Confidence is often associated with certainty. The leader who speaks first, answers questions quickly and appears completely assured about the next step is easily perceived as the most confident person in the room.
But does effective leadership confidence really mean knowing all the answers?
In a recent opinion piece published by People Management, executive coach and HR advisor Gemma Bullivant challenges this traditional view of confidence and argues that sustainable confidence is built on something deeper.
Gemma identifies three foundations of confidence: competence, courage and curiosity.
Read Gemma’s full opinion piece in People Management.
The three foundations of leadership confidence
Gemma’s model starts with competence. Experience and expertise matter, but not because they guarantee the right answer. They give leaders the judgement to make considered decisions when the answer isn’t immediately obvious.
Then comes courage.
One of the traps capable leaders can fall into is waiting until they feel confident before they speak up, challenge an established view or have a difficult conversation. Gemma argues that the relationship often works in reverse: taking action creates evidence that we can cope with challenging situations, which builds confidence over time.
As she explains in the original article:
“Courage comes first. Confidence follows.”
Finally, there is curiosity.
When confidence becomes synonymous with certainty, asking questions can feel like exposing a weakness. Yet curiosity allows leaders to test assumptions, seek perspectives they may not have considered and make better-informed decisions.
Together, competence, courage and curiosity create what Gemma describes as an “inner core strength”: confidence that remains available even when the situation itself is uncertain.
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What does this mean for senior leaders?
Redefining confidence has implications beyond individual leadership development.
Organisations can inadvertently reward visible confidence: the person who speaks most often, responds fastest or appears most certain. But those behaviours don’t necessarily indicate stronger judgement or greater leadership potential.
For HR and senior leadership teams, there are several questions worth considering:
Are we confusing confidence with certainty?
Leaders should be able to acknowledge what they don’t know without feeling that doing so undermines their credibility. Creating cultures where thoughtful questioning is valued can lead to stronger conversations and decisions.
Who gets heard and recognised as leadership material?
If leadership potential is associated primarily with assertiveness and visible self-assurance, organisations risk overlooking people whose confidence shows up differently through considered judgement, thoughtful challenge or curiosity.
Are leaders being encouraged to ask questions as well as provide answers?
Senior leaders don’t need to provide depth of expertise on every topic around the leadership table. Sometimes their greatest contribution is bringing breadth, asking the question others haven’t considered or challenging an assumption.
Do people have opportunities to practise courage?
Confidence develops through experience. Giving emerging and established leaders opportunities to present, make decisions, challenge thinking and navigate difficult conversations helps create the evidence that strengthens confidence over time.
Confidence doesn’t mean the absence of nerves
Another important distinction in Gemma’s article is between feeling confident and acting with confidence.
Even highly experienced leaders can feel nervous before an important presentation, difficult conversation or significant decision. Those nerves don’t necessarily mean someone isn’t ready.
Gemma draws a comparison with professional athletes and performers, who learn to interpret nerves as a cue to perform rather than evidence that they aren’t capable.
For leaders, that shift can be powerful.
Instead of waiting for uncertainty or nerves to disappear, the question becomes:
“Do I trust myself to navigate what happens next?”
That is a very different definition of confidence from always knowing the answer.
Building confidence from the inside out
Leadership today involves too much complexity and uncertainty for any one person to have all the answers.
Strong leadership confidence comes from having enough competence to trust your judgement, enough courage to act without complete certainty and enough curiosity to recognise that someone else may hold an important part of the answer.
Gemma’s argument invites HR professionals and leaders to think more carefully about what they’re developing within themselves and their teams.
Through executive leadership coaching, Gemma helps senior leaders strengthen their confidence, challenge the beliefs that may be holding them back and develop practical ways to communicate, influence and lead more effectively.
