Confidence vs Over-confidence

‘You can do it’ or ‘only you can do it’? Which one sounds great?

Obviously, we want to achieve the latter. As we gain more experience, we see ourselves becoming better than others and are able to showcase our abilities to everyone around us. This is definitely a plus for us at the time. But do you remember the initial stages of corporate life, when we were open to learning, guidance, and knowledge sharing? When we were not as confident as we are today? Today seems like a great feeling because we have overcome most of the hindrances in our growth and are steadily moving towards betterment.

But what if the confidence turns into over-confidence?

I have seen a few teams impacted greatly because of this attitude. I have worked in a team where Rajesh, one of my teammates, showed similar behavior. He is very talented and has worked hard to achieve various milestones with his own abilities. But requires minimum supervision for completing his tasks. As days passed, his attitude became very arrogant and started reflecting the same. In fact, in a few scenarios, he used to underestimate others.

Slowly, everyone became averse to his behavior. Even though he was performing better, others were not inclined to work with him. As a result, the group discussions and the work execution was affected greatly. The projects handled by him culminated in average performance. Moreover, everyone complained about his behavior, which further increased the gap between the employees. In the end, he lost support from all others.

This situation was aggravated after he got promoted. The responsibilities further piled up demanding more output from him. While his peers were not supporting him, his juniors were also not comfortable in working on projects with him.

This entire situation helped me understand the importance of humbleness, and adjustments that one need to instill to maintain proper team support.