The Bridge to Others: How Confidence Catalyzes Influence
The pathway from personal confidence to collective influence is built on trust and clarity.
Leadership is influence. It is not a title, and it is not a position. It is the ability to inspire others to see your perspective and take action toward a shared goal. But the reality is you cannot influence others if they do not trust you, and they will not trust you if you do not trust yourself. The right approach to confidence provides the platform for influence. It will allow you to connect with others in new ways and accomplish more. Your message becomes the message of others and your reach spreads. That is the power of confidence done well.
The Mechanism of Influence
Why does a confident leader influence people more effectively? It comes down to safety and certainty. In the ever-changing retail environments, teams crave stability. When a leader projects "humble confidence", a belief in the plan combined with openness to feedback, it triggers a sense of psychological safety in the team. They know that while things might change, you will have their back and keep them informed. And, maybe more importantly, the work you ask them to do will matter. It won’t be wasted. A confident leader creates an environment where people feel safe to speak up, share ideas, and take risks because they know the leader isn’t going to lash out out of insecurity.
Conversely, when a leader is "hedging their bets," the team senses it immediately. If you are trying to protect yourself, your team will instinctively move to protect themselves as well. This leads to a culture of silence, where no one offers solutions for fear of retribution. We have all likely experienced this before. A leader doesn’t want to ‘go first’, or is always taking the ‘let’s see where this goes’ approach can be signs they are protecting themselves and not the team. It is hard to follow when the direction is “stand still.”
Addressing the "Confidence Gap"
There is a specific area where your confidence is most needed: bridging the gap between strategy and execution. Recent data shows a significant "confidence gap" in organizations. While 87% of executives feel confident in the company's vision, only 73% of individual contributors share that sentiment. Frontline employees often feel the most disconnected from the strategy, even though they are closest to the customer.
As a leader, your confidence serves as the bridge. You act as the translator. When you speak with clarity and conviction about why a task matters, you transfer your confidence to your team. You help them see how moving 500 widgets isn’t just a metric, but a way of solving 500 people’s problems.
This examples carries across all levels. As a District Manager, how much time do you spend with hourly employees in the stores you support? To them, you are often “the company.” Their Store Manager is sharing what you talked about during the visit today or on the conference call. Are you validating that your messaging is getting to the employees? Do they know what is important to you, and more importantly, why? This works all the way up to the CEO. While CEOs may not spend a lot of time talking to hourly employees (they absolutely should), they do need to understand that the message that trickles down has a significant impact on the vision coming to life.
Practical Types of Influence
To leverage your confidence, you can utilize different types of influence depending on the situation:
Character Influence: This is when people follow you because they believe in you. They trust your competence and your consistency. This is the strongest form of influence because it is built on relationship, not hierarchy.
Intrinsic Influence: This occurs when you empower the team to make decisions. By providing enough information and showing confidence in their abilities, you allow them to feel ownership. When the team feels they can make the right decisions, engagement skyrockets.
I left out the poor types of influence where position and (essentially) bullying are the driving force for action. That is not influence. That is directive, and not sustainable for the positive outcomes you are looking for.
In these two types of influence, working together becomes a powerful culture enabler. Trust creates the ability for teams to believe they can manage and lead themselves. To get a little meta here, character influence influences intrinsic influence. The more the team feels safe with you, and believes in you, the more they will influence those around them to buy into the message and values you are promoting. Those actions and that reality are what really create your team’s culture.
Influence in Action
So, what does confidence look like in reality? It doesn’t have to be this complicated thing. In fact, you likely already are seen as confident more often than you realize. Others don’t know what is going on in your head, they only have the visual and verbal cues you provide.
These are some ways you can ensure, even when you may not feel as confident as you’d like, you can show as confident to your team.
Body Language: Your non-verbal cues, such as standing tall, making eye contact, and using open gestures signal to the team that "we have this under control." Your calmness regulates their stress.
Verbal Commitment: Remove hesitancy. Instead of saying, "I think we might want to try to move this display if that's okay," say, "I believe moving this display will drive conversion. Let's try it." Clear, direct communication removes ambiguity and anxiety for the team.
Listening: Influence is a two-way street. Confident leaders listen actively. They seek feedback to improve the outcome, not to capture empty agreement. When you listen and then act on what you heard, you prove that you value the team, which deepens your influence.
When you combine competence with confidence, you stop holding onto knowledge (for protection) and start sharing it. You become a multiplier. You influence the ideas, thinking, and outcomes of your team not by force, but by the gravitational pull of your own certainty and care.
How are your bridging what you believe in to influence others through confidence?
Get leadership tips and new articles you can use directly to your inbox. Join the thousands of other leaders continuing your leadership development journey with **Effective Retail Leader.com.**
DISCLAIMER: I participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Other links to third-party products and services may also be affiliate links.