You must become a confident consultant

Many junior consultants struggle with confidence. They believe stronger confidence would resolve many serious issues. But it's hard to improve it. Let's explore what you can do about it.

You often hear this from your leaders as a first-year MBB consultant.

‘Duh! Easier said than done,’ you think.

I understand how you feel.

When I joined consulting at 34, I struggled with confidence.

Lack of confidence is paralyzing.

You doubt everything you do.

It prevents you from performing at your full potential.

It's frustrating and demotivating.

You want to improve your confidence.

But you don't know how.

Aargh!

Here is the catch.

Confidence is not a root cause. It's a symptom.

That's why it is tough to improve it.

You can't directly work on confidence.

You must address the root causes of what is destroying it.

Let's explore further.

Why you don't have confidence?

Well, you already started with a lack of confidence.

You joined a new profession that works by entirely different rules.

Everyone around you is brilliant and experienced.

It's natural to lack confidence. Only a sociopath would be confident in this situation.

Then, you make too many mistakes when you start. That's a normal way of learning.

But instead of support, you receive constant negative feedback.

You feel embarrassed, stressed, and traumatized.

Your confidence gets destroyed even further.

After a few months in this environment, you find yourself in such a deep hole that it feels impossible to escape.

But there is only one way out.

Climb your way back up.

Step by step.

You can do it by achieving impressive wins.

Ultimately, you must convince the harshest critic in the world - yourself.

But how can you do it with destroyed confidence?

It's a vicious cycle.

Low confidence makes you perform worse. Poor performance destroys your confidence.

You must break the vicious cycle at its origin - your work.

First, eliminate silly mistakes and stop hurting yourself.

Then, learn to work well to impress your leaders.

If you score enough wins, leaders start noticing that.

They will tell you that you do a fantastic job.

Then, your internal critic will start believing that maybe you are all right.

You become more audacious, aggressive, and playful in your problem-solving.

Then you will score even more wins.

It sounds very simple, right?

But making the first steps is always hard.

That is why my clients learn to perform well in the Hero's Journey coaching program.

As a first step, they learn to produce high-quality outputs and stop their productivity bleeding. They do it by executing practical exercises and improving their working routines.

Then, they achieve quick wins. Leaders stop providing negative feedback and start giving positive one.

My clients start feeling much better and a little bit more confident.

Then, we start the second step - Accelerate, where they learn to win in this profession through advanced problem-solving techniques.

If you are an MBB consultant and need help improving your confidence, Book a 1-1 Discovery Session to learn more.

Learn more about the Hero's Journey coaching program.

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