Home » Shorts » Leaders lacking self-belief

In all, there will be around 175 of us. We are divided into groups of about 25 responsible for looking after five or six of our party who need assistance.

Each group has two group leaders. Last week I was talking to Peter. His job is to arrange the groups and nominate group leaders. One young lass, Jenny, had been asked to be a group leader for the fifth time.

The reluctant leader

However, Jenny was reluctant to take on the role this year. Her reasons were unclear but probably related to the challenges she had to deal with last time.

Of course, we pointed out that she had been asked to be a group leader because of her experience and the skills she had demonstrated on previous trips.

Yes, she had made mistakes and some things she could have handled better. So what. That is true of us all, and the experience we gain on those occasions adds to our personal wealth and character.

It was at this point that Peter hit the nail on the head with the words:

“We all think our young leaders are fantastic; the only ones who don’t are themselves.”

Leaders lacking self-belief

Oh, how true! And not just our young group leaders. Most of us who lead and take responsibility perceive ourselves very differently from how others see us. We lack self-belief and have a terrible habit of doing ourselves down.

So it is well worth having the humility and courage to ask others how they see us and listen to what they say about us and our abilities. It may surprise us when we are told that we are good, even very good, at what we do.

Then, we begin to understand that we are making a difference and that our lives have meaning and purpose.

Attributions and references

Photo by Kyle Broad on Unsplash

(Names changed, obviously!)