Self-confidence in leadership rests on a clear view of your own strengths, limits and values, and on the calm that grows from it. It shows when a leader can name a weakness without losing authority and puts the team's interests ahead of their own stage.
In my coaching work I often meet leaders who trust themselves with every task and know little about how they come across. They underestimate what their behaviour sets off in the team. The good news: This can be practised.
Self-confidence that lasts is built on self-awareness: What can I do, where are my limits, what do I stand for, and how do others experience me? Many people use the word to mean a confident manner. The two belong together, because a steady manner grows out of that knowledge.
The organisational psychologist Tasha Eurich reviewed a series of studies on the subject. Her finding in Harvard Business Review in January 2018: Most people believe they are self-aware, yet by her estimate only 10 to 15 percent of those studied actually meet the criteria.
Eurich distinguishes two sides. Internal self-awareness concerns your own values, goals and reactions. External self-awareness concerns how others see you. Leaders need both, and in my experience the external side is the one more often missing.
Confidence on its own is belief in your ability to handle a particular situation, such as a difficult negotiation. Self-awareness goes deeper. It includes knowing your strengths and weaknesses and stays stable when a situation goes wrong.
Each needs the other. Confidence without self-knowledge quickly turns into overconfidence, and self-knowledge without confidence stays hesitant. How confidence grows in day-to-day leadership is the subject of Confident leadership: 7 ways leaders build self-confidence.
Weaknesses get named. Self-assured leaders say what they are not good at and bring people into the team who do it better.
The team gets protected. They stand in front of their people when it matters and represent the team's interests towards higher levels. That builds cohesion.
Potential gets stretched on purpose. They give people tasks that take them out of their comfort zone and make sure those tasks end in a sense of achievement.
Calm holds under pressure. Leaders who know their limits have less to prove in uncertain moments and can listen before they decide.
Decisions get explained. Knowing what you stand for lets you explain why you decide as you do and hold your ground when people push back.
1. Ask for feedback. A structured 360-degree review and coaching show you how you come across to others. The external side of self-awareness is hard to sharpen alone.
2. Practise reflection. A quiet quarter of an hour at the end of the day is enough to start. Ask yourself where you convinced people today and where you reacted differently from how you intended. An occasional retreat takes this further.
3. Stay open. Curiosity about other perspectives guards against the tunnel vision that becomes more likely with every promotion. Ask more often than you explain.
4. Ask about blind spots. Ask two or three people in your team explicitly for an honest answer to one question: What should I know about the way I come across that nobody has told me yet?
For me, confidence built on self-awareness is the foundation of effective leadership. Only those who see themselves clearly can lead others clearly. In my mandates the biggest leap often comes when a leader hears honest feedback from their own team for the first time.
There is a limit. Reflection without action stays self-absorption, and teams notice the difference quickly. Feedback also needs an environment in which openness is safe. Take critical feedback badly once and you won't get it a second time.
A fixed rhythm helps: A short conversation with two or three trusted people every quarter, a structured 360-degree review once a year. That turns a single insight into a habit.
Self-confidence is belief in your own ability in a given situation. Self-awareness is knowing your strengths, weaknesses and values. Lasting confidence rests on it and holds even when something goes wrong.
Yes. Regular feedback, deliberate reflection and asking about your own blind spots change how you see yourself. Coaching speeds this up because it offers an honest outside mirror. Expect a few months of regular practice before others notice the change.
Constant justifications, defensiveness towards criticism and a tendency to look for mistakes in others. Usually there is insecurity behind it, showing up as strictness.
It shows how managers, peers and team members experience you and where that picture differs from your own assessment. Those gaps are the most valuable part because they make blind spots visible.
Further reading on hofmann.coach: C-level confidence: Between self-doubt and arrogance · Leadership positioning: How to stand out clearly in a new role · Leader as coach: How trust and standing grow in your team
Note: This article was first published on 05.09.2024 and was revised and expanded in October 2026.
Cristian Hofmann is an executive coach in Zurich and Schaffhausen (MAS Coaching & Supervision BSO, Forbes contributor). Over more than 20 years he has coached more than 1,500 leaders: CEOs, executive boards and leadership teams in Switzerland, with measurably agreed goals and, on request, pay-for-results. More about Cristian Hofmann.
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