“I want to be more confident” is the most common theme in the pre-session questionnaire I send out prior to my workshops. I used to think it was a tall order. Responding to attendees’ needs meant that I had to help them become more confident in just a short training event. Quite a challenge, since confidence is usually built over time, I thought.

It was just over two years ago that I started to notice this trend in the answers I was getting. In that time I have been developing ideas and exercises that really do help people become more confident.

I didn’t do it alone. Obviously I studied (and continue to study), how others have done it. I’ve also had the benefit of working with several hundred people from all walks of life during my workshops. They have helped me test these ideas, and refine them. Their feedback confirms that what we did together works. Take for example Dougal who wrote to me saying:

“The biggest change though has been in my private life…. I find that ‘arguments’ are resolved more quickly and often difference of opinion doesn’t escalate.
“The workshop was the start of something good for me and I am truly thankful.”

And Kathryn who wrote:
“I now have a structured approach to managing my thoughts and feelings, and ‘lack of confidence’ has become a thing of the past… If only I’d known sooner! Thank you.”

There was a lot more personal stuff in their emails too – examples of how they’d been able to apply what they learned during the show – so I’ve changed the names for reasons of confidentiality. The point to this is that I always want to know that what I’m doing is useful to people, partly because of my insecurity, but mainly because of two of the guiding principles in solution-focused thinking:

• If it’s working do more of it
• If it’s not working, do something different.

Now the bit about help…

I’m running the first of my free monthly webinars on 11th February. There are still some places left and I’d love it if you could attend. Partly because I want to reach as many people as possible with these ideas. Mostly though, because I’d really value your feedback after the event. It’ll be easy to send me your reactions because I use a short, web based survey to collect the information from you.

This first event is on How to Build Your Confidence. You can read more about it and reserve your place by clicking the link below.