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From NetSpeed Leader Volume 19, October 2004
Confidence. We have all seen it, felt it, or lacked it at one time or another. It’s something we talk about often: self-confidence, investor confidence, votes of no confidence. But do we really understand it and its power? In the opening pages of Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s new book on the subject, she writes, “I wanted to understand confidence in order to spread it.” She has succeeded. This book exudes confidence while analyzing it and illuminating its parts.
As Kanter describes it, confidence is a self-fulfilling prophecy:
“Confidence consists of positive expectations for favorable outcomes. Confidence influences the willingness to invest—to commit money, time, reputation, emotional energy, or other resources—or to withhold or hedge investment. This investment, or its absence, shapes the ability to perform. . . . Every step we take, every investment we make, is based on whether we feel we can count on ourselves and others to accomplish what has been promised. Confidence determines whether our steps—individually or collectively—are tiny and tentative or big and bold.”
In this rich 400-page exploration of the subject, Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin and End, covers a wide variety of organizations in various stages of winning and losing cycles. Kanter takes the reader inside Gillette, Continental Airlines, GE, Invensys, Seagate Technologies, and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), as well as providing glimpses of other companies.
She also looks at what has led to success in a host of sports teams, including collegiate women’s soccer (North Carolina’s Tar Heels), women’s basketball (Duke’s Blue Devils, Connecticut’s Huskies) and collegiate football (Miami’s Hurricanes, Prairie View A&M’s Panthers). And she details the ups and downs of professional teams, including the Mighty Ducks, Cubs, Yankees, Expos, Eagles, and Patriots.
One of the most moving stories describes the rise in confidence of the entire country of South Africa. In the chapter “A Culture of Confidence: Leading a Nation from Despair to Hope,” Kanter depicts the transformation South Africa began to experience upon Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. In the chapter opening, she evokes the magic of the day on which the Springboks, the country’s rugby team (all Afrikaner except for one “colored” player), won the World Cup against New Zealand. Because rugby had been a symbol of white arrogance and apartheid, some South African blacks cheered when the opponent scored. But everything changed when President Mandela, who had taken office just a year earlier, arrived on the field to present the trophy to the Springboks’ captain. Kanter writes:
“The crowd was astonished. Mandela was sporting a green and gold Springboks jersey. Seeing the black president, once a revolutionary opposing the Afrikaner-led regime, wearing their colors brought tears to the eyes of many Afrikaners. . . . The crowded stadium, mainly Afrikaner, euphorically chanted Mandela’s name and his affectionate nickname, ‘Madiba.’ . . . Such personal gestures by Mandela were known as ‘Madiba magic’—his ability to seize a moment to bring people together and spread hope against difficult odds.”
Kanter describes an array of Mandela’s personal gestures and programs that helped increase the country’s hope and confidence: the transition to a free press, widespread voter education leading to free and fair elections, and the painful, painstaking process of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). About the TRC findings, Mandela emphasized, “We must regard the healing of the South African Nation as a process, not an event. [The TRC] helped us move away from the past to concentrate on the present and the future.” From reading the chapter, one gets a sense that if South Africa, with all its complex history, could begin to experience a winning streak, any entity can.
The book emphasizes the importance of “streaks,” since both winning and losing streaks have great power. In the closing chapter, Kanter writes, “By now, the secret of winning should be clear: Try not to lose twice in a row. I admit that sounds a little facile. But that’s exactly what confidence brings: the resilience to bound back from defeat to victory. . . .”
Kanter does not shy away from looking at defeat, particularly in the chapter “Losing Streaks: ‘Powerlessness Corrupts’ and Other Dynamics of Decline.” In this chapter, she doesn’t name company names, but she does name and illustrate these “nine pathologies” as signs of “a pervasive sense of powerlessness [which] . . . corrodes confidence”:
Communication decreases
Criticism and blame increase
Respect decreases
Isolation increases
Focus turns inward
Rifts widen and inequities grow
Initiative decreases
Aspirations diminish
Negativity spreads
While it is not a how-to volume, Confidence offers many ideas for moving from timidity or malaise to confidence, especially in the chapter “Delivering Confidence: The Work of Leaders.” The book itself emanates confidence and hope.
Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin & End is a fine volume worth a close reading by leaders of any organization. Published by Crown Business, the book lists for $27.50. |
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