Confidence is easy to talk about and hard to earn, especially when the facts are incomplete and the pressure to act is high. We sit down with Adrian, a leadership researcher and former naval officer, to get practical about what confidence actually is when decisions carry real consequences and uncertainty is the norm.

We start with a surprising origin story: building confidence by designing your own path when there is no structure to follow, then jump to aircraft carrier operations where focus, trust, and judgement are non-negotiable. From there, we draw a clear line between earned confidence and apparent confidence. One is built through preparation and lived experience; the other is a performance of certainty that can soothe a room while quietly steering a team towards bad outcomes. If you work in complex projects, government, healthcare, sport, or any fast-moving organisation, you will recognise how easily apparent confidence can spread when most people cannot see the full picture.

We also dig into the habits that reliably create better leadership decision-making under uncertainty: exquisite preparation before the moment, sensemaking and situational awareness during the moment, and reflection afterwards through lessons learned. Adrian shares how strong leaders openly admit what they do not know, then fill knowledge gaps by asking questions up, down, and across the hierarchy, modelling the behaviour so others can think critically rather than staying stuck in silos. We even touch on what this mindset means as generative AI becomes part of everyday work and confident-sounding answers arrive instantly.

If you want more trustworthy confidence at work, press play, share this with a colleague who makes big calls, and leave us a review with the one habit you are going to practise this week.

Let’s Talk About Confidence is an educational podcast exploring confidence, behaviour, leadership, communication, and personal performance. The views shared are intended for general information and development purposes only and should not be considered medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice.

While practical tools and techniques are discussed, listeners are encouraged to seek appropriately qualified professional support where needed.

Opinions expressed by guests are their own. All content © Breakthrough Change Management Ltd.

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