Many people today lack self-esteem. Technologies and modern presentation tools have helped a small group of people to become more self-confident and build a higher level of self-esteem, as others, often called followers are living, by dreaming of success that small group of people has achieved. According to research, conducted by the American Psychology Association, 39% of people in the US are suffering from low self-esteem. The UK based institute – CIPD – has identified that almost 38% of the people in UK lack self-esteem at work and that causes serious damage to their personal life.
With such a big percentage of people, suffering from low self-esteem it is not hard to imagine how the performance, positive thinking and potential suffer in modern society.
Self-esteem, as defined by Adler & Stewart, refers to a person’s overall sense of his or her value or worth. It can be considered a sort of measure of how much a person “values, approves of, appreciates, prizes, or likes him or herself”
But even if we read this definition, still most of us want to get the answer to their question: “How to increase the level of self-esteem at work?” Even if you don’t say it loudly in your unconscious YOU these questions make you struggle with the answer, with the plan of how to make your life better by increasing your self-esteem. There are people how suffer from low self-esteem at work. Maybe you have seen some of them. They look down, like they lack energy for completing anything, always look like if they are sick, with negative expressions and positions. These people are often the cause for gossiping in the office, they are the ones who live the office on time, scared that if they stay, they may be pushed to do something they are not able to finish and that will lead to embracement for them.
But self-esteem is not something that comes when we make a wish. To sustain a high level of self-esteem we need to work hard to first achieve the level of self-esteem that makes us feel comfortable and then plan a strategy to sustain it in time.
Working on building high-level self-esteem is not an easy task. If you want to build it, you will have to overcome your internal fears, build self-confidence, step out from the shadows and add value to your and your co-workers’ work and show your leadership skills in tuff situations.
These are the prepositions to build your self-esteem. Let’s say you have moved through them. Your proactive behavior has added value to others’ work, your position and thoughts are highly appreciated in the group and team discussion on different topics all connected with leadership approach, performance and sustainable results in your company. You have achieved your first goal and your self-esteem has grown together with all your achievements up to now. Now the question you will need to ask your self is: “How to sustain in time the high level of self-esteem, even if you go through hard times?”
Here is a shortlist of tips to help you with that:
Follow your passion
Even if you dedicate 10-15 minutes a day take time everyday to invest in something you are passionate about at work and at home. This can be reading a book, research your next travel destination, connect with a friend or relative you haven’t talked to in a while, etc. Doesn’t matter what it is, it just has to be something you are passionate about. Dedicate a small amount of your time to learn something new about your work, maybe a new skill, or theoretical information that can allow you to do something new or experiment. View your work as passion to learn something new. That will boost your self-esteem with the speed of learning new things that make you more valuable as professional and partner in your work.
Track your efforts
We all have done more than we realize. The bad thing is that after a particular moment we tend to accept it as something that happens naturally. If you want to build your self-esteem don’t forget the small things you have done. Keep track of everything you have achieved. Make a daily list of the things you have achieved and store it somewhere where you can see it. If you write between 3 and 5 things you have achieved in one day, at the end of the week you will have between 12 and 15 things you can be proud of for the whole week.
Create your self-esteem poster
Yes, I mean it. Start by creating your poster with detailed information on what you have achieved. After including a whole week on the poster you will see how much work you have achieved and how many tasks you have completed. After you add to the list of achievements and tasks completed, the skills you have used to finish them, you will get a full picture of how you develop, perform and grow as a human and professional. Once you have a hard time you will only need to look at the poster and your attitude will easily change in a positive direction.
Stop your inner negative talk
It is nothing new. We all do that. There is this little voice in our heads that is always ready to say something negative. That is our IT as Sigmund Freud has described it, it is our “internal critic”. But you must know that you have control over that internal voice. Turn that “internal critic” to a positive builder by focusing on what you can do to move forward n a situation you are part of. Stop being self-pity and focus on finding ways to solve problems, etc. If you are a driver you know that when you see a STOP sign on the road you must stop. Try to create your internal STOP sign about negative thoughts and unproductive behavior and store it somewhere where you can easily see it. Then start using it when you see that you are moving in a negative direction to help you stop the negative behavior and turn it to positive productivity. A short example of that is when you make a mistake. In this case, people start thinking how guilty they are instead of thinking about how they can learn from what happened. In simple sentence this looks like that:
“I’m hopeless.” – the first negative reaction is always misery and guilt. When you think In a positive way this same negative sentence can be transformed into a positive one:
For example: Well it happened, now what can I learn from this situation, to change?
After you learn how to shift from negative thoughts to positive behavior and consequences this will change your life and level of self-esteem at work in a positive direction.
IN CONCLUSION:
Self-esteem is the reason while we succeed, procrastinate or fail. When lacking it people become lazy, slow and stubborn. Working on to boost your self-esteem is a strategy that will ensure a sustainable growth strategy in and outside the work environment. Self-esteem is the crucial element who, when missing can cause you to feel like a loser and have insufficient performance, but when built and sustain properly can help your personal, professional and leadership growth.
The Human place 