When your confidence comes from your competence, what happens when your competence is shaken, challenged, or fails, or can’t be found? Perhaps…
- Shaken from making a mistake at work in an area that you thought you had expertise?
- Challenged by a colleague with a contrarian view on your recommendations?
- Failed with being terminated from your employment?
- Not being found – – signaled by this feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you go to work each day dreading the environment or the nature of the work?
Whether you’re unemployed or unfulfilled, when your competence has become the source of your confidence, many situations can cause disruption, discomfort, or failure.
Yet we’ve been conditioned over and over again to talk boldly about our competence and how well we can do a job – – in order to get the raise, get the promotion, gain affirmation from others, and actually get a job. I’m in no way suggesting that we should not be focused on our competence because it is essential as we look to advertise the skills, abilities, and experiences we have. Promoting our competence is essential to qualify for the roles we play at work, however, our competence should not be the source of our confidence.
Our Confidence Should Come from God
Our confidence should come from God who NEVER fails and is ALWAYS faithful (Click here to read more). As we’re told multiple times in the Scriptures, the source for our true identity as Christ followers is Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:10, the foundational verse for Crossroads Career, tells us, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 reinforces our foundation being in Christ with, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
When we aspire to leverage what I spoke about last week with our hope in Christ, we recognize that hope should not come merely from what we’ve done (our competence), but the faithfulness of what God has done in and through us. AND He is willing to do it again. No matter what may have shaken your confidence…no matter what errors or mistakes may have been made, as a Christ follower, each day is a new day to yield to the Holy Spirit’s control to perform the work that He’s ordained for you to do.
Fuel Your Confidence with a Firm Foundation
Our North Coast Church teaching pastor, Chris Brown, shared some wonderful insights from Matthew 13 regarding the teaching from Jesus about the Parable of the Sower. Pastor Chris shared four tips on how to cultivate the soil of our lives, so that we can yield much fruit. To me, it is the foundation for fueling the confidence we so desperately need to convey when we are unemployed or unfulfilled.
Cultivate the Soil of Your Life
- Show up with an expectation that God has something for me
- Pray: Just ask God to give me one thing that I need to hear
- Attitude: Be willing to surrender to whatever God is saying
- Worship: Set my heart and mind on who God is
In addition to fuel, we need ammunition readily available to us to help us convey the confidence of the skills, abilities, and experiences with which we’ve been gifted. Here are five tips to be confident with your competence:
5 Tips to be Confident with Your Competence
- Know your unique distinctions (Click here to read more)
- Know and be able to quickly articulate STAR stories (Click here to read more)
- Practice your answers to commonly asked interview questions. (Click here to the first of 8 blogs in this series)
- Do the research and preparation to fortify your competence. (Click here to read more)
- Do the soul searching necessary to be aligned with the place God wants you to be (Click here to read more)
Finally, Philippians 1:6 encourages us with, “Being CONFIDENT of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Blessings!
Dave Sparkman currently serves as the volunteer Crossroads Career board chair and local ministry leader. He is also the founder and managing director of Spark Your Culture, a corporate culture consulting firm. Prior to that he worked at UnitedHealth Group, a Fortune #5 public company, serving in the role of Chief Culture Officer. His unemployment experience came from the implosion of Arthur Andersen, where he served as the West Region Managing Partner, People.
Connect with a Crossroads Guide
We would love to help you by setting up a time to talk to someone who can provide personalized career assistance.
