Embrace Insecurity?

This article by Allison Vaillancourt featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education discusses how being a bit insecure might make you a better employee. Before you discount the advice as only applying for academics, the article is discussing a study conducted by the Harvard Business Review Blog. The original HBR Blog piece offers three tips:

• Lower self-confidence makes you pay attention to negative feedback and be self-critical
• Lower self-confidence can motivate you to work harder and prepare more
• Lower self-confidence reduces the chances of coming across as arrogant or being deluded.

My thought is that these are all a fine line, but when you are in the good place between having a level of self-confidence that is too high and too low can produce great employees. I would encourage everyone to read both articles, and then reflect on where you may fall of the sliding scale.

If you are too high on your skills you may act without considering all the ramifications... but if you are too low on your skills you might become paralyzed with self-doubt. As with many things in life finding the right balance along this scale can lead to a better more well rounded employee/job candidate.

For the job hunter/candidate I see this applying most to the interview and/or networking opportunities.