Building confidence
How to help girls
(and yourself!) build confidence
Building confidence
How to help girls (and yourself!) build confidence
Do something for yourself today
We know confidence can be a huge issue for girls and young women growing up today. Our Girls’ Attitudes Survey shows girls of all ages often struggle to have confidence in their appearance, their skills, their abilities. But girls also told us being a part of youth groups like Girlguiding, helped them to feel more confident and free to be themselves. That’s where amazing volunteers like you come in. In your role, you show girls how to lead, and give them the confidence to pursue their interests and passions.
But feeling confident doesn’t always come naturally. No matter how old we are, we all have doubts sometimes, and it can be tough to be a ‘role model’ when you’re not always feeling it.
Tips to feel confident
1. Set your own daily mantras
One of the tips from our friends at the British Army, who sponsor the Lead skills builder, is to develop your own daily mantras.
Mantras are words or phrases that are repeated frequently. People all over the world use mantras in all sorts of ways, whether for religious and spiritual reasons, to help with mindfulness and meditation, or just to feel more positive and confident.
Your mantra could be about anything – it could be a reminder of what helps you feel good, or an affirmation that you can take anything life throws at you. In this video, Lance Corporal Laura from the British Army takes you through some of her favourite mantras.
Repeating phrases like this might feel a little strange at first, but if you do it regularly, they can be a surprisingly effective way to change your perspective. If confidence is something you struggle with, try it out!
Write down three mantras to remind yourself that you are a strong, confident and kind leader. Leave them in places around your home, such as the fridge or the bathroom mirror, to remind yourself to repeat them.
2. Look for opportunities to step outside your comfort zone
Although this can be a hard thing to do, if you’re able to rise to a challenging situation, it can be great for your confidence. You might be able to apply this in your personal life, by striking up a conversation with someone new, or by trying out a new look, but it might be a great option for guiding as well.
If you feel less confident at leading science-based activities, try one out with your girls! Remember, if it goes wrong, that’s okay! You’re still helping girls to try something new and giving them the confidence to keep trying even if it goes wrong.
Don’t be afraid of failure
Remember to reach out to loved ones
3. Fight your imposter syndrome
Imposter syndrome is the name given to the feeling that, in spite of all your accomplishments and skills, you don’t really know what you’re doing, and one day you’ll be found out to be a fraud. It’s a very common feeling that lots of us deal with, and experts think it can hit minority and disadvantaged groups especially hard. It’s common because it’s easier for us to remember our faults than our successes. Make a habit of periodically writing down things you’ve done really well or reflecting on moments when you did a great job. Having a list of all the times you’ve succeeded will help remind you during moments of doubt that you’re not an imposter - you absolutely know what you’re doing.
Helping girls feel confident
We asked leaders what things they do to help girls feel confident. Here are some of their suggestions:
- ‘We have been trying to get our Guides to lead on activities if it’s something they’re interested in, like teaching us how to do some origami.’
- ‘We’ve been using breakout rooms on Zoom to give them a chance to talk in smaller groups, which has helped lots of them grow in confidence to pitch in when we’re all on the call in the main room.’
- ‘We make sure to encourage “camera shy” girls to join in on Zoom – letting them know it’s ok to not turn the camera on, but encouraging them to use the “thumbs up” signal, or type in the chat to let us know they are following the activity.’
- ‘We’ve had some success with doing activities for things like parliament week and on food poverty. They were really engaged with thinking about how things affect others, and what they could do in their every day lives to help.’
- ‘We give girls lots of encouragement and praise for trying something out. Sometimes we ask them to do a specific task, and then praise them for completing it.’
- ‘Make sure they are in a group they feel comfortable in – if that means you have a patrol of quiet girls who barely utter a squeak, then that’s fine! They’ll feel better there than in a group that are loud and over-confident.’
If you are looking for more ways to help your girls feeling confident, why not try out the Lead skills builder? It focuses on girls gaining the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to be an effective leader, developing skills in leading a team, creating a vision, compromise and negotiation.
The activities will help girls to understand what type of leader they are and get them to identify and then play to their strengths, as well as developing new skills. For another confidence boost, you could also share the Positive affirmations poster activity from the Adventures at home: Spring social.
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