Confidence

May 20th, 2024

I had a meeting today at work. A teleconference with people from various sites across Europe and some senior personnel as well. Meeting like tens or hundreds before. Except this time, no one there knew the subject we were discussing very well. I think I was the best informed of all of them, even though my knowledge was still only partial on the matter at hand. Without much thinking or any reflection, I started slowly taking over the conversation. I explained what I knew, what should be the next course of action, and what still needed to be done. I was calm and composed and thorough and assured. My words and my point of view and whatever knowledge I shared were accepted and the issue was forwarded further. Then, after the meeting was over, I started to think a little more in-depth about what happened — and I became shocked. Shocked about my performance in this meeting and the calmness with which I took on a difficult subject. I was mostly shocked though about the confidence I had shown during that meeting, or more exactly, about self-confidence in my knowledge and my ability to push in for the solution and in taking over the narrative. I don't know if I was correct on some (or all) points, but boy — was I just oozing assuredness and confidence that I knew what I was talking about. And I think that self-confidence was enough to sell to others my point of view and my preferred course of action. I will find out soon if I was correct or just confident, but I don't think it matters that much. I discovered another way I can present myself to others, another way I can paint myself to show others one of my faces — this time a self-confident and assured guy. And I am quite happy that it all came so naturally to me, that I didn't have to prepare or rehearse my performance. I acted confident, almost like confidence was a part of my personality. Could it be?