Confidence through creative thinking.
Confidence Isn’t a Personality Trait — It’s a Practice.
I recently hosted a Salon Series talk as part of the European Union-funded Gendered Innovation Living Labs research project. This community is for women in academia who are interested in running a business, primarily based in Coventry, UK, and supported by Coventry University. The theme was Building Confidence and Beating Imposter Syndrome. You can find more details of GILL here.
Creative thinking helps leaders build confidence by breaking patterns of fear, allowing for experimentation, and fostering resilience in uncertainty. As I have extensive experience with business and personal development activities, I thought this would be a great opportunity to support this group.
We hosted it at the stunning Telegraph Hotel, Coventry, and it was a great start to the year.
Psychological Safety and Playfulness.
The session focused on building confidence and replacing unhealthy, toxic understandings of ‘success’, ‘knowledge’, ‘growth’, or ‘motivation’.
The space we created was safe, confidential, and fair. Everyone could share however much they wished, and whatever personal stories were shared stayed in the group.
After a short introduction, I led conversations where we could learn from each other’s views and experiences. I captured the session via mindmaps, and, with the groups’ consent, these have been anonymised and designed into a helpful visual resource shared below in this post.
What is confidence?
So, where to start? For me, the first place always consists of the basics of what we are discussing. What is Confidence? So, we began identifying the first things that come to mind when people think about confidence.
We then explored various answers and understood the deeper reasons for them. I have collated the discussion into a colourful mindmap, which is displayed below (if viewing on your phone, rotate and zoom in and out).
Why Confidence Feels So Hard.
Some wonderfully valuable aspects of confidence were shared. The main point in this area is that it genuinely and profoundly affects us all; it’s linked to our identity, motivation, and, in many cases, a sense of worth.
The perception of confidence is not necessarily what you think. Some people seem confident and struggle, while others are quiet and seem unconfident but are the most self-assured.
Addressing Imposter Syndrome in Academia and Business.
Everyone in the session raised their hand when it came to experiencing Imposter Syndrome, which is a massive part of acknowledging how pervasive it is and that we are not alone. This can be half the battle when tackling these feelings.
How Creative Thinking Helps.
Perspective and perception are the keys to understanding, to challenge and to change. I guided the participants through some activities to help them remove their emotions from feelings of imposter syndrome and start reflecting on more of the facts and expertise they bring to their professional situations.
One of the members also created a picture of how she perceived the environment for confidence to grow, as shown below.
How to build confidence?
The second part of the session was centred around building confidence, how people thought you could, where people had become more confident, and where confidence-building pitfalls exist.
The conversations made it clear that the most valuable things in life take work. There is no quick fix for feeling completely confident. From the discussions in the session and my own experience, it’s clear that it starts with understanding who you are and being confident in your actions.
Build your authentic empathy.
In the session, I recommended a few activities to start this process. I have shared them below for you to follow and action for yourself if you want to. Feel free to capture and explore these as creatively as possible, use different-coloured pens, doodle the answers, or choose unusual papers to write on. I recommend picking your favourite colours for everything.
Practical Strategies for Confidence Building.
The main objective of these activities is to add as much information out of your head as possible. The more your brain explores and positive repetition or reinforcement sets in, the better (founded by neuroscientific research).
Remember to keep a physical connection between the hand and the mind, so keep those pens handy and try not to slip into your phone notes or laptop keyboard for these tasks.
The three-pronged approach to build your confidence foundation.
Activity One - Stabilisation in Strengths - I love utilising personal SWOT analyses to consider your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for my clients and myself.
However, I suggest you focus on understanding your strengths for this activity. Consider what you are naturally good at, what you enjoy, those moments in life when you lose track of time, and when you are most content.
This is a work-in-progress activity, and I suggest continually adding to it. Ask loved ones and colleagues, mainly people you trust, what they would consider your strengths, and listen to and accept why they say these things.
Activity Two - Your Story Gemstones - Think about the time you are most proud of. Take the time to understand what you did to play a part in that and what and why that moment was so important to you.
If you can think of additional milestones and stories, flesh them out, doodle them and consider the main contributing factors that got you there and what you would like to take to future opportunities.
Activity Three - Value Lemons - This is a staple of my development support. I recommend that everyone undertake these thought exercises regularly to understand and thoroughly implement their values in life. After all, if you don't know your values and the direction you want to take your life, you will, by default, be working for someone else’s values and vision.
Consider areas of life that annoy you. Bullet point all of the areas of life that make you angry. Think about at least 5 to 10 points. Don’t worry; you won’t be in this headspace for too long, but this process is necessary to identify what is most important to you.
Now, take each point and think about the opposite of that anger point. Making lemonade out of lemons… These are your values.
Real-Life Applications in Leadership and Teamwork.
By understanding these activities, you can reframe your thoughts and perspectives about who you are and what you stand for. This, in turn, becomes a solid foundation for building your life and making informed decisions that will delight the inner you.
It also enables you to communicate effectively and make decisions that are right for you at work and in life. This will result in a positive alignment for future-proof wellness.
Conclusion: Embracing Creativity for Personal Growth.
When you are congruent with yourself, you are a healthier, more self-sustainable version who is able to show up for what you love. Who knows, your new awareness may even rub off on your team members and create a more authentic working environment. Remember, psychological safety is paramount, though.
Photograph by Trevor Price of TV Trev
What’s next?
I hope you find these activities helpful. I welcome any feedback on how to strengthen the processes for people in the future.
Interested in enhancing your confidence through creative thinking? Explore our Creative Leadership offer. I work with clients to develop creative and well-being-fuelled leadership and team-building training.
We offer Wellness Sessions for preventative burnout, where creativity is utilised as a versatile and accessible tool for well-being and self-understanding; these areas are so essential for us to embrace for future-proof leadership that lasts and leaves a healthy legacy.
You can also check out published research: What are the Barriers to using creativity for well-being? This was conducted in 2024 with the support of Coventry University.
Do you have any thoughts on this topic? Have you struggled and managed to combat a lack of confidence? Feel free to comment, connect, book a call or email me.
I hope you’re enjoying the rollercoaster of life.
Stay balanced.
Donna ♡
