Keeping our teams, and ourselves, engaged — the power of self-efficacy
In a time of such high uncertainty, helping our teams find the areas in which they have control will pay dividends.
Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t — you’re right.
— Henry Ford
Regardless of one’s fandom for Henry Ford or lack thereof, the attributed quote rings true — especially today. Self-efficacy — or the confidence we have in our ability to accomplish a task — has a surprisingly persistent impact on our success. Self-efficacy is a form of self-esteem that is focused on how we interact with the world around us.
There is ample research on the topic of self-efficacy. Researchers have long studied the diverse ways it affects us — from our ability to be creative to our approaches to conflict management, and even how it impacts the success of sports teams. Given the way self-efficacy plays out in our lives, it is worth taking a moment to understand what we can do to build it up in our teams and ourselves. As Henry Ford implied, our belief in our ability to achieve our goals plays a crucial role in attaining success.
There is a substantial correlation between high self-efficacy and positive outcomes in conflict resolution. As our teams maneuver through this complicated time, we are likely to face higher degrees of conflict. Healthy degrees of self-efficacy help us better navigate conflict and attain constructive outcomes for ourselves and those with whom we disagree. It helps us understand that we can “grow the pie” instead of fighting over the crumbs.
Role ambiguity and its effect on self-efficacy
Many of us are now trying to manage our work-life while suddenly stuck in the house with family members that are doing the same. As others have pointed out, our current conditions do not truly represent what it means to work from home.
There are a few environmental factors that can inhibit the growth of self-efficacy in our teammates. The findings from Mark Eys and Albert Carron, while focused on basketball, are salient for us in business. Mark and Albert found that two of the biggest detractors to what they call task efficacy are:
- Not knowing how we will be evaluated on our performance, and
- Not understanding the consequences of failing to meet our responsibilities.
We can help to remove the ambiguity by letting our teams understand our expectations. While today’s throughput will likely dampen, we can communicate to our teammates that it is okay to take care of themselves and assure them that we can get through this uncertain time together.
Validating our teammates
One of the most powerful tools we have available to us for building up self-efficacy in our teammates is to show that we believe in them, protecting against self-doubt. Because self-efficacy is an external form of self-esteem, we have a lot of power to help shape and build it up in those around us.
In situations where we need our teams to experiment and be creative, we can be mindful that failure is inherent in creative tasks. We can create an environment that turns failure into learning — further establish opportunities for building self-efficacy. When we acknowledge the challenges that our teams face and communicate that we believe in them, it helps reinforce their positive internal narrative.
We can encourage behaviors and develop structures that set up our team members to learn about themselves. Doing so builds the required self-esteem needed to approach ever-challenging tasks with positivity. As the Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior points out:
Don’t expect people to willingly stretch themselves by committing to a very high goal if the outcome they expect is criticism for making an error.
Self-efficacy is important for all of us as it percolates into many aspects of our lives. By taking the time to understand how we can build up our teams, we can get through challenging times and come out of the other side stronger together. Developing self-efficacy in our teammates helps us negotiate considerable obstacles, doing more together than we thought we could do on our own.
