NORTHERN PLANNER

Confidence is very overated in my view. I saw a good example of this in the space of two days – in two very different presentations.

The first was from an obviously nervous young lady. She stammered a lot, went bright pink whenever she spoke and even broke into a sweat.

But she was brilliant. She’d obviously worked really hard, to make sure her delivery wouldn’t matter. Her thinking was watertight, she’d handrawn every slide – the content spoke for itself. And she looked like she cared. She was bursting with enthusiasm, joy even, she really wanted us to love her subject as much as she did and she was so lovably human she had us from the first minute.

In complete contrast, I also saw someone who obviously had much more experience. It was all slick, he didn’t refer to notes. Everything shone teutonically, like a BMW showroom.

And no one cared. The actual content was OK, nothing great, but even if it was,the delivery was just TOO good. It didn’t look like any effort, so it didn’t look like he’d spent that much time on it.

We all WANTED the girl to do well. We didn’t care about him. Her content shone with blood sweat and tears – and it was good enough on its own. He was Posh Spice  -all style, no content.

You see, confidence is overated. Some people can walk into a room and talk no problem, others find it hard but make sure that what they say is memorable, even if how they say it isn’t. They’re usually a lot nicer too.

Some people can run meetings through force of personality, others have to find another way.

And you know what? Lack of confidence is ace in younger years – you try twice as hard to make what yo say and do really good – it needs to be to make up for other weaknesses. That is unless you try and cover it. False bravado just makes you look like a wanker. Be yourself, I cannot impress how important this is. YOU WILL LOOK STUPID AND YOU WILL GET FOUND OUT.

And when you get older, confidence will come anyway. It will arise from having done things over and over again, endless rigour and having things go well enough times. It does get easier. But while you’re waiting, be thankful that the stammering and stumbling just makes people like you more, and makes your work better.