Episode 498 - Contagious Confidence with Julie Smith

'Confidence can fuel good performance, doubt can sap performance.' Julie Smith's first book, Coach Yourself Confident, focused on the individual experience of confidence: closing the gap between how capable we are and how capable we believe ourselves to be. It won quite a few awards. Her new book, Contagious Confidence, explores confidence as a performance variable: a powerful way for leaders to help teams do their best work. But the funny thing about writing about confidence - even second time around, and even with awards in the bag - is that much of the time you don't feel very, well, confident. Julie talks about perfectionism, inner critics (hers is called Nigel) and the 'difficult second album', but also the surprising joy of giving yourself permission to write a shitty first draft and that sensation of freewheeling when it's all working perfectly. It's a conversation about confidence, leadership, writing, community - and sprouts.