Lacking confidence? My my my.
How much are you affected by a lack of confidence? How does your confidence influence those around you? I ask these questions after watching another episode of Homicide Hunter. A documentary series which features the cases of the Colorado police Department Homicide team, notably the cases investigated by the now retired Lt Joe Kenda. The reason this episode got me thinking along these lines was it was the second episode I’ve seen in which Joe Kenda was expected to fail. The first one aired a while ago now and featured Kenda’s first ever murder case. As a new detective on the robbery team Kenda attended a crime scene where a robbery had reportedly gone wrong at a petrol station and staff had been shot and killed. All the experienced detectives, both robbery and homicide, thought it was unsolvable and not worth wasting time on due to the lack of evidence and clues. Joe Kenda asked to take the case on and was ridiculed by his new colleagues but his boss let him. He took the one piece of evidence there was and with a little luck and determination actually solved the crime. In the episode I watched last night the murder was committed by two men and Joe Kenda the case supervisor knew who they were. The important facts here are Joe Kenda had just been promoted to sergeant and this was his first case as a supervisor. The fugitives’’ had run so our hero of law enforcement used the power of mum. Never underestimate the power of mum. Telling the mother of one of the two fugitives that the police believed the men where armed and dangerous and so the safest thing they could do is to hand themselves in. He has used this tactic in previous cases shown on the programme and it worked. This case was no exception and having spoken to his mother one of the men called Joe Kenda’s office. He was in New York, they had split up but he wanted to hand himself in, but only to Kenda. So our Kenda arranges for the police to pay for an airline ticket for the man to fly back to Colorado. Now Kenda’s boss isn’t impressed with this plan, he thinks the New York police should arrest him and send him back but they would have to find him. One man in a big very populated city, not easy. So the Captain relented and arrangements were made. The Captain even accompanied Kenda to the airport to pick the man up on his arrival. Not because it was a good plan but because he didn’t think the man would show up. Which would probably have resulted in a demotion for Kenda. He did show and the arrest was made. Joe Kenda said himself on the programme this elevated him to his team from new supervisor to boss.
Now you may be thinking what has this got to do with confidence? I’ll explain. In both cases our hero Joe Kenda was under pressure for two reasons, first because he was expected to fail and secondly he was new. In one case to the job of detective in the other as a supervisor. He had also gone out on a limb in both cases and flown in the face of convention. It was his confidence that convinced his superiors to go for his ideas.
Have you tried to pitch new ideas at work only for the boss to reject them? It may be the case that someone else has unknowingly pitched the same idea some time later and the same boss accepted it. The difference may have been the confidence of the person making the pitch. Even if you’re trying to project a high level of confidence, if you’re not confident your body language will tell on you. To really project confidence permanently you have to be confident. So whether its making business presentations, driving on fast busy roads or any other area of your life in which you feel you lack self-confidence, hypnotherapy can help you build that confidence. Next time you’re on the spot you too can be confident you just have to believe in yourself.