Do you believe what you are saying?
Do you believe in the value that you offer?
Do you believe that you can make a difference?
Do you believe that your target employer should hire you?
What was your honest, gut response to these questions? Was it a confident and resounding ‘yes’, a hesitant ‘I think so’, or an anxious/resigned ‘no’? First, know that wherever you are on this continuum is ok. The most important thing is to locate yourself on it and simply recognize it as your starting point. I recently wrote about the importance of the stories we tell ourselves during the job search, and how they can impact what we believe. I realize that in addition to the content of our beliefs, the strength of our beliefs can significantly influence how we move through the world, and how we show up in both our personal and professional lives. The question, ‘Do you believe your own hype?’, is not about whether or not you have an over-inflated self-perception, it’s about how confident you are in your beliefs.
Humans -- we are a funny bunch and in some ways, we are too complex for our own good. We are able to both say things we are 100% convinced about and in another moment, say things that we don’t believe to be true -- if it serves a purpose. We can engage in this practice toward others, and with our wonderful complexity, we can also do this to ourselves, consciously or subconsciously -- thinking that we are fooling others. The challenge is that when the words we offer the outer world don’t match our inner world, the cracks in our facade will eventually appear because of our incongruence. Long story short, you need to believe your own hype in order to effectively sell it in your job search. It’s all about having conviction.
Conviction (noun)
A firmly held belief or opinion
The quality of showing that one is firmly convinced of what one believes or says.
I love this two-part definition of ‘conviction’ because it reveals two important layers. At the base level, you must have a strongly held belief or opinion. Without this possession, you have nothing to animate you. The underlined portion of the second level is crucial, however, because no one will know the strength of your belief unless you show it. No one will buy into what you believe unless you can convince them that you believe it first. Herein lies part of the magic and mystery of job searching, networking, and interviewing -- your ability to convince networking contacts and potential employers of your worth, starts with how firmly you believe in it yourself.
How Not Believing Your Hype Impacts Your Job Search
Your ultimate goal in your job search is for an employer to purchase your talents to help them achieve their goals. However, in order for them to open their wallet, you have to convince them that you are worth the price of your salary. If you don’t believe you’re worth it -- why would the person across the table?
Lacking conviction can impact you across many stages of the job search process. Let’s take a quick tour:
Applications: You might incorrectly skip applying to certain jobs because you’re not fully convinced of your qualifications.
Networking: You might hold back on expressing a true need or making the direct ask that you desire of a contact because you’re not fully convinced you’re worthy of their support.
Interviewing: You might be saying all the right things about your experience but not winning over your audience because you‘re not fully convinced of your value and impact.
Negotiation: You might avoid negotiating altogether or stop short of getting the maximum salary you deserve because you‘re not fully convinced that you merit it.
In each of these scenarios, lacking conviction can hold you back either from fully expressing yourself or expressing yourself convincingly.
What It Looks Like to Believe Your Own Hype
Whichever side of the arrogance vs. confidence debate you fall on, elite/professional athletes epitomize what it means to believe one’s own hype. It all comes down to this common denominator: in order to be the best, you have to believe you are the best. The best athletes, whether it’s Lebron, Messi, or Mahomes, are thoroughly convinced that there is no one better than them at their craft. They consistently demonstrate this belief by showing the world through both their words and their actions, making all of us believers.
As a former athlete, I can vividly recall that my best performances were the ones in which I had the most confidence in my abilities because of this causal chain:
Beliefs → Attitudes → Actions → Results.
When your beliefs, attitudes, and actions, are in alignment, it improves the likelihood of getting your desired results. That’s the ultimate outcome of your inner dialogue matching your outer dialogue → conviction = congruence.
Let’s reexamine the questions I posed upfront:
Do you believe what you are saying?
If all the stories that combine to form your career narrative are true, then what’s stopping you from being convinced of their veracity or validity?
Hype Fix: Interrogate the truth of the stories you share in networking & interviewing. Remove any spin or fluff that you don’t feel fully confident in sharing and add appropriate context to make your achievements shine.
Do you believe in the value that you offer?
Have you made meaningful contributions across your career that have helped your company, clients, or colleagues achieve desired outcomes? If so, you have certainly created value worth offering.
Hype Fix: Compile a list of your achievements across the arc of your career to help validate for yourself the value that you have consistently delivered. There is something powerful about seeing your contributions listed out that can reaffirm and even boost your belief in your value.
Do you believe that you can make a difference?
Have you ever left a situation better than you found it? If so, you have evidence of having made a difference.
Hype Fix: Before-After stories are so powerful in marketing because they tell a simple and clear story about change. Compile a list of your best before/after stories in which your presence and actions made a significant impact on the transformation of a business problem.
Do you believe that your target employer should hire you?
Employers are looking for the person who can help them resolve their pain points. They are seeking assurances that you have the necessary knowledge, experience, and skills to make their pain go away.
Hype Fix: Get crystal clear on the problem(s) you are good at solving and seek out the companies whose present challenges match your problem-solving skillset. By having an established track record with measurable results to back you up, you can be more confident in making a match with an employer because you possess the solution(s) they’re looking for.
Now, having done all this work, ask yourself these questions again...
I hope by this point, you’ve moved closer to a resounding, ‘YES’!
Need help solidifying your conviction in your career platform? I’d love to support you!
Book Now for a free consultation.
NIIATO@AVENIRCAREERS.COM | CALL/TEXT 917-740-3048