In May of 2024 I spent two weeks walking solo on the Camino in Portugal and Spain. When I decided to commit to this venture, I saw it as a break from the weighty role of leadership and the associated care for people that is such an intrinsic part of leadership. Traveling alone would mean I only had to see after myself – no other people’s expectations, needs or demands. It seemed a welcome reprieve. And in many ways it was. But I also gained some valuable insights about leadership during this walk.

I had several experiences that would lead to this particular insight around confidence before the lightbulb actually came on for me. It happened on a sunny afternoon just after I had crossed over into Spain. There were two possible routes to the next town where I was planning to spend the night and as was my custom on this walk, I chose the pathway closest to the coast. I hadn’t gone too far until I met two Swiss ladies who had turned back from the coastal route for fear the boardwalk would end and they would not be able to reach the village via the coastal route. It was during our conversation that I admitted to them that I didn’t actually know for certain the path would reach the town but I was willing to assume the risk even if it meant I had to retrack my steps if the pathway ended. They looked at each other and one of them said, “I like his confidence, let’s go with him.” Admittedly, I was a bit startled and told them quite clearly that I was willing to assume this risk for myself but not for others – that was one reason I was walking solo. However, if they were willing to assume it for themselves, they were welcome to walk along.  They did, and we had a great walk along the Spanish Atlantic coast into the picturesque town of A Guarda, Spain.

Confidence, I’ve come to believe, is one of the cornerstones of effective leadership. It provides clear direction, inspires trust and facilitates making decisive decisions. As a result, teams rise to their best possible performance in such environments and are able to handle challenges with resilience and commitment.

As I’ve worked with leaders, I’ve noted at least three different sources of confidence from which leaders draw. The first and most common is self-confidence. This is a natural trait for many people who find themselves in leadership roles from an early age. It is this self-confidence that draws people to them and opens leadership opportunities. Many personality surveys document this trait as drive, dominance or autonomy. These people demonstrate a level of confidence and decisiveness that brings actionable clarity and allows a group of people to join them in a shared vision and mission.

Other people draw their confidence from social approval. Their confidence is strong and impactful when they experience affirmation and approval from people around them. This positive energy becomes a magnet to others and movements are built.

For another segment of people, confidence is anchored in knowledge and their personal assurance that the decisions they are making are right. This is usually a slower paced leader who is far more cautious, more risk averse and invests extensively in research to ensure they have explored all the possible options.

As you can likely observe, each of these has an inherent weakness as well. When the knowledge based confidence makes an error in judgment, they can be very slow to recover their confidence. A person who has socially inspired confidence struggles to return to confidence after rejection or betrayal by a trusted friend. The leader who is gifted with self-confidence tends to be most resilient but even here there is a breaking point. When the self gets crushed, wounded or fatigued, the recovery back to confidence can be long and arduous.

What exactly is confidence and how do we protect it as a leader? For starters, it is not the same as certainty. Certainty has this 100% aura to it that is missing from confidence. Confidence usually has an aspect of risk and uncertainty associated with it that knows the direction or decision may be shown to be wrong but also values decisive clarity over delay for greater certainty. Once a decision is made, we can only then begin to see the results of that decision and be assured the decision was good or be confronted with the need for a decisive pivot. This demonstrates that confidence is actually healthiest when it is saturated with humility. Humility embraces human finitude, welcomes input and counsel and maintains a growth mindset that continues seeking and embracing new insights and information. But confidence of the healthy sort says we must keep moving decisively even while we are processing new information.

Many self-confident leaders are frequently labeled as being arrogant – and it likely is the Achilles heel of self-confident people. There is a fine line between self-confidence and arrogance but at their root, they are polar opposites. Arrogance is not growth-minded, postures more in the realm of certainties and lacks a teachable, curious and inquiring attitude. Arrogance cannot hear counter arguments but dismisses them prior to actually hearing and understanding the concern.

All leaders, no matter where their greatest source of confidence lies, must learn to be self-aware of their confidence levels and know how protect and sustain it for greatest effectiveness. When a leaders confidence falters or is shaken, decision making slows, a general fog of confusion often settles over the teams they are lead and inevitably their businesses and organizations suffer.

In a recent interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos noted that one of the keys to his success leading Amazon and his more recent endeavors was the early awareness of when he was feeling stressed. He noted that invariably there was some decision he was delaying and that resulted in personal stress. In such matters nearly any actionable decision was preferable to the failure to decide. Delayed decisions only serve to cloud ones decision making abilities and the downward spiral begins.

How do you protect your confidence? How aware are you of your confidence level at any given time? It’s worth paying attention.

I would just note several keys to sustaining and strengthening confidence levels for leaders. First, you must be aware of the issue. If you really want to be a leader, you owe it to your people to cultivate and maintain a healthy level of confidence so they can flourish.

Second, you must come to terms with the need to make decisions with uncomfortable levels of ambiguity. You will never have enough information and foresight to make many of the complex decisions required of you. Even the best leaders are making informed guesses but they do so with clarity and then readily admit their mistakes and pivot with equal clarity.

Third, accept the fact that you will fail. Failures are a form of expensive education and you want to have the humility and confidence to engage the failures thoroughly and learn as much from those investments as possible. Don’t waste these opportunities due to arrogance.

Finally, find a way to consistently protect your confidence. Take time away to think, off load your brain and emotions onto a writing pad and adequately process what’s happening in your leadership roles. This needs to happen at regular intervals – at least weekly for a few hours, quarterly for a full day and annually for a more extended period of time. The tyranny of the immediate and urgent will over time erode the clarity of your vision. You need to master leadership of yourself in order to remain focused on the greatest priorities for the long-term, greater-good of your organization. Your team deserves it.

This article originally appeared in The Shed Magazine and is online here.