By: Brittany Gorman, military sibling*
Do you want to lead a unit filled with people who are eager to try new things, set lofty goals, and overcome challenges? The key to achieving these outcomes starts by building self-efficacy.
Learning from the experiences of my brother, who served 10 years in the U.S. Navy, and working with leaders as a managing consultant with Gallup, I’ve seen firsthand the importance of building self-efficacy in those you lead. First, what’s self-efficacy and why is it important? Social psychologist Albert Badura’s research defined self-efficacy as “a person’s belief in their capability to successfully perform a particular task.” Self-efficacy influences your team’s motivation, actions, thoughts, and feelings. It’s that inner voice that says, “Go for it, you know you can do this!” vs. “Don’t even try, you have no idea what you’re doing!”
Self-efficacy matters because it’s an important determinant of motivation. The action your team takes based on their beliefs is about what they can achieve. If you want your team to try new things, persist in the face of setbacks, and work harder to achieve their goals, it’s best to support the development of their self-efficacy.
Here are 5 meaningful ways you can set up your team for successful self-efficacy:
1. Self-efficacy AAR: Encourage documentation of achievements and reflect on them often
An effective way you can build self-efficacy is to study and celebrate successes. However, this is easier said than done. Your busy environment makes it hard to reflect and document important achievements, but don’t let your team skip this step. Consider asking your team to create a portfolio of successes throughout the year, with a focus on those moments where they overcame an obstacle, surprised themselves when they came up with a creative solution, or had the confidence to try something new, regardless of the outcome. You might just find your team starts to look for little successes to document in their day-to-day activities. Drawing their intentional focus to seek out accomplishments is a win in and of itself.
2. Self-efficacy battle buddies: Facilitate peer modeling
Play matchmaker and find opportunities for people to teach and learn from each other in meaningful ways. As you create your matches, vocalize what you hope each might learn from the other so they can make the most of the intentional pairing. For the role-player, the act of saying the steps they take to meet their goals or expressing how they think through a tough situation helps deepen their sense of self-efficacy. For the observer, there’s power in seeing someone accomplish an important task showing “it can be done.”
3. Take control: Support autonomy
Instilling your team with a sense of autonomy—or the ability to self-direct aspects of their career development or day-to-day tasks—can pay big self-efficacy dividends. Try stating the desired results and allow others to find their own way to that outcome. Don’t miss the chance to seek others’ opinions and then listen carefully to what they share. Trust your unit to do what’s right. You’ll be surprised how hard your team works to keep the trust in autonomy.
4. Provide meaning: Help make sense of experience
An outside perspective can help your team connect the dots on how each experience is a building block in their development. Meet regularly and ask those you lead to talk about a new experience they had. Then share back how you see that experience, paired with other recent ones, to show that they’re likely ready to tackle the next big challenge. Translate individual moments into proof that they laid the groundwork to accomplish more. Check out HPRC’s tips to help your team find purpose.
5. Intentionally build deep relationships
If you create a deep relationship with your team, the other avenues that support self-efficacy simply work better. Many cultures focus on keeping relationships “professional” at arm’s length, but the truth is that close, authentic relationships are the best way to ensure those you lead have the confidence to try new things, fail safely, and try again.
While it’s on each individual team member to grow in their self-efficacy, you’re in a unique position to support their journey of growth. Read HPRC’s article on mindsets to learn more about how unproductive beliefs can impact your performance.
About the Author
* The opinions and assertions expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of USU or DoD. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the author and do not reflect the views, opinions, or policies of The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. Mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. The author has no financial interests or relationships to disclose.
