Executive Blindspots: When Confidence Hurts
By: John Volturo
Originally published in John’s Leadership Journal, May 2023.
Before the candidate walked in the door, I had already been briefed by my early-stage interviewers that he’s “confident.” They didn’t say much else, and they certainly didn’t clarify if that was a positive or negative trait, but I soon found out for myself.
I’ve always found interviewing candidates for C-suite positions to be instructive. Everyone who comes through the door is talented, experienced, and competent, but many of the traits that got them to this level in their careers have the potential to backfire in interviews. And that’s what happened when this candidate walked in.
He was talented, experienced, and competent. But the early interviewers were right. Above all, he’s confident. Maybe too confident. It got me thinking — confidence might push you up the ladder, but too much confidence can become a red flag in an otherwise great interview. It made me worry: would his decisions be impulsive? Would he recklessly follow his gut? Will he be capable of accepting critical feedback? In short, is he too confident?
A Closer Look at Confidence
The researcher Don Moore conducted a fascinating study on this distinction between helpful and harmful confidence, or as he calls it, justifiable and unjustifiable confidence. As one Harvard Business Review interview discusses, Moore thinks justifiable confidence isn’t just acceptable — it’s necessary for success. If you know you have the credentials and experience to do well in a C-suite position, then it’d be unadvisable not to apply for it.
In this way, a justifiably confident person can accurately evaluate their abilities and, in doing so, make wise decisions. These types of people are confident in a way that reassures the team around them. It’s an admirable confidence that confers expertise, wisdom, and level-headedness. When someone like that walks into my office for an interview, they’re a serious contender for the role.
But what’s that other type of confidence that feels impulsive, performative, and sometimes even manipulative? Don Moore uses the term unjustifiable confidence to capture the wide range of confidence that credentials and experience don’t back up. Someone with unjustifiable confidence isn’t an accurate judge of their abilities, or perhaps they are, but they put on a false bravado to convince others that they’re capable of much more than they’ve yet to prove.
This can work, Don Moore is careful to say, but it’s a fragile leadership strategy that some people will be able to see right through. More than that, the person putting on this false confidence might constantly worry about being unmasked, and their demeanor may be off-putting and inauthentic. This can hurt relationships, reputations, and careers.
The Case for Courage Over Confidence
When it comes to describing why that candidate’s confidence seemed like a red flag, Moore’s distinction hits the nail on the head. He was as accomplished and talented as most of the other candidates, but his level of confidence was unjustifiable. He was too confident. Then again, if he came in with too little confidence, it could have been just as off-putting. So what’s that confidence “sweet spot,” and how do we know when we venture too far from it?
Moore introduces a debiasing strategy as a method to check if our confidence is in line with reality. The simplest iteration of this strategy is asking yourself why you might be wrong and providing an honest, impartial answer — or better yet, imagine how the opposing perspective might be right.
But it gets trickier with too little confidence. Self-doubt and the imposter phenomenon are quite common among businesspeople, but for underrepresented groups, these could be completely sensible reactions to structures that historically and presently underserve them. We might even be able to call it a justifiable lack of confidence. In this case, courage is the operative word.
It’s courage that gives us the momentum to fight through doubt and anxieties, walk out of our comfort zones, and achieve our aspirations. And that brings me back to the interview. If this candidate came in with a bit less experience than the others but a justifiable confidence and a courageousness to grow, learn, and help our team thrive, he may have looked even better than the more seasoned people who were vying for the same job.
Read this article as it originally appeared here.
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