When you’re hiring, regardless of the position, you want a candidate to be confident. But how confident?
Not enough and they might not stretch themselves; they’ll underperform. They won’t constructively challenge or inspire confidence in others. Too much confidence, though, and they’re likely to create conflict. And they could underestimate obstacles and expose the organization to undue risk.
A realistic level of confidence must be best, right? Not so fast. According to social scientists, overconfident people outcompete realists in many situations.
So what is the right balance between too little and too much confidence? It’s when a person is slighltly more confident than is warranted. Enough that they stretch and probe their limits. Yet not so much that they continually go too far out on a limb … that breaks.
Now are you confident you’ll hire the right amount of confidence?
Your thoughts?
Michael