Confidence: The Name of the Game
Baba Shiv
serves as Professor of Marketing and Director of the Strategic Marketing
Management Executive Program for Stanford University. In a presentation, posted
by Stanford (2011), Professor Shiv discusses the role of confidence, and its
virtues, in the decision making process, particularly during the emergence
period once a decision has been reached. As a child, I remember my father
singing the theme played before National Football League games were played, “Confidence,
is the name of the game, confidence…”. Professor Shiv’s work demonstrates that
not only is confidence “vastly under-rated”, it has many virtues crucial in the
decision making process (Stanford, 2011).
Recently,
my campaign team and I made a decision to host a table at a local event, The
Flagler Home and Lifestyle Show. An annual event that draws thousands from
Volusia, Flagler, and St. Johns counties. As a candidate, I have the option to
either pay a fee that nears $6,000.00; or, to collect 719 petitions from
registered voters in Flagler County, representing one percent of the total
number of registered voters. As noted by Hoch, Kunreuther, and Gunther (2001),
evidence suggests both “affect and emotions play an important role in people’s
decision processes” (p. 269). I have attended the Home Show annually and was
quite familiar with the numbers expected and had seen many candidates gather
petitions. Professor Shiva notes that confidence can result in passion, a
contagious confidence that spreads to others, and a utility that is extracted
from the experience itself, which causes a “direct impact on the wanting center
or dopamine areas of the brain” which explains how motivated and engaged we
become having emerged from the decision making process and implementing the
decision (Stanford, 2011). Once each team member began to realize the numbers
of registered voters willing to stop at our table and sign a petition, they
became excited, and this excitement and passion became contagious, and we all
became more engaged with voters and more motivated to gather petitions. It
truly was an amazing two days, money well spent, and a confident decision that
worked.
Just as a
confident decision impacts the dopamine center of the brain, it stands to
reason that less confident decisions have a particular affect, too. Professor
Shiv describes a situation wherein a commander in the military needs to give an
order in which he does not have confidence (Stanford, 2011). His troops will
sense this lack of confidence; and, this too will spread to cause troops to be
uncertain (Stanford, 2011). I felt somewhat less confident with my decision to
enroll in College Algebra when I first returned to school. It was a required
course for any degree program. It had been many, many years since my last
Algebra class; and my confidence level was extremely low. My emotions initially
caused me to be less engaged in a verbal manner during class. I feared being
labeled as too old for the class, or out of step. I was not as passionate about
my math class as I was with my other courses. Although I was motivated and
engaged, those feelings stemmed from wanting to pass in order to advance in my
degree work; not because of my experience with Algebra. As the course
continued, many of those lessons learned so many years ago came back and my
confidence levels grew; so much so I now tutor struggling College Algebra
students.
Confidence
is the name of the game; and, it should be. As a leader, we need to share
passion, create contagious confidence, and inspire a level of motivation and
engagement that impacts the hedonic areas of not only our brains; but, the
brains of those charged with carrying out our decisions (Stanford, 2011).
References
Hoch, S.J., Kunreuther, H.C.,
& Gunther, R.E. (2001). Wharton on
Making Decisions.
Hoboken,
NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Stanford. (2011, Nov. 7). Brain
Research at Stanford: Decision Making. [Video file]. Retrieved
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