Confidence v Competence!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9474973/Key-to-career-success-is-confidence-not-talent.html

I found this article on the Telegraph on line the other day; it basically says that people with unabashed self confidence get on better in corporate organisations whether or not they are any good at what they do.

This highlights some real issues for cultural design of a business architecture; if you have egos pulling your progress to a desired future all over the place then it is a significant challenge.

Over confidence of individuals results in hubris driven error and the self belief can over throw common sense and perhaps even integrity. When as a trainer you preach self reflection and personal challenge this must be perhaps even unknowingly difficult for the career driven over confident candidates that power on without thought.

Conversely driven people do create success, if we had a culture of self doubters and risk adverse people always considering what might go wrong then maybe little would get done?

Managing risk in such environments is a difficult demand. Are certain industries more bound up with this issue than others - banking perhaps?

The real challenge here is to create a healthy tension and balance between managed ego and self awareness - difficult stuff particularly when you hear of some of the egonostic behaviours that some people have to put up with on a daily basis.

Interesting stuff. Have a read and see what you think.