When I was getting my MBA at INSEAD, I often felt intimidated in conversations with my classmates: They spoke up in class with such assurance about mapping out the product portfolio matrix and calculating discounted cash flows, concepts that were foreign to me. “Wow,” I used to think, “they have so much self-confidence.”

In the years since, I’ve coached 1,000+ clients in 30+ countries, across dozens of business sectors. Almost half of them have MBAs, MDs or PhDs, many of them from Ivy League schools.

These are high-achievers who’ve managed global teams, generated $400M in new revenue streams, led $3B acquisitions, developed therapies for heart attacks…

But now that I’ve had inside access to what they really think and feel, I’ve discovered something kind of surprising: all that intellectual knowledge and impressive experience doesn’t necessarily translate into authentic self-confidence and self-belief.

Here’s why: Super performers are exceptional at execution — they know how to get things done, and done well. But they often don’t know how to identify and fully articulate their value so they get the recognition and opportunities they deserve.

They compare themselves to others and see only their insecurities — what they don’t know, what others are better at.

They get caught up in the emotional rollercoaster of the challenges they faced (and mistakes they made), and they don’t know how to zoom out and articulate the long-term impact of their efforts.

They’re down in the weeds, focused on their specific responsibilities, not the bigger picture of what they made possible for the company.

So they talk about the rollout of a new client service but they don’t specify that they were the one who had the courage to proactively make the business case to executive management, secured investment and resources, and how much money it made in the first 12 months and what it was expected to make in five years.

Or, they’re so fixated on the day-to-day problems they’re dealing with — lack of funding, software bugs — that they don’t know how to tell a “winning story” with integrity.

One founder I worked with on his pitch to investors was so preoccupied with the large well-funded competitor entering into his market that he was glossing over the very real advantages his team had — a 12-month head start in the local market and a top-three telecom partnership providing direct access to their 100K+ subscribers.

Being able to understand and articulate your value is a critical skill — for selling to clients, getting a job/promotion, or managing a team. It does wonders for your confidence (and 💰).

It’s how one of my clients, a former military commander, went from having four job REJECTIONS to four job OFFERS within weeks.

Another client generated the confidence to lead a kickoff meeting for a $350MM real estate project with 13 consultants, engineers and government officials who had way more subject matter expertise than she did.

Would you like to learn how they did it and make it happen for yourself?

Cracking the Code of Emotional Mastery is my new 60-day group coaching accelerator to help top performers activate their inner power to show up more boldly, bounce back quicker and influence others to action. The first cohort sold out so I’m opening one more group before the end of 2018.

This is a program for people who know what they want — and want to get there faster. If you’d like to see if you’re a good fit, click here to schedule a time for us to talk.