Confidence (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series)

11

Helping an Employee Overcome Their Self-Doubt

By Tara Sophia Mohr

You want to give a member of your team a stretch assignment, but she tells you she’s just “not ready yet”—she’d like to get more experience before taking it on.

You offer to make a valuable introduction for someone you mentor. He seems excited about it at first, but doesn’t follow up. Later, you discover that he felt intimidated, like he’d have nothing to say.

As managers and mentors, we frequently encounter situations like these, when we come up against the limiting voices of self-doubt in the people we support.

The negative impact of that voice is tremendous. If someone on your team is hampered by a harsh inner critic, they’re likely to talk themselves out of sharing their ...