Self esteem, which has been identified as a determining factor on employees’ behavior both inside and outside the workplace and affecting performance, satisfaction, commitment, turnover, work motivation, and even civic behavior of workers, has a significant impact on many crucial results of employees (Campbell, 1990; Pierce and Gardner, 2004).
What is self-esteem? Self-esteem is a measure of how much a person values, appreciate or likes himself. In psychology, self esteem is used to describe an individuals overall personal value or self-worth. Because it affects our personal and professional relationships, decision-making, motivation levels, and general wellbeing, self-esteem plays a significant role in our lives
Importance of healthy Professional esteem in the work place
- A healthy level of self-esteem enables an employee to trust his/her judgement and also likely make better decision. This in turn helps to create more effective interpersonal and work relationships and hence excellence becomes an attribute of such employee.
- Employees with a healthy self-esteem contributes to a positive work culture. They make better colleagues and are more enjoyable to be around. They are not jealous of others’ success, rather, they celebrate and champion their team. They support those around them and everybody is happy to work together for a common goal.
- Those with a healthy level of self-esteem make peace with failure. They don’t crumble when things don’t work out. Rather, they recognize that failure happens, learn the lesson they can from it, and think of the next way forward.
- As a leader, healthy level of self-esteem enables a person to focus more positively on other people and their development to build a comfortable work environment.
Effects of low self-esteem in the work place
- Poor self esteem often leads to a fear of the new and unfamiliar and it can lead to unproductive work behaviors such as defensiveness, being overly compliant or rebellious.
- Poor self esteem (lack of confidence) often gets in the way of a good idea and leads to inactivity in the business world.
- Low self esteem makes us doubt our abilities and judgement and prevents us from taking calculated risks, setting ambitious goals and also working on it. People who suffer this problem often exhibits subconscious behaviors that undermine their success making them less likely to ask for or get promotions, raises and even jobs.
- Low self esteem can hinder employees from sharing their ideas with the teams, causing their companies to miss out on potential innovations.
How to improve professional esteem in your work place.
- Practice how you present yourself. People say dress the way you want to be addressed. The way you dress goes a long way to boost your confidence. This is because most people feel their best when they look their best. Your posture and Tone can also show your confidence. Sometimes, we tend to fidget or shrink both physically and with our voice when we are nervous. This behavior shows lack of confidence while further killing your self-esteem. Try to maintain a healthy posture while sitting, and speak up while talking during a meeting.
- Cut out negative self-talk or languages. While it may seem innocent and healthy to laugh at yourself, it hurts your confidence. Instead of putting little importance or lessening your intelligence or contributions, present your ideas and actions without questioning your worth. Rather than saying something like, “I know this idea is not good enough but let me just say it”, present yourself how an admired co worker would, without any self-depreciating humor. Take what makes you unsure, and imagine it as an advantage instead of an obstacle. Self-depreciating talks hurt your confidence and can impact how others perceive you. Don’t dwell on your weakness and focus on your strength.
- Challenge yourself (leave your comfort zone). A healthy self-esteem is not something that just appears. It is a gradual process. You probably wont walk into work one day and feel all your self-doubt and anxiety disappear. Instead, challenge yourself by setting goals that can help you build your confidence. For example, if you are shy and quiet during meetings, a goal you can set could be to share an idea during the session. Also, building a rapport with the people you work with can also boost your confidence.
- Attend professional development trainings. When you develop the skills with trainings, you rely on for your job, you can improve the way you perform your role, and this can have a positive influence in increasing your self-confidence.
- Focus on your strength. Focusing on your strength can help you boost your confidence because for you to do that, you need to measure your success and abilities. If you are one to always focus on your weakness, try, making a list of your strengths and abilities and a second list of your achievements. If you choose, you could always make a daily habit of reading them every morning or any time you need a confidence boost.