Building leadership skills that prepare you for the next level

Until you become overqualified for your current position, you will not be promoted to the next one.

Many young Nigerians are running small businesses. Some of the secrets the will need to scale up is confidence to pitch their companies to companies that give loans to help the process.

They also need confidence, or what you can call pizazz to walk into boardrooms and pitch what the do and how well they do it to convince clients to work with them.

Until you get some confidence, you will be operating at less than your capacity for excellence.

Confidence comes through competence, mentorship, and experience at winning.

Some of the ways you can build confidence as a young Nigerian is:

Having a vision:

Who do you look like? Where do you see yourself in the next five years? What are the steps you can employ to getting there? Do you have your goals written down? Do you have weekly goals?

Who does your inner superhero look like? Is she a world-class business mogul affecting and changing people's lives? Is she a journalist committed to changing policies that do not favour the people? Is she an inventor creating new solutions to make the lives of Nigerians better?

The art of not perceiving you properly comes from a poor opinion of yourself or your skills. Change the way you see you and your potential for creation and watch your confidence soar.

Speak kindly to you:

Successful founders and CEOs have daily meditations or affirmations to keep themselves primed and rearing to go. Most leadership jobs are high pressure and you need to be affirming yourself daily so you can produce at capacity every day. Depending on your sector, the daily affirmations either approve our beauty, intelligence and brilliance.

It improves your professionalism and gives you the boost you need to produce excellent work daily. Whatever you tell yourself in the morning will affect your entire day and your level of productivity.

You are already a success. Speak to yourself as such daily. Speaking the right words to yourself will cause you to be a solution-conscious and a great asset anywhere you are.

Do something scary each day

Be adventurous. Do something new daily. Push the boundaries. Accomplish something amazing every day. Enjoy what you do.

Face your fears. Be courageous in the face of everything new you have to do. As you get more victories, you will begin to gain confidence. Leave the harbour and sail into the unknown. Conquer the troubles ahead of you daily and win. Look for challenges in your line of work to conquer.

Silence the critical voice in your head:

Sometimes the only thing stopping you can be you. You might be coming across the word ‘can’t’. Take their permission away. You should disallow the negative committee that meets in your head to criticize you. Be your biggest cheerleader.

We are sometimes our greatest critic. We need to change from being critical of ourselves to be our greatest cheerleader. Question the critical voice.

Congratulate yourself every time you do something new, compliment and reward yourself for small successes.

Determine to win:

Start by setting small goals that are achievable, and then increase them with time. Once you have a history of success stories, and your confidence has improved, you can set bigger goals.

Make a list of your milestones and remind yourself that you do all things well. Make a list of all that you have accomplished daily.

Pay it forward:

When someone helps you, never forget it, pay it forward. Help another person. Give someone a leg up.

Mentor someone else. Assist or teach someone, and your confidence will grow through the process.

Build strong personal boundaries:

Learn to say no. do important tasks first.

Don’t accept bullying tactics from anyone. Make others respect your personal boundaries.

Take classes to help improve your assertiveness, ask for what you want. When you feel more in control of your life, your self-assurance will improve.