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Too Confident?

My goal at 405 Leadership Advisors is to help you gain the clarity and confidence you need to succeed.

The right amount of confidence is key. Avoiding arrogance can be hard for some people, but those aren't the ones looking for more confidence. Short of arrogance, you can still have too much confidence compared to what you should. You can also have too little, and that brings different problems.

How can be better at finding the right level of confidence? Let me set the stage before I give you a few tips.

I had a coworker at one of my first jobs who turned 16 around the same time I did. We were both excited to be driving but he was certainly more risk-tolerant than I was. He also was way overconfident in his driving ability... That led to a few (yes, a few) wrecks. One weekend, he rolled his car into a field. Thankfully, he didn't get injured or worse but did have to get a new car.

I've been thinking about this as I've watched my son and his friends begin driving. Oklahoma changed the process to get a learner's permit, which I'm thankful for. I got my permit at age 15 1/2 and "learned" to drive for 6 months before testing to be on my own. My son got his learner's permit at age 15 and has a whole year to drive with an adult before he can be on his own.

I'm sure there are many reasons for this change but I can't help but relate it to one of my go-to leadership tools for developing people and building teams.

The same year I turned 16, David Dunning and Justin Kruger published a paper titled "Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments" in a leading psychology journal.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect, as it is now known, explains that people with limited competence tend to overestimate their abilities. Conversely, people with higher competence tend to underestimate their ability.

What does this mean for you? You may be either over competent in skills or not giving yourself (or your team) the credit they deserve.

I'm glad that Oklahoma has given 6 more months for young drivers to navigate the Dunning-Kruger Curve and the Mount of Ignorance before driving on their own (see picture below). I can see the benefit in my son!

As a leader, you should understand the Dunning-Kruger effect and how it impacts you and your team, especially if you are leading emerging professionals or those in transition to something new.

Here are a few ways you can mitigate the Dunning-Kruger Effect:

1. Rate yourself using quantifiable measures. Don't just feel how good you are. Track and compare. Remember "what gets measured..."
2. Get unbiased, outside feedback. Have others rate you for your abilities and don't dismiss the results!
3. Share the graph with your team. Talk about it and how it can affect you and your team's work. Don't be shy about where you are on the confidence or competence axis.
4. Create individual development plans that incorporate where each person is on the Dunning-Kruger curve. Don't let it be a negative, but a movement forward to the appropriate place of confidence and competence.

I hope this helps you build the confidence you need to succeed!

Thanks for reading,

Phil

405 Leadership Advisors LLC

We help leaders define strategy and implement with ​confidence and clarity.