Building and showing confidence
What is confidence? And what does it take to be a confident woman? At our last event, we had Amy Amann and Florence Lemeer-Wintigens sharing tips and tricks to help women enhance their competence and inner confidence.
Amy Amann: “Building confidence is a journey”
Confidence is a feeling of self-assurance arising from an appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities. Confidence starts with the awareness of your true values, strengths, and attributes. “These are immutable and define who you are. It’s about how we think and talk about ourselves and the pictures we have in our minds about who we will be”, she explained.
People see us through the prism of our competences, so we need to develop ourselves and our skills to keep them fresh. Amy recommended purposeful learning, “naïve yes” assignments, and visualizing future success when you use new skills and take on new experiences. “Building confidence is a journey and a process. It certainly requires hard work for women to find their niche and celebrate their power”, she said.
For long-term confidence, women should build a strong network of supporters, advocates and champions. “They will help you grow, propagate and spread your ideas, give new perspectives, and give honest feedback to help you improve. Your network should be more than friends, it should include a mentor, a coach or someone with objective views”, Amy explained.
Check this video of a girl jumping from 40m ski-jump. Here’s what she does to build up confidence: self-talk, preparation and focus on the process and outcome. Even more, she is also getting support from her coach to finally enjoy her success and plan for the next challenge!
Find Amy at Achieveian.
Florence Lemeer-Wintigens: “Nothing is more beautiful than a confident woman”
Florence has 25 years of experience as an image, textile, and fashion expert. Her presentation focused on how women can use their appearance to empower themselves and their careers.
She encouraged women to know their body types and thus dress their way into confidence and success. “It is equally important for women to dress when they know their assets”, said Florence. For example, we can use bright and/or strong colours to accentuate our finer physical attributes, i.e. wear a bright scarf or bright top under a jacket to focus attention on the upper half of the body. Wearing the same colour from the waist down also gives shorter people a longer ‘trunk’ or makes them look taller.
Women can play with colours to create the right image. Florence explained that colours that match us best depend 70% on our hair colour, 20% on skin tone, and 10% on eye colour. Picking the right colours and matching them appropriately can help us get the right look – one that reflects our competences and makes us feel accomplished and confident.
Find Florence at Look @Work.