- Had some setbacks – Cindy has been laid off once in her career. Jack has experienced about 4 lay offs so far.
Who do you think is more confident – Jack or Cindy?
- Cindy is more confident than Jack.
- Jack is more confident than Cindy.
- Cindy and Jack are equally confident.
- Cindy and Jack are equally insecure.
Your comments: Please vote below. Tell us what you think is the point of this soft skills workout. How would you applied what you learned here to your own confidence? I look forward to your vote and comments.
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New to this site? Start here – Soft Skills – How to Succeed like an executive
Best wishes to your career success.
Lei
It can be either. All depends on how Jack and Cindy choose to think about themselves
Self confidence comes from the way how do you interpret yourself, your self learning and mastery journey. Cindy and Jack choose different path to get to where they want to be. It is not an apple to apple comparison. yet they both find their own fulfillment through their own choice
Very well said, Shel. Thanks for sharing. Do you have any advice for reader on how one can become more self confident?
Jack, more experience at starting fresh.
interesting perspective. thanks for sharing Lou
Either person could be more self-confident. Self-confidence doesn’t have to do with your skills, accomplishments, education, etc. so much as it has to do with the way you think about yourself and those skills. I think you could be in a scenario where you personally are less qualified than another competitor, you are aware of that deficiency, yet you are still confident in the abilities that you DO have. It seems like the point of this quiz is to get us to think differently about self-confidence, that it’s not so much about skills, as it is about mindset. I think… Read more »
I completely agree. Self confidence comes from within. Actually I have seen people with less skills but more confidence succeed much more than those with more skills but lacks confidence.
The first 2 posters make excellent points. We need to understand how they reacted to the layoffs. Some of the greatest minds say failure was their best techer. True Jack had 3 more lay-offs, but they were in unstable start ups not Fortune 500 companies. It is difficult to accurately measure their reaction from limited data. Also Confidence/Insecurity exist as a polarity ergo q3 and 4 are basically uncovering the same info. If one is “x” confident then they are automatically “y” insecure. Insecurity exists in a void of confidence!
Leif, thanks for commenting. can you elaborate on your last sentence? do you mean if Cindy is confident, then Jack is insecure or are you saying if Cindy is confident, she must also be insecure?