In this special episode of The Business of Learning, sponsored by Wisetail, we spoke with Evan Melick, director of product at Wisetail, to learn more about how confidence impacts learning and performance.
Tune in now for expert insights on:
- Why psychological safety is critical for effective learning.
- How leaders can assess employees’ confidence in a given skill.
- Why confident employees are more likely to take risks and drive innovation.
More Resources:
- E-Book: Experience Matters: Developing Leaders at Every Level
- Article: Crisis of Confidence?
- Podcast: Episode 68: Skills Mapping — Your Business’s GPS for Future Readiness
Fill out the form below for a preview of the Training Industry Research e-book, “Experience Matters: Developing Leaders at Every Level”:
The transcript for this episode follows:
[Ad] Creating engaging and effective training doesn’t have to be a challenge as your partner in success. Wisetail leads the way in powering dynamic learning and operations initiatives that cater to everyone, making it easy to enhance your training approach. To help you navigate this, Wisetail is offering a special guide to help you assess, implement and elevate your L&D initiatives to boost engagement. It’s the perfect tool to start optimizing your programs today. Visit wisetail.com/elevate to claim your exclusive guide and start creating exceptional learning experiences anytime anywhere.
Sarah Gallo: Hi, and welcome back to The Business of Learning. I’m Sarah Gallo, senior editor here at Training Industry.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz: And I’m Michelle Eggleston Schwartz, editor-in-chief.
Confidence plays a critical role in learning, especially within corporate training and development. When employees feel confident, they are more likely to take initiative, engage with new concepts and apply new skills on the job. Confidence enables employees to approach tasks with a sense of assurance, reducing hesitation and the fear of making mistakes which can often hinder performance. So with that, we’re excited to speak with Evan Melick, director of product at Wisetail to learn more about the role of confidence in learning, Evan, welcome to the podcast.
Evan Melick: Thank you so much y’all, I’m very excited to be here today.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz: Yes, welcome. We’re excited to have you and to get started. Could you maybe share a little bit more about why confidence is really just as important as skills when it comes to an employee’s ability to complete the given task.
Evan Melick: That is a great question to start with, and I think Michelle teed it up really, really well. And so I just have a few extra points to add on to that introduction. She talked a little bit about confidence, driving initiative. When employees believe in themselves, they’re more likely to take charge, make decisions and solve problems on their own. You could have all the skill in the world. But if you don’t have the confidence to act, you’ll find yourself hesitating, and that can slow everything down. Then there’s the aspect of resilience. We all face setbacks, some of us more than others, for sure. A confident employee is far more likely to bounce back from failure. A skilled worker without confidence might get discouraged after a mistake.
When someone has both skill and confidence, they’re going to dust themselves off and just try again. I think, confidence also, fuels risk taking and innovation. We all want innovation in our organizations. Right? So confident employees are willing to step outside their comfort zone experiment come up with creative solutions. On the other hand, someone who’s skilled but doesn’t trust themselves might have to play it safe stick to tried-and-true methods which can limit progress. Another big factor is communication. When someone’s confident they’re more effective at expressing their ideas and collaborating with others. Even if they’re highly skilled, they’re not confident in sharing their insights and the whole team misses out. Finally, confidence really impacts productivity and leadership potential. A confident employee works more efficiently because they’re not second guessing every move, plus they’re more likely to step up, lead a team and inspire others when the time comes, and we all want those employees in our organizations that can grow with us and continue to provide value.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz: I love that, that whole confident employees can just dust themselves off and rise up to the challenge, I love that. To that end, can you touch on how leaders can assess an employee’s confidence, maybe in a specific skill or competency?
Evan Melick: So I think that’s really interesting, because confidence is a feeling, right? And that’s a little bit harder to gauge than competence, which is a behavior. So we can see those, but what I think you can do is observe that behavior, especially in those real-time task, so like we talked about just a minute ago, those confident employees will take initiatives. They’ll handle their challenges calmly. And I think, most importantly, they’ll be decisive, if someone hesitates [or] second guesses themselves or constantly seeks reassurance, it could be a sign that they’re lacking in some of that confidence. Managers should also ask direct but open-ended questions. You can ask something like, “How comfortable are you leading this project, or what do you think might be the best approach? The response can reveal not only their skill level but how much confidence they have in using those skills. Listen to their words and the way they answer. If they’re unsure or give overly cautious responses, they may not be feeling confident. Also pay attention to how they handle feedback. Confident employees will take feedback constructively and use it to improve while someone lacking in confidence might get defensive or anxious. The way they respond to both praise and criticism will give you insights into their level of confidence and self-assurance in a particular area. One of my favorite things is giving people stretch assignments, tasks that challenge them because we know growth happens on this side of discomfort, right?
Something to push their boundaries just a little bit when they’re faced with new or challenging projects. Confident employees will approach it with a problem-solving mindset while those with less confidence, may shy away or have doubts, ask for constant reassurance. They may really second guess their ability to succeed. Finally, I think a really important component for managers to watch out for is self-advocacy. Confident employees will volunteer for tasks, not wait to be voluntold, and they will suggest their own ways they can contribute. If they rarely step forward, or, if you notice them staying quiet during discussions, it could indicate a lack of confidence.
Sarah Gallo: Such good warning signs to look out for, especially around that taking initiative. You really do need to have the confidence to be able to do that. So that is key. I’m hoping you can also touch on a little bit about how storytelling can foster deeper connections among employees and really ultimately build confidence in learning new skills among learners.
Evan Melick: I am a huge proponent of storytelling Not only…my team can probably attest of my own stories for sure, but hearing other stories because it really creates a shared experience, and especially when we’re learning new skills or tasks. Hearing how someone did it best, or hearing how someone didn’t do it well at all helps us really engage and share in those real-life human connections. It can build camaraderie, and it can make things feel a little less intimidating, especially when you’re taking on a task or a skill set for the very first time. Who hasn’t felt like they just didn’t have the ability to do it, and hearing how others have done it before you, I think, alleviate some of that challenge that comes with learning new things. It also humanizes learning. I think we have this tendency to hand over learning and make it a lot of self-direction. So when you can include that human component, it reframes failures. Instead of that growth trajectory. It encourages employees to take on new challenges with less fear [by sharing] real life, examples of success. We never want to dwell on failures, for sure they are learning opportunities, but that storytelling can add a layer. People’s success. Metrics that help them believe they can actually do it. So again, confidence is a feeling. And so over time people can feel much more comfortable in doing new and maybe challenging tasks. Encouraging vulnerability — I think this is a word we hear a lot about right, and that really solidifies that human connection piece. And it fosters trust
when employees see their peers, their managers, their leadership team opening up about their own learning journeys. People tend to feel safer stepping out of their comfort zones. We also, especially in the L&D space, hear a lot about culture building. We want to foster a culture of learning. And so when learning becomes part of the workplace culture facilitated by that storytelling. It normalizes the idea that everyone is continuously growing. So this shared mindset boosts a collective confidence. There’s a term you don’t hear often, right? Collective confidence, as the employees realize that they’re learning together. We’re all on this journey as one collective whole. So it’s interesting because Wisetail recently conducted a survey with Talker Research. So we surveyed 1,000 front-line workers. The results show that people turn to other humans when they’re feeling stressed or have a question, which most likely doesn’t surprise any of us, especially on this call, right? But what this does highlight is that communication. And specifically, that storytelling piece fosters deeper connections. So storytelling connects people. It normalizes growth and inspires confidence to take on those new skills.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz: I love that, because when we’re thinking about the learning process in general like we learn from failure. And so I think that’s a big part of it in like building our confidence because you learn what not to do. And that’s kind of empowering. Can you speak a little bit on how does building confidence in the learning process impact an employee’s willingness to ask questions or seek clarification when they’re learning something new?
Evan Melick: I think that is a really good question. I I think my first comment around that is, confidence reduces the fear of judgment. So there’s nothing like walking into a brand new situation, or learning a brand new skill set and being afraid of asking a question for which someone will be like. “Oh, I can’t believe you don’t know that already.” But employees who feel secure seek out the answers to their questions because they see that as a strength and not a weakness. They understand it’s part of growth. And so it removes some of that stigma around asking for help. Confident learners are also much more open to what they don’t know. And so we’ve seen people who feign confidence, right that think they know everything. But people who are truly confident don’t have a problem asking for help or asking questions so that they can get the information that they need. They’re not afraid to admit that there’s gaps in their knowledge, and they’re very proactive about asking for help. This openness. It also sparks curiosity, and we know curiosity is a cornerstone of growth for employees, for organizations, for business results. So they tend to ask for meaningful questions that will benefit the whole team. We talked a little bit about culture. Let’s be clear. I talked a little bit about culture. And so what that confidence does is it also creates a safe learning environment. And so confidence begets confidence. Right? It seems to be a little bit contagious. When employees have trust that their questions will be met with encouragement, they’re more likely to ask questions. And so this fosters a more collaborative culture where everyone feels comfortable learning new skills together. Finally, and I think this is a key for L&D leaders specifically, confident employees ask for clarification early on. And so we know in L&D, our responsibility is to help train employees. And so when our training either doesn’t make the mark right? Or we can have gaps in our training. Confident employees will highlight that for us, and we can shore up those gaps early. This avoids, Michelle to your comment earlier, some of those costly mistakes. We know they’re time intensive. They’re resource, intensive to shore some of those things up so confident employees help us not only understand gaps in our processes but [also so] they’re not going to be struggling in silence. So fostering confidence in an organization. Not only empowers, employees, but I would argue it also empowers L&D to make everybody on the team just do a better job.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz: And just thinking how many of us has sat in a meeting before been guilty of, “I don’t want to ask that question.” Be out of fear of looking like I don’t know what’s going on. So I’m not going to say something. And really, if you have a question, the person next to you likely has the same question, so kind of having that confidence to speak up. And so I love what you’re talking about here is building that confidence in all employees.
Evan Melick: And I think it helps our processes be better, too. Right? And so to your point, if you have a question, more than likely someone else has a question. And so if it’s a gap in process, if it’s a gap in training or managers, aren’t there to support [their employees], we can take care of all of those things organizationally and allow for that growth, because there’ll be new questions that come up for sure. And so if we can continuously grow as a business, I think it helps all of us succeed.
Sarah Gallo: I love that, such great points. I do want to touch on another element here, which is really around technology. And specifically, what role does confidence play in helping employees navigate technology, tools and resources when they may not feel comfortable asking others for help?
Evan Melick: Oh, technology. My heart and soul belongs to technology.
But I think one of the areas confidence really supports the use of technology is that navigation, right? And so when employees are confident, even if they don’t have the answers, they will trust themselves and their problem solving skills to figure things out on their own. And technology can 100% support that. So we talked about this a little bit before fear of failure, fear of judgment, confidence reduces that. And so employees who are confident aren’t afraid to experiment with new tools and resources. They know that mistakes are just part of the learning process, and they’re more willing to try different approaches without worrying that it’s going to go off the rails. Curiosity: People who are confident display more curiosity.
So we all know when we’re in technology, we tend to click around a lot right? And so they are willing to explore it on their own, looking for tutorials looking for online resources. So instead of feeling stuck or struggling in silence, they see it as an opportunity to learn. Self-reliance also grows from confidence. So employees who believe in their own abilities are more likely to troubleshoot issues on their own, and so they use the resources that are at hand, whether it’s people or other technology tools to help them be proactive in getting the answers to which they’re seeking. And then I think a really important component is the level of frustration that can come with technology, not just new tools, right? But technology is constantly advancing and changing and iterating. And so confidence helps manage some of that frustration. I like to use the word — it can be tricky to learn new technology. And so the ability to stay calm when that frustration arises [and] knowing that their persistence will eventually pay off for sure [is key]. And so I think by and large, the use of technology is definitely an area that helps support growth. It helps support the skill development, which is that competence piece. But in order to navigate the technology, an employee has to be confident in their abilities to use the technology.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz: That’s great points, especially like thinking through like employees needing to be confident when tech technology inevitably is going to go wrong like something’s going to freeze and like having to stay calm under pressure. So much to unpack there related to technology. Shifting gears a little bit, I’d love if you could touch on how L&D programs can support employees in developing both confidence and skill.
Evan Melick: So I talked a little bit before about the survey with those 1,000 front-line workers. Some of the results that we got in that survey, again, we’re talking to L&D professionals here so this isn’t going to be a surprise to anyone. But people want to learn. People want to develop. One of the things that I think is really interesting is, we also discovered that people want to stay within the industry that they’re in. They’re also very interested in staying with their companies long term. And so I think that flies a little bit in the face of some of maybe the news articles we’re seeing that there’s no such thing as loyalty, all of those sorts of things. The results that we saw are a little bit different than that. But, and here’s the huge caveat to that: They are willing to stay, and desirous of being loyal to that company if they’re given the tools to be competent in their work. That means having the right resources at their disposal helps build those skills, the competence. But it increases their confidence, making sure that they’re able to do the work that they’re assigned to do. This also lessens the overwhelm. They feel…we know that stressed employees have a higher rate of risk for churn. And so in order to build those cultures where we are maintaining and growing our employees, we need to reduce that overwhelm. We need to help build that skill set, which in turn will help build that confidence. How do we do that though, those are all great things, right? But what can we tactically do? L&D programs should create that safe space for learning when employees feel safe to make mistakes without judgment, because we know failure will happen right? They’re more likely to take risks and try new things. Psychological safety has been talked about a lot. But it also builds confidence by focusing on progress rather than perfection. Employees become more comfortable with experimenting with new skills. Hands-on practice: practice, practice, practice. It’s not enough just to learn something. Theoretically, employees need opportunities to apply what they’ve learned in real-world scenarios. When people practice, they start to see their abilities grow, which directly boosts their confidence.
Whether that’s through simulations role-playing real-life projects. L&D programs have the ability to give employees that space to put their skills to use personalized learning paths. This is really important. Again, technology helping support all of those learning journeys. Everyone learns differently. Tailored learning allows employees to progress at their own pace, building both skill and confidence step by step. When employees can track their progress and see measurable improvements, it reinforces their belief and their ability in their ability to grow. Peer support and mentorship: And I know this has been a topic, especially lately, is, how do technology and humans coexist? And so that peer, support and mentorship is a cornerstone
to building that confidence, having someone to turn to, whether it’s a mentor or just a supportive colleague. It helps employees feel more confident in asking questions and seeking guidance. L&D programs that foster that peer-to-peer learning, buddy systems, paired growth opportunities … it creates a sense of community again, helping build that culture and that safe learning environment, which make employees feel more comfortable in tackling those new challenges. Finally, this is a skill we can continue to develop oh, until forever: feedback. feedback is essential.
Constructive feedback, when it’s provided in a thoughtful, respectful manner, helps employees understand where they can improve. It also recognizes their achievements. When feedback highlights both growth areas and successes, it boosts their confidence and motivates them to keep developing their skill set.
Sarah Gallo: I love all of that. So many good points in there, especially I like the little nugget takeaway I took out was progress over perfection. What a good daily affirmation!
Evan Melick: I think that is key and having an organizational culture that supports progress over perfection that allows for iteration and pivots when necessary. That I think, is an area where we can probably all get better for sure, but it helps boost the confidence collectively. We talked about collective confidence before in a way that it fosters an environment where people want to grow and want to continue to experiment. And innovation is key to all of us just moving forward day to day.
Sarah Gallo: Definitely. I do want to touch on the leadership aspect here as well, since we do know, leaders play such a huge role in building employees confidence and really encouraging them to feel psychologically safe like you mentioned before in their roles. So how can leaders really foster that environment and encourage employees to take confident risks, even if they fear failure in their learning journey?
Evan Melick: A fear of failure holds us back every time, and I realize we’ve talked a lot about it today. But I do think that managing that hurdle of that fear is a core component that we need to drive in our employees’ career growth in order to help them be successful. And so normalizing failure as part of growth is part of a leader’s responsibility. And so I talked a little bit before about my own storytelling. I talk about my failures as much as I talk about my successes with my teams, because when leaders share their own mistakes and what they learned from that. It shows employees that failure is a stepping stone, not something to fear. Rewarding effort: And I think this goes back, Sarah, to your point earlier progress over perfection, and so rewarding effort and learning, not just those perfect outcomes is key recognizing persistence and creative problem-solving encourages employees to take risks. And so it alleviates that pressure to see some immediate success. I think leaders should also ensure that they’re providing appropriate support systems so that can look like mentorship or resources or prop appropriate technology tools, so employees know that they’re not alone. If things don’t go as planned, we know that’ll happen on occasion for sure, and so that safety net really mitigates some of that, that fear of failure, and the consequences that may come from failing. Creating an atmosphere of open communication. Employees should feel safe to share ideas, ask for help without judgment and know that their efforts will be appreciated. And finally, I think it probably goes without saying, lead by example. When leaders take risks, and then they handle those setbacks in a really appropriate way. It fosters resilience among their team members. And so it also inspires employees to do the same.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz: I completely agree, like it really is the leader’s role in sharing their own failures and being vulnerable and talking with their teams about those outcome learning moments. And it really does help kind of foster that psychological safety. And just kind of brings down that need for perfection, like we’re all human. We all make mistakes in kind of seeing your boss or your leader kind of just should be vulnerable and share that. It’s so empowering, I think, as an employee and so important.
Evan Melick: I would completely agree, and I think I am very optimistic. I have seen, at least for the clients that that we work with on a day-to-day basis. We have seen a shift, right? A recognition of how they’re incorporating technology and recognizing those efforts as opposed to making sure that things are perfect. And so I am very excited because I think that is a necessary component to making businesses.
Michelle Eggleston Schartz: Just be better every day. So when we think about kind of blending people and technology in the learning process. How can we ensure that employees feel equally confident in leveraging both human interactions and also technological resources?
Evan Melick: Really great question, and we touched on it just a little bit earlier about actually navigating technology. But I think, we have seen, and our research has shown that a blended approach between humans and technology accelerates success for both employees and businesses alike.
And so employees need access to both mentors and colleagues who can guide them, aligned with intuitive technology to help them learn independently. And if they know that there’s a person to turn to for questions and a tool, they can easily use. It builds confidence in both areas.
Collaboration through technology. We talked earlier about communication being key storytelling. So if you have a platform that allows for that collaboration in real-time or asynchronous. It helps build that community feeling. They can do virtual teamwork or shared learning platforms. And so they start to trust the technology more as a component of their learning journey and their day to day activities as well as the humans that they work with. So I think this also feeds into what we all know to be true different learning styles drive people differently. And so some people thrive in face-to-face interaction. Some people prefer the anonymity of dealing with digital tools. Some people are really great with a blended approach. And so options between technology and that human component cater to all of the learning styles that people have the flexibility to choose your own adventure. [That] helps build that confidence, too. So again, back to the survey a little bit. It highlighted that necessity of integrating and pairing technology with the human components, balancing human support, fostering collaboration, and then recognizing those different learning styles
are really key to helping employees confidently navigate the human and technological resources that are necessarily part of that learning process.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz: Definitely. Yeah. Even here at training industry like our own research, like we have, has shown that when you provide learners options and they have an option of how they want to learn. The training is more effective. And so we’ve definitely seen those outcomes and correlations there so definitely agree with that. So even we’ve covered a lot of ground today. But before we wrap up, do you have any final takeaways you’d like to leave our list listeners with?
Evan Melick: I know I’ve talked about this frontline survey several times today. So what I wanted to do is just share a couple of more data points. I think that that highlights what we were finding, and then also what this means for businesses. And so I think the biggest takeaway from the results was that 1 in 5 employees has considered quitting their jobs due to feeling overwhelmed by information. 83% of workers feel overwhelmed by the volume of information just needed to do their job. 43% of workers cite work-related stress from lacking necessary skills. And so what that results in is them feeling like they’re likely to make mistakes. In fact, 12% of our respondents [say] that they’re very likely to make mistakes. And so to our point earlier, Michelle, we know that mistakes can be very costly to businesses, so ensuring our employees feel confident saves our organizations time and money. How does this relate to confidence and competence? Well, information overload can be very, very stressful. Not only is it incumbent on our L&D programs to make sure you’re providing the right level but also the right amount of information, especially for those frontline workers. When information overload is left unchecked, it leads to mistakes, lower confidence and higher turnover. So, wrapping all of it in a nice, neat bow, the best training strategies merge technology with that human component like we talked about earlier, that will allow employees to feel confident and competent in their roles.
Sarah Gallo: I love that. Well on that note, thank you so much for speaking with us today on the podcast Evan, and of course, a thank you goes out to our sponsor for today’s episode, Wisetail. With that. How can our listeners get in touch with you if they’d like to reach out?
Evan Melick: So I want to say, thank you so much for hosting today. This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart, and I’m very passionate about making sure all employees feel confident and confident every day. So Training Industry, thank you so much. If anyone is interested in downloading our survey results that I mentioned throughout, [it’s a] really, really fascinating read, by the way, or just checking out some learning and operations, tools, visit wisetail.com. I would love to continue the conversation. So if anyone wants to reach out on LinkedIn, Evan Melick, I would love to hear from you.
Michelle Eggleston Schwartz: For related resources, check out the description in the shownotes on our website at trainingindustry.com/podcast. Lastly, don’t forget to rate and review us wherever you tune into the business of learning until next time.
