Why Experience Alone Doesn’t Create Leadership Confidence | #56

Many leaders have done everything right. They have built experience, delivered results, and earned their place. Yet despite this, they often feel unsettled, exposed, or quietly unsure of themselves.In the first episode of their Confidence in Leadership series, Rich and Dave explore why experience alone is not enough to create real leadership confidence. Drawing on personal stories and insights from coaching leaders with confidence issues, they unpack the difference between competence and confidence, how pretend confidence erodes trust, the hidden impact of the “promotion shock”, and why so many senior leaders feel less secure as responsibility and visibility increase.This episode reframes confidence not as performance or a personality trait, but as an inner practice. It explains why confidence is something that can be developed deliberately, through emotional regulation, grounded self-awareness and finding a healthy balance of competence and self-worth, rather than through qualifications, status, or bravado.Key Talking Points· Why highly experienced leaders can still feel unconfident· The difference between competence and confidence, and why confusing the two causes problems· Under-utilising competence vs over-relying on it as a form of armour· Why confidence often dips after promotion and at senior levels· The difference between looking confident and being confident· How performative confidence undermines trust and psychological safety· Confidence as an internal practice rather than a fixed trait· Introducing the idea of the “confidence bucket” and micro-habits for rebuilding confidence· Why healthy confidence creates collaboration, trust, and calm leadership under pressure