Every experienced manager has encountered this person: they deliver consistently excellent work, their colleagues respect them, and yet they never put themselves forward. They deflect praise, avoid visibility, and hesitate to take on challenges they are clearly capable of handling. These are not underperformers. They are underconfident high performers, and they represent one of the most significant untapped resources on any team. Left unaddressed, their self-doubt limits not just their career but the team's overall capability.
Confidence is not a personality trait. It is a skill that can be built, and building it is one of the highest-impact things a manager can do.
Recognising the pattern
Underconfident high performers are easy to miss precisely because they do not cause problems. For more on this, see our guide on giving recognition that lands. They hit their deadlines, produce quality work, and rarely escalate issues. The danger is that managers mistake quietness for contentment. In reality, these individuals are often carrying a persistent internal narrative that they are not good enough, that their success is luck, or that they will be found out if they step into the spotlight.
The signs are subtle but consistent. The catchups in Manager Toolkit supports this. They downplay achievements in meetings. They over-prepare for tasks that should be straightforward. They volunteer for supporting roles rather than leading. They seek reassurance before making decisions they are perfectly qualified to make. Once you learn to spot this pattern, you will see it everywhere.
The confidence gap
Your job is to close this gap with evidence, not just encouragement.
- Deflecting praiseThey attribute success to the team, to luck, or to the task being easy. They rarely say "I did this well." Listen for phrases like "anyone could have done it" or "it was nothing really."
- Avoiding visibilityThey prefer to let others present their work. They do not raise their hand for high-profile projects even when they are the strongest candidate. They stay in the background by default.
- Over-preparationThey spend disproportionate time preparing for things they already know how to do. This is not thoroughness. It is anxiety masquerading as diligence.
- Permission-seekingThey check in before acting on decisions that are clearly within their authority. They are not being collaborative. They are seeking validation because they do not trust their own judgement.
Creating psychological safety
Before you can help someone build confidence, you need to create an environment where it is safe to be imperfect. Underconfident people are acutely sensitive to how mistakes are handled. Our article on creating a development plan explores this further. If the team culture punishes errors, even subtly, they will continue to play it safe. Your job is to make it clear, through your own behaviour, that trying and failing is acceptable and that learning matters more than appearing polished.
This starts in your one-to-ones. Use catchups to ask about what they found difficult, not just what went well. Share your own mistakes and what you learned from them. When they do take a risk and it does not land perfectly, focus the conversation on what they gained from the experience rather than what went wrong. Over time, this reshapes their internal calculus about the cost of being visible.
- Model vulnerabilityShare your own uncertainties and past failures openly. When a manager says "I got that wrong and here is what I learned," it gives everyone else permission to be imperfect.
- Normalise learningFrame challenges as learning opportunities in your day-to-day language. "What did we learn?" is a more powerful question than "What went wrong?" It shifts the focus from blame to growth.
- Protect early attemptsWhen they take on something new, shield them from unnecessary scrutiny. Let them present to a smaller group first. Give them feedback privately before they face a larger audience.
- Consistent responsesReact the same way to mistakes regardless of who made them. Underconfident people are watching how you treat others. If they see inconsistency, they will assume the worst about how you would treat them.
Engineering safe wins
Confidence is built through evidence, not encouragement. Telling someone they are great does very little if they do not believe it themselves. What works is creating a series of progressively challenging experiences where they can see their own capability in action. Each successful experience becomes a data point that contradicts their internal narrative of inadequacy.
The key is calibration. The challenge needs to be real enough that success feels meaningful but not so large that failure feels catastrophic. Start with tasks that play to their existing strengths but require slightly more visibility or ownership than they are used to. Track these milestones in Manager Toolkit so you can reference specific achievements in future conversations rather than relying on vague encouragement.
Confidence-building progression
Each successful step becomes evidence that contradicts self-doubt.
- Graduated visibilityStart with presenting to a small, friendly audience. Then a cross-functional group. Then a leadership review. Each step builds on the last. Do not throw them into the deep end and hope they swim.
- Strengths-first stretchChoose challenges that leverage what they already do well but in a new context. A brilliant writer could draft the team's strategy document. A meticulous analyst could lead a process improvement initiative.
- Concrete evidenceAfter each win, name it explicitly. "You led that review and the stakeholders changed their approach based on your analysis." Specificity defeats the internal voice that says it was just luck.
- Increasing autonomyGradually reduce the scaffolding. Early on, you might co-lead with them. Later, you step back to an advisory role. Eventually, they lead independently. The progression should be deliberate, not accidental.
- Record the journeyUse targets and catchup notes to build a visible record of their growth. When self-doubt resurfaces, and it will, you can point to concrete examples rather than offering empty reassurance.
Reinforcing growth without creating dependency
There is a fine line between coaching someone towards confidence and becoming their permanent source of validation. The goal is to help them internalise their own capability so they no longer need you to tell them they are good enough. If every decision still requires your reassurance six months in, you have created dependency, not confidence.
The shift happens when you move from giving answers to asking questions. Instead of “Yes, that approach is right,” try “What makes you confident in that approach?” Instead of “You should present this,” try “Who do you think should present this?” Push them to articulate their own reasoning and trust their own judgement. When they get it right, which they will, the confidence comes from within rather than from your approval.
Over time, the pattern reverses. The person who once needed encouragement to speak up starts volunteering for challenges. The person who deflected praise starts owning their impact. That transformation does not happen overnight, and it does not happen without a manager who was paying attention in the first place. But when it does, it is one of the most rewarding things in management.
Frequently asked questions
Track growth, build confidence
Use catchups and targets to create a visible record of progress that helps your team see their own capability.