May 8, 2017 | less than a minute read

The Difference Between Confidence & Competence - And Why It Matters

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Navin Raina

Managing Director

Get in touch

Navin Raina

Managing Director

The lack of representation of women at the higher echelons of management is more and more obvious. There are a variety of reasons for this but the key one is we look for the wrong traits in leadership - ones that are better exhibited by men than women. Fix this issue and we create a more diverse, higher performing workforce.

There are three popular explanations for the clear under-representation of women in management, namely: (1) they are not capable; (2) they are not interested; (3) they are both interested and capable but unable to break the glass-ceiling: an invisible career barrier, based on prejudiced stereotypes, that prevents women from accessing the ranks of power. What if they all missed the big picture? In my view, the main reason for the uneven management sex ratio is our inability to discern between confidence and competence. That is, because we commonly misinterpret displays of confidence as a sign of competence, we are fooled into believing that men are better leaders than women.

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